Best career prospects for information techs - encuesta de los trabajos mas cotizados en el area informática - TA: Survey about the most sought after jobs in the computer arena

Hispanic Times Magazine, Oct-Nov, 1997

Prospects for a career in information technology (IT) have never been better. But what's the best area to be in right now? According to chief information officers (CIOs) surveyed in a comprehensive, newly released study called the RHI Consulting Hot Jobs Report, networking is the hottest specialty, with demand for network, LAN and systems administrators especially strong. Overall, 32 percent of CIOs cited networking as the area experiencing the most growth within their IT departments. Internet/intranet development also had a healthy showing -- 18 percent of all technology executives surveyed said it was the fastest area of expansion.

The Hot Jobs Report tracks job growth in information technology through a survey of 1,400 CIOs nationwide. The study was developed by RHI Consulting and conducted by an independent research firm, which polled CIOs from a stratified random sample of U.S. companies with 100 or more employees. RHI Consulting is a leading specialized staffing service placing information technology professionals on a short- and long-term basis.

The six specialty areas experiencing the strongest growth nationally in corporate IT departments, as ranked by the 1,400 CIOs, are:

Networking 32% Internet/Intranet Development 18% Programming 13% Help Desk/End User Support 12% Project Management 9% Systems Analysis 7% Other 9% 100%

"Networking is dominant right now as companies continue migrating to client/server environments to better meet their internal and external communications needs," said Greg Scileppi, executive director of RHI Consulting. "IT professionals are in demand to set up networks, establish supporting interfaces, offload data from the mainframe, train and assist end users, and troubleshoot ongoing technical problems."

Within the networking category, the job titles mentioned most by CIOs as being in strong demand were network administrators, network managers and specialists, systems analysts, and network support technicians.

Among those CIOs who saw Internet/intranet development as their strongest growth area internally, the hottest jobs were: Web site and intranet developers, programmers, trainers and Internet/intranet specialists.

"The solid growth in Internet/intranet development is a reflection of recent advancements in the field," Scileppi said. "New Internet technology, including widespread use of the Java programming language for application development, is facilitating the relatively easy and inexpensive construction of corporate intranets, extranets and World Wide Web pages."

Regional Outlook

Job growth in the six primary specialty areas is generally consistent across the United States, with networking being the number one specialty in each region. Firms in New England 1 showed the strongest demand for networking professionals -- 42 percent of CIOs surveyed ranked it as the fastest growing occupation within their IT departments. Conversely, this region has the least demand for project management personnel -- just 3 percent of CIOs reported this as their hottest specialty area.

The two areas with the greatest demand for Internet/intranet development are the West South Central2 and Mountain3 regions, where it was ranked as the hottest specialty by 21 percent of CIOs, three points above the national average.

According to Scileppi, "Many of our small- to mid-sized business clients are taking advantage of the Internet because it allows them to get information to key people, such as suppliers, customers and employees, more efficiently and at a lower cost than ever before. It has helped these firms even the playing field with their larger competitors."

The East South Central4 states reported significantly less demand for Internet/intranet development experts than the rest of the country. Only 9 percent of CIOs in this region cited this as their strongest area of job growth, nine points below the national average.

CIOs in the West North Central5 states reported the strongest demand of any region for programmers -- 20 percent of executives surveyed in these states said programming was the greatest area of job growth at their companies. This is seven points above the national average.

Industry Outlook

Networking is also experiencing the strongest job growth among every industry segment represented in the survey. Of the remaining specialties, Internet/intranet development is most in demand within retail, according to 25 percent of that industry's CIOs. This is closely followed by construction and professional services, where 21 percent of CIOs ranked Internet/intranet development as the hottest job category.

Programmers should see excellent job prospects in the wholesale and manufacturing industries, where 23 percent and 20 percent of CIOs, respectively, say their strongest demand internally will be for these professionals. Nationally, programming was seen as the area of greatest job growth by 13 percent of technology executives.

Help desk professionals can expect job opportunities to be most plentiful in the finance, insurance and real estate industry sector, according to the survey. Twenty-two percent of CIOs within these firms reported that their companies are experiencing the greatest increase in jobs for help desk/end user support personnel, close to double the national average of 12 percent.