Hot Tech Skills For 2006?

linumax writes "Computerworld is running a 3 page story on what tech skills will be in demand for the coming year. They suggest developers, security experts and project managers are in demand. It also comes up with some good news. FTA: 'Despite the notion that hordes of U.S. IT jobs are being sent offshore, in reality, less than 5% of the 10 million people who make up the U.S. IT job market had been displaced by foreign workers through 2004, says Scot Melland, president and CEO of Dice Inc., a New York-based online jobs service. The numbers of jobs posted on Dice.com from January through September for developers, project managers and help desk technicians rose 40%, 47% and 45%, respectively, compared with the same period in 2004, says Melland.'"

Comments

The most important skill

[dada21]

I think it's a myth that IT jobs are declining -- I have more need for quality workers than I have ever had in 15 years of business. I believe I will have a 200-300% growth in 10 years if I wasn't on the verge of retiring from this market.

The reality, though, is that I constantly have to re-evaluate if my top paid employees are worth the money they're getting paid. I don't have as much trouble as do MOST IT employers -- my employees make minimum wage plus a large per-project bonus. I would pay less than minimum wage if I could (and more of a bonus), because it forces workers to become more efficient, and we all benefit from this.

Here's the kicker: as I see more decent workers come into the workforce, I see less reason to pay as much as I have in the past. Every dollar I save in wages and bonuses is almost $1.50 I can save my customers. I sell my business to my customers by guaranteeing a profit for them on every dollar they pay me. If I can save them that $1.50, I can show them more of a profit, for less expense. It is a win-win situation for the customer and myself, but it causes IT employees to cry foul.

This is a very strong part of the free market -- supply and demand. As the supply of quality IT workers goes up, demand has to go up equally for the price to stay constant. The demand HAS gone up, but I believe the supply is heading upwards at a much higher rate, hence a lower base pay. The second part of the free market that angers the average worker is that as the base pay gets lower, salaried workers have more reason to go off on their own (to earn that $1.50 instead of the $1.00), which increases competition, lowering prices even more.

This is GOOD for the economy and good for the world -- the less that companies pay for IT, the more money they have for other costs and investments, such as R&D or more efficient machinery. I personally have made more money in the years that I lowered my billing rate, as I found more customers willing to extend projects they didn't want to in previous years.

To stay on the topic, the hottest tech skills are less important (to me and my customers) than the ability to understand what IT does for a business: it should raise efficiency, it should allow multiple tasks to be performed by the same person, and it shouldn't interfere with the employees' abilities without increasing their abilities in some other area. IT should be profitable for a company, not an expense without gain.

If you want to be a valuable IT employee or consultant, figure out how you can make your customer (or employer) more money, so that you truly have value for the work you perform. If you are just an expense, you're not doing your job. This is true of ANY employee in ANY business, but most people ignore the realities of business and the market.

Re:The most important skill

[mtrupe]

Nevermind the fact that all your employees are probably frustrated that you are busy trying see how much work you can squeeze out of them for how little money. You don't sound like the kind of person I would work very hard for.

Re:The most important skill

[Anonymous Brave Guy]

Interesting comment. I have two follow-ups:

1. Do you think general business awareness is a skill in itself? I agree with you that understanding your role as an IT guy (whether sysadmin or development) is vital to being as useful as you can be, but I suspect it's important enough to be considered a whole category in its own right rather than just another skill on the checklist next to configuring SAMBA or programming Perl. I also think it can be taught/learned in the same way as good management.
2. Do you really think the supply of good quality IT workers is going up? IME, it's the opposite: most of the guys coming in now are all hot on this certificate or that buzzword, but even those from an allegedly academic background often don't understand basic principles as much as everyone used to when the market was smaller and newer.

Re:The most important skill

[sgt_doom]

I've been tracking IT jobs from 2000 to 2004, and the decline is far greater than the article's author (and this poster) believe it to be.

Remember, such numbers are only voluntarily given by corporations (and the federal and local governments which do the same thing), and in each and every study by the GAO, and various other agencies and organizations, very few corporations and companies actually responded.

Just doesn't track.....here in Seattle, I see nothing but inferior white Project Managers who oversee Punjabis and Paks, either brought in to this region, or overseas.......Also, this supply and demand stuff is getting mighty old to people who've been around awhile and seen no competitive hiring taking place whatsoever. Far too many submediocre people are being hired as a security measure to ensure the job security of the people who've hired them (they can't be replaced by them, etc.).

Re:The most important skill

[drewzhrodague]

It is obvious from reading your post, and a quick look through your blog, that you have not worked in the IT field, and thus -- do not know what you're talking about. Me working for peanuts is not good for me, and I can't imagine how a low-wage earner of any career is good for the economy (except for banks). Also, I've noticed that when I reduce my rate, people not hire me, even if I'm starving. Crank the rate back up, and I find myself consistantly employed. I don't like being treated like a slave laborer, either.

Re:The most important skill

[dada21]

Do you think general business awareness is a skill in itself?

Absolutely. It is not learned in school, either. I am constantly amazed at how many massively profitable businesses bring on "business experts" who have huge paper backing without any real life experience. In the past 10 years, I've watched almost 5 big customers of mine go in the gutter over the advice of a guy with letters after his last name. America is quickly learning that MBA is not the key to running a good business: profitability, efficiency, and marketplace wanting your product/service is. It isn't so hard to understand.

I also think it can be taught/learned in the same way as good management.

I'm not sure. From my experience, the best managers are the people who understand both the needs of the employee from a human standpoint and the needs of the company from a profitability standpoint. For the majority of employees without management potential, this is a constant area of debate. For management, they see how effective it is to constantly balance the needs. In my experience, the best managers don't come out of college, and some of them barely finished high school. I did meet a fantastic manager with a Master's Degree, but he admitted that it was 'in his blood.'

Do you really think the supply of good quality IT workers is going up?

Absolutely not. In this country, the supply of quality workers is going down. My firm belief is that young men and women should get work experience as early as possible in life -- instead we focus on higher education in high school and college. I learned everything I needed to know about business between the ages of 13 to 15 by studying other businesses and trying things. I meet 20 year olds now who won't take a risk and start a business because "college experience is more important." I think there are far bigger risks to take when you are young, and this can lead to a higher quality work force.

The worst part of the workers in this country is the demands they make and our government backing those demands up. I don't want to get to that part of the debate because it always starts flame/troll wars, but let us just say that I feel the employee/employer trade shouldn't be regulated or restricted. :)

most of the guys coming in now are all hot on this certificate or that buzzword, but even those from an allegedly academic background often don't understand basic principles as much as everyone used to when the market was smaller and newer.

It isn't the market's oldness that is the problem, it is the fact that companies are losing ground VERY fast, and they're not sure what the problem is. People think it is the lack of "training" or being in the wrong business, but that is not the case. For the past 3 decades we've sown terrible policies (politically, educationally and in the workplace) and these policies are catching up with us. A very good friend has a son who is just starting out on his own business (the kid is 16) that I helped him start. He works cheaply, efficiently and in the first 3 months he has more opportunities than he could every handle. Why? Because he's willing to let the market set his price and his product instead of the other way around. Opening yourself to the realities of the marketplace is much more important since you'll be more willing to see where you are needed and for how much rather than say "This is how much I demand I get paid and this is how many hours I will work."

Re:The most important skill

[dada21]

It is obvious from reading your post, and a quick look through your blog, that you have not worked in the IT field, and thus -- do not know what you're talking about.

Really? I started my first IT business almost 17 years ago. It has been in business all that time, grown every year, and has performed work on some of the largest commercial ventures in the Chicagoland area. I'm tired and have no desire to stay in the business more than another 3 years. Blogging is a new direction for me (I wrote paper newsletters for years that were successes and failures). Considering my company refused to go dotcom and continued to grow duing the dotbomb, I think I do know what I am talking about.

Me working for peanuts is not good for me, and I can't imagine how a low-wage earner of any career is good for the economy (except for banks).

Really? My employees that earn peanuts for a salary make a ton of money in bonuses. Some projects bonus out over 66% of the profit of the project. One of my top employees only works about 15 hours a week and he owns his condo, car and all his assets without loans. He's not even close to 30 years old.

Also, I've noticed that when I reduce my rate, people not hire me, even if I'm starving. Crank the rate back up, and I find myself consistantly employed.

This is VERY true. When I said I lowered my rate, I didn't mean going from $160 per hour to $40, I meant going from $160 per hour to $145 or so. Consider it a discount for past contracts, but it helped 75% of the time I presented it.

I don't like being treated like a slave laborer, either.

Only someone not willing to increase their abilities and offer their customers profits would be a slave. If you have value, you'll never be a slave, except to the State.

Re:The most important skill

[dada21]

Do YOU work for minimum wage?

Yes. I pay myself minimum wage every month (I think I make about US$600 take home salary a month). I bonus myself a dividend at year's end and maybe at the half year as well. My employees all work exactly the same way, although I pay the bonuses at project end, not year's end.

You're right, you wouldn't hire me, because I wouldn't work for minimum wage.

So you'd rather say "I am worth US$80,000 per year" and be done with it. That's fine. My employees want more. They want to learn about business (all my accounting books are completely open to even the newest employee). They want to learn about collections and input costs. They want to learn how to manage crises. They want to get a piece of the action based on the profitability of their project (we're talking up to 66% profit sharing, not 3%). They want to work hard, knowing in a few years they could own their own business -- that I helped them finance.

I hate the term employees. I love the term future competition.

Re:The most important skill

[Dunbal]

I would pay less than minimum wage if I could ... because it forces workers to become more efficient

      So if I don't pay my workers ANYTHING, and promise to give them a huge bonus if they finish the job, they will be perfectly efficient?

      Tell me something, you don't happen to be a manager at EA do you?

Re:The most important skill

[Neoprofin]

And I suppose the competing business model to your "underpaid revolving door" employee model would be the "properly paid, retention" plan where you build a good core of strong workers, properly compensated, and instead of having to constantly loose skilled workers to better jobs or have to replace ones that don't make the grade you could simply have a dedicated group of people who know what's expected of them and take pride not only in in the work that they do but the job that they have.

I've worked under both models, and I'd agree that theformer probably has a better profit margin, but there's not a day I go to the new job that I'm not infinitely greatful I'm out of there.

Now if I have to work late or come in extra I do it because I like my boss and I like my work, not becasue I need to pick up the 15 hours of overtime to compensate for low wages. Now when I come home and relax on the couch instead of wondering why my employer expects me to be loyal to them when they're taking every opportunity to sodomize me. I have to agree with my sibling posters that both as an employee and employer you'd probably be better off treating your workers well.

Re:The most important skill

[daviddennis]

I don't think many of the people writing in this thread understand what Dada's doing.

He's underpaying workers until the project ends. Then he gives them a bonus based on profitability. This enables him to bid fixed-price contracts because buyers love them.

I'm going to throw out some numbers. I hope he's listening because he can confirm or deny that his pay scale works as I say.

He has a project which he bills out at $145 an hour. He pays his people $6 an hour. However, he doesn't really charge $145 an hour. Instead, he says the project is 100 hours @ $145 an hour, or $14,500. Let's say 20 of those hours are his supervision and he has one person working 80 hours. He pockets the $145 an hour x 20 and gives the worker $6 an hour x 80, or $480. This is a total of $3,380. He has a gross profit of $11,120 remaining. Then he gives the worker a bonus, splitting the remaining revenue 50/50, meaning he gets $2900 + $5560 and the worker gets $480 + $5560.

In the end, this means the worker got paid approximately $75 an hour. This is substantially more than he would normally get paid in a more typical work environment, maybe more like $60 an hour. So the worker loves this system.

But it gets better - if the project can be done in 80% of the time, the worker still makes $5560 but divided by fewer hours. In fact, he would make about $86 an hour.

The downside of this is that if the project is estimated poorly, the worker will get paid less. Let's say the project goves over by 50%. The worker's paid a bit more than $5560 because his minimum wage pay goes up. But his bonus goes down. I'm too lazy to do a detailed calculation, but he's down to about $46 an hour.

What this system does is align the incentives of the owner and worker. If the worker can get the work done more rapidly, his bonus is enormous and he's motivated to do even better. If he does dismally (say he takes four weeks to do this two week job), his pay is down enormously and he might even want to leave the company.

If you compare this with a typical contractor who might pay $60 an hour and bill at $175 an hour, you can see how the bonus formula I've described above is actually a better arrangement as long as you work diligently and at about the proper estimated time.

Personally, I would have loved to have worked as a contractor under that system. It's fair and transparent.

Hope that helps.

D

Re:The most important skill

[dada21]

He's underpaying workers until the project ends. Then he gives them a bonus based on profitability. This enables him to bid fixed-price contracts because buyers love them.

Yes! Except I'm overpaying them minimum wage.

I hope he's listening because he can confirm or deny that his pay scale works as I say.

Always listening.

Then he gives the worker a bonus, splitting the remaining revenue 50/50,

Closer to 66% bonus, even to my outsource employees.

If the worker can get the work done more rapidly, his bonus is enormous and he's motivated to do even better.

And they always do!

If he does dismally (say he takes four weeks to do this two week job), his pay is down enormously and he might even want to leave the company.

Yes. I call these workers "friends and family" usually.

Personally, I would have loved to have worked as a contractor under that system. It's fair and transparent.

Looking for work?

Re:The most important skill

[Cramer]

Let's say 20 of those hours are his supervision ... He pockets the $145 an hour x 20 ...

So, the person who does almost zero actual work gets a huge salary, and the peon doing all the hard work gets shit. This, as you describe it, is bordering very closely on accounting and tax fraud. The employee's benefits and other employment factors are set by the base pay/hourly (minimum) wage. That "bonus" isn't taxed the same as his/her base pay. And absent any specifics in a contract, there's no certainty of the existance of any bonus much less what cut goes in which pockets.

There's a reason technology workers don't work on commision... the work is almost always non-deterministic. They aren't installing an electrical outlet or paving a driveway -- things that can be accurately estimated quickly and easily with one walk-through (how big is the drive? how far am I from the breaker box? etc.) Most IT jobs aren't as immediately simple... how long does it take to install/setup Exchange for a company? The answer involves hundreds of questions that won't necessarily lead you to an accurate timetable.

When you pin your company's profits on over estimating contracts and "finishing early", all you're doing is lying to your clients and screwing them out of their money.

Re:The most important skill

[dada21]

I don't believe in 401K -- I think the 401K fraud is what has caused the stock market to go way up because of all the supply of money chasing a low supply of stocks. My pre-employees know I will never advocate a stock market investment to anyone.

I don't believe in loans -- if you can't afford it, don't buy it. I screwed myself on loans when I was younger and refuse to ever do it again. I bought my first condo for US$17,000, it was a craphole. It only took me 1 year of renting to save that money. I have two employees who bought a place together (they're barely 21) and when they have enough to get their own units, they will. Savings makes wealth, not debt burdens.

The holes in this model are filled when you realize that my goal is to make money, and while making money I want my employees to learn how to run their own businesses so that they can make MORE money. Why be a slave for 40 years when you can be a millionaire by 40?

Re:The most important skill

[Cramer]

When you pin your company's profits on over estimating contracts and "finishing early", all you're doing is lying to your clients and screwing them out of their money.

Prove this.

Buy a dictionary... if you tell a client a job will take 100 hours (and bill them), KNOWING your guys are going to do it in less time, that's lying. That has nothing to do with telling someone spending $50k today will save them $100k tomorrow. Obviously your clients have money to burn or they'd realize over time that your estimates are always high. The naive will conclude your "guys are good"; the savy will see though the BS, but might not care in light of quality work.

If I tell someone a job will take 10 hours and I'm done after only 2 hours, they get billed for 2 hours. If it takes more than 10 hours, they only get billed for 10 hours -- unless there are agreed upon reasons otherwise (changing specs, etc.)

Re:The most important skill

[Branko]

This looks like a reasonable strategy from the view point of project deadlines. However, it invites cutting corners by your employees, in order to get the money more quickly, without caring much for the maintenance part of project's lifetime. Cutting corners in initial software construction inevitably raises cost (and frustration) both for developers and customers in later phases of software's life.

There is a great read from Fred Brooks - "The Mythical Man Month", that is still very relevant on this topic.

If your projects are small "fire and forget" endeavors, this might work well. However, if you projects are more long-term, requiring extensive maintenance period, you might be shooting yourself in the leg...

Currently Seeking

[Anonymous Coward]

- 10 years AJAX/Web 2.0 development
  - 5 years Ruby on Rails development
  - Microsoft Windows IIS 6.0 security and administration certification

Re:Currently Seeking

[MBGMorden]

You forgot the combos man. Experience with all the stuff seperately gets you nothing.

Also required:

17 years experience developing Java applications that interface with a high availability MySQL database that imports data from a Commodore 64 system, converts all the data to PNG image format and then OCR's it back into text to be stored into an Oracle 9.3.4.1a database running on a FreeBSD 4.11 system that has Postfix & Apache installed but is not running Bind.

5 years experience required on WeMadeThisProgramInhouse 2.0

Applicants without these requirements will not be considered.

Re:Currently Seeking

[edunbar93]

These sorts of ads aren't for anyone but the person they want to promote internally. It's just that they're required by some stupid law or beuraucratic bullshit to list it elsewhere.

Either that, or it's some headhunter collecting resumes to stuff their database with.

From experience:

[grasshoppa]

VoIP will be huge this year. It already is a big deal, but as companies start upgrading/replacing their phone systems, they will want to go with a voip based system to "future" proof it.

This is from my experience this year. A lot of companies expressed interest in me setting up a voip system for them, and because I go with asterisk I can undercut most competition dramatically while offering more features.

Look for voip ( and asterisk especially ) to explode in 2006.

To summarise then..

[onion2k]

"In 2006 we'll be wanting qualified people with relevant experience."

It take a certain kind of recruitment consultant to figure out these gems..

Re:To summarise then..

[smittyoneeach]

Loyalty, man: loyalty.
We don't care if you can't manage two nuns in one minute of silent prayer.
You just have to be loyal about it.

huh.?

[TheRealMindChild]

Using Dice.com (or Monster.com) as an example that IT jobs are more in demand, is plain rediculous. Have you SEEN any of said job postings? Nothing like a receptionist looking for "10 years experience in windows XP and Interweb Gooey experience a must".

Re:huh.?

[C10H14N2]

Nothing like seeing 95% of the "250,000 jobs TODAY!" just cut-and-paste dupes of fifteen agencies selling the same job. I've had so many headhunters call me for Dice/Monster jobs in swarms, like ten calls on the same day, for the same job from people (using the term loosely) 10,000 miles apart. Then there are the duplicates of those duplicates that they post every week to bump their position up for "jobs" that arguably do not exist for any purpose but bait for resume banking.

I figure, any number touted by Dice or Monster can be made more accurate by moving the decimal one position to the left and dividing by two.

Re:huh.?

[roman_mir]

Must be able to prepare COBRA solutions, knows Sun's Cafe Latte, an expert in Microsoft J2EE with 15 years of experience minimum. Yep. Only experts work here.

US jobs that will never leave

[OffTheLip]

It's been mentioned before but the US government (not just the NSA) employs many IT/IS professionals and many of the positions require security clearance which can only be granted to US citizens. These jobs cover the gamut from weapons to environmental. Much of the US government tech market was unaffected by the dot.com draw down. Nobody gets rich but it's a living.

Re:US jobs that will never leave

[darkmeridian]

Much of the US government tech market was unaffected by the dot.com draw down. Nobody gets rich but it's a living.
And the benefits are ridiculous.

Re:US jobs that will never leave

[stuntpope]

I was unemployed and got a call from a big contractor looking for the skills I had in my Monster resume. I had no clearance, so I sat in an office with my Escort Required badge until they got my provisional clearance, which eventually turned into a real clearance. I guess I was lucky - after the dotbomb layoffs and then 9/11, it seemed like having a clearance was a job requirement for anything in the DC area. I imagine the smaller companies aren't going to shell out to get you cleared, but the larger ones might if your skills match the job they want to fill.

Re:US jobs that will never leave

[I_redwolf]

You can't unless

1. You work for a defense contractor who will then sponsor your investigation.
2. You were part of the DoD and already got one; pretty much if you were in the military at any given point working on an installation that required that sort of investigation. You're pretty much covered.
3. You are a retired army general and are starting your own defense contractor business. In which case you probably don't have to ask for one.

Disclaimer; I used to work on an intelligence battalion when I was in the army.

In most cases, you're not getting one. Even if you do work for a defense contractor they won't sponsor your investigation unless it's absolutely required and you are going to be working on the most important part of the project for a long amount of time. Which wont happen unless you've been with the contractor themselves for quite some time. Top Secret investigation can take about 6 months.

The only way to truly get one is to join a DoD, FBI, NSA branch and do military intel/comm/mp etc etc. Or, work directly on a project of some importance being one of the few knowledgable or with sufficient skill to get it done. It's a good ole boy network, defense. Probably one of the oldest and well known. Honestly, its probably for the best that it stay that way.

No need to specialize in a tech trend.

[dc29A]

IMO, just got to grok OO programming, know different protocols (SOAP, HTTP), know XML, have good self teaching skills, know how to google for answers.

Learning a language or tech trend is not hard if one understands the underlying concepts: operating systems, OO code, various design patterns, protocols, etc.

Only up to 5%?

[Viol8]

Thats still half a million, the population of a medium sized city. I'd say thats a lot of displaced workers.

Recommended skills

[cryfreedomlove]

Ground yourself in fundamentals rather than just one technology or language. Language wars are silly because a good engineer can learn a language easily.
Know yourself. Be honest with yourself first. Understand what you like to do and find a job where you can do that.
Be innovative. Keep your skills current and apply them to new problems.
Be respectful to your colleagues. They need you and you need them. Penis waving is not a firm foundation for a functional team.
Be a hero on a consistent basis.

DICE is the proof?

[whitroth]

I agree with another poster, that using DICE as evidence is absurd. I've pretty much given up on them - they're now among the most egregious sites that, regardless of what they *say*, update ads, so that an ad that was actually posted a month, or two months, or even three or more months ago shows up on a "search last seven days".

Then, of course, there is the too-frequent ridiculous requirement that the person they're looking for be more experienced in that company's systems than the person who just left. Just look at the laundry lists of "requirements"....

I wish companies would put a "date posted" *in* the ad, to prevent this abuse.

            mark

Re:DICE is the proof?

[SageMusings]

Many jobs on sites like this are nothing more than attempts by headhunters to collect resumes. That is, there was never a job to begin with. This alone makes using job-site stats worthless.

Are IT jobs still in demand? Not where I work. Our development staff has been savaged over the last year. Many of our positions are now based in Bangalore. I see the handwriting on the wall and would like to take proactive steps but the situation is the same where ever I look.

The best tech skill for 2006 is an alternate vocation to fall back on. Say....a Walmart stockboy.

Re:And then watch VoIP implode...

[grasshoppa]

Plus the voice quality on external lines is usually frankly appalling compared to normal phone lines.

If by external lines, you mean internet lines, then I agree. The sound quality is better than regular lines, but the reliability is subject to the internet, which is flaky. That's why I have copper to the asterisk boxes, with internet trunks backing that up.

VoIP IMO is the emporers latest clothing collection though I await to be proven wrong.

If you want to stick your head in the sand, by all means. More business for me.

VoIP is a proven technology. Don't believe me? How do you think the phone company delivers your lines to you? In most cases, it's VoIP over an ATM circuit, then broken out in to a t1, then finally into your lines via a channel bank. In many setups, it's only when the lines are finally in copper that it's a regular old analog line. It's VoIP up to that.

In replacing legacy Avaya systems and the like, what you are looking at is putting a VoIP backbone and VoIP phones, hooked directly to a POTS network. You not only get the feature set of VoIP, but you get the reliability of the POTS network.

IT Jobs Not Dead

[ranton]

I agree that the IT job market is no where near dead. I work at a small internet company, and hiring competent IT employees is always a hassle. The problem is not that it is hard to find a job in the computer industry, it is that there arent enough competent people.

The only people that I know that are having trouble finding jobs are those without enough skill sets. Being a computer nerd, playing alot of video games, and running your MMORPG guild's website are not marketable skills. You need to actually be useful. Probably at least 95% of those 5% of jobs going overseas are just taking away jobs from the morons in the computer industry.

And colleges are turning out incompetent programmers at an alarming rate. Going to a college to find a competent IT worker is barely more fruitful than going to your local Walmart. I wish they would start teaching these kids something instead of just having TAs on hand to basically do the student's work for them every time they have a problem. I actually have a friend who complained that his boss wouldnt help him enough whenever my friend had a problem with his work. I couldnt believe what I was hearing.

Re:IT Jobs Not Dead

[dr_dank]

I agree that the IT job market is no where near dead. I work at a small internet company, and hiring competent IT employees is always a hassle. The problem is not that it is hard to find a job in the computer industry, it is that there arent enough competent people.

Whenever the subject of tech jobs comes up around here, you can always count on a number of posts from people who know this language and that, years of experience, etc etc going for months or years without employment as if the jobs didn't exist. I too, thought that IT/tech jobs were extremely few and far between until I got the opportunity to interview for a programming gig that I was in no way qualified for.

It was then that I found out what the parent stated, truely qualified people are tough to find for these jobs.

This was done

[porkThreeWays]

I would pay less than minimum wage if I could (and more of a bonus), because it forces workers to become more efficient, and we all benefit from this.

This was done during the industrial revolution. Workers were paid not on a wage, but by how many units of whatever they could produce. This left workers tired, worn out, and considerbly less effective.

Then the workers rights movement emerged. Unions formed to protect workers as a whole. Required breaks, 40 hour work weeks, and wage all came about because of this. It's kinda sad to see that a lot of the tech industry is not learning from the past.

It doesn't make them more efficient. It makes them feel like they've constantly got to work at 100%. This isn't sustainable and in the long term the total output of work is equal or lower than someone on set wage.

There was an article on this idea a few months back that actually one some awards from what I understand. Studies during the industrial were cited.

More important than anything else...

[ErichTheRed]

Language and platform fads are fun to chase, but the core skills of an IT person won't change anytime soon.

• Solid logic & critical thinking skills. Sounds silly to mention, but there are way too many people in the IT world who lack these basic qualities that are so important to troubleshooting and smart design. I still run into a lot of people who don't grasp the big picture and realize that fixing A could break B through Z if they're not careful.
• Willingness to solve tough problems. This was taken care of for the most part by the dotcom bust, but IMO no one belongs here who doesn't have a good work ethic and the desire to do difficult work. Especially now that IT is becoming more process-oriented and less "shoot-from-the-hip", being able to come up with an answer that does more than address the immediate problem will earn you huge points.
• Business and customer service skills. The outsourcing thing is going to be especially hard on those who don't interact with users, exclusively write code, or do "just" their IT job. It's becoming even more important to get out there and be seen among your customers. The days of the "computer guy" who doesn't play well with others are numbered, nufortunately for people like this. There will always be a set of hardcore geeks in the center of it all, but that center is getting smaller as platforms merge, standards develop, etc.

So basically, IT jobs at their core require the same skills as any knowledge worker, just more of them. Being technically capable is required, of course, but it's not the only requirement anymore.

Re:More important than anything else...

[Mean Variance]

Add to that:

• Writing and communication skills. Be able to describe through documentation (e.g. UML, Visio, Word, Javadocs) what you are actually doing in a way that is understandable to: QA engineers, other developers and managers, product managers, and sometimes external customers. In most cases, I would not want to hire someone who knows the latest bells and whistles to build something but leaves the company in a lurch when s/he quits because no one can make sense of how the hell product/module/feature XYZ was built.

Re:Missed an important need

[SolitaryMan]

By 1998 desktops will have 4 core processors

Trust me, they won't! And in 2000 Bush Jr. will be elected.

mod parent -1, flamebait

[happyemoticon]

He deviates from the topic to carry on for five paragraphs justifying why he pays his workers so little. Posting that on /. is like jumping into a pit of lions covered in Worchestershire sauce - there is no explanation as to why somebody would do this except to elicit hateful responses. I recommend some self-help books on guilt or conseling, because he's clearly consumed with guilt.

Economics is more than just supply and demand. If it were that simple, then there would be no economists, no economics professors, and the only book necessary for an exhaustive understanding of the economy would be The Wealth of Nations. There's another side to business: you have to give in order to get. I've watched more than a few restaurants go under because the owner was an indifferent jerk. No matter how good the food is, if the company's ugly, you'll leave. Likewise, a well-treated worker is more efficient than one who gets treated like shit, because being paid well and being valued by your employer raise your self-esteem.

Why do you think Google is the envy of all of Silicon Valley? In order for Parent to have any semblance of sense, Google's HR policies would not only have to be incorrect, but totally fallacious. Judging by the fact that their stock is 423 bucks right now, there are at least a few people out there who believe Google is doing something right.

Lots of Bad Workers

[Brushfireb]

For the last two months I have been searching for two people to fill two clearly defined (and very fillable) positions with my company. We have used MOnster.com (Which has outrageous pricing) as well as craiglist, and have really only received crap.

We have two IT Positions available, one for Web Developer -- PHP interfacing with PostGreSQL, and another for Software Engineer -- Designing Spec Docs and then Coding (and eventually managing other coders) that spec doc.

Our technology bases arent the newest around (PHP, PostGreSQL, Perl/C) but we consistently get the following types of resumes:
  1 - Foreigners who want to work in the US. Sorry, I cant and dont want to sponsor you. We are a small company.
  2 - Foreigners who want to consult with companies in the US, but not move or be an employee. Sorry, not happening with us.
  3 - Highly underqualified people applying for a position. For example -- We have recieved a number of applicants who have 1 year programming experience, and no specific experience in our tech's, and who attended less-then-ideal educational institutions (Ivy Tech anyone?).

I think that for every capable IT person, there are probably 15 cert jockies, and 25 idiots.

Moreover, we have had people apply for the position who then asked what our company did. They could have spend 30 seconds looking at our website before dropping off or emailing their resume and found out. This type of laziness is horrible.

B

Re:Lots of Bad Workers

[halosfan]

I am a real software developer. That I won't bother responding to a job posting like that is probably statistically insignificant, so please only take this as an opinion of one person.

So, here are my reasons for not applying for such a job:

• I can, but won't do either PHP or Perl. Precisely because I have enough experience to be aware of better options.
• I won't consider seriously a job posting that requires PostgreSQL skills, but misspells it as PostGreSQL (using your reasoning, why not spend 30 seconds looking at their web site).
• I don't go to Monster or Craigslist to look for jobs. Jobs go to Dice to look for me.

Again, please don't read too much into this post. If it helps you understand what you can do to waste less time looking for a qualified developer, good. Otherwise, feel free to dismiss this as a random guy's opinion.

As much as the article tries to be reassuring...

[Thrymm]

I have been one of those 5% of jobs which were shipped overseas. Being in the QA field now almost 8 years, the last 2 positions I held (not including the present one), were shipped over. 5% doesnt seem like a lot, but telling those people who are now laid off 5% isnt helpful. It still is a considerable amount of jobs, in which people may still be laid off, trying to support their family. It's like saying hey there's a disease with no cure, but it only is affecting 5% of the population, well that's no consolation for that 5% who are infected is it?

The training ground argument

[agslashdot]

Even if you accept the dubious claim that there are jobs available for project managers & security experts, the typical career arc start at the bottom as a lowly programmer & work your way up to these lofty positions.
When you outsource the lowly programmer jobs to India, where are the sec experts & proj managers supposed to come from ? No university instantly graduates a security expert - you learn on the job & submit papers get peer reviewed & work your way up. If you outsource the training ramp, you can't expect to get to the top.

When I asked NYU economist Prof Easterly about this, he dismissed it as classic fallacy - "nobody works his way to a Professor by first serving at kindergarten, then middle school, then high school, then college, then univ..."

Well ok, but you don't get tenure straighaway either - you start as a freshly minted PhD, become a post-doctorate asspc, then asst Prof, then associate Prof, then tenured Prof.

There is always a training ground.

Dice is a poor reference point

[tturow]

It has been my experience jobs posted on Dice and Monster don't even scratch the surface of what's out there. Doubtful companies that need a unique individual are going to waste their time looking for job board trolls... likely they will fill the post throught their own efforts or a specialized recruiter. Using Dice to measure market demand would be the last measurement I would accept. Job boards don't have a clue was it going on in the real world. And who would trust a proclamation of accuracy with a name like Dice.

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:And then watch VoIP implode...

[grasshoppa]

How many people need the "feature set" of a VoIP phone? What I want is something cheap and reliable.

You'd be surprised. You know those partner phones on the desk? Yeah, those are about 100 bucks each.

For the record, a voip phone typically doesn't have a big feature set either. The pbx does.

What I *dont* want is some friggin PC-in-a-box that
has to have a full OS + network stack + associated unreliability and
hackability just to do what $2 worth of components from radio shack can do
just as well.

You are in the minority then. Most businesses want a phone that looks professional and does what they need it to do. Which is mainly transfering calls and putting people on hold.

For me as a consumer is a problem looking for a solution

Again, you are in the minority. Most businesses want the basics ( transfering calls and the like ). They also want stats to tweak on. They also come to depend on the fail over techniques I use to ensure they are never without their phone lines.

I'm not interested in beeing "cool" or "bleeding edge".

Neither am I. Not professionally. I just need something that fits the requirements and works without complaint.

That's easy

[sd_diamond]

1. Flying car repair & maintenance
2. Personal Spacecraft repair & maintenance
3. Portable Fusion Power Cell design & maintenance
4. Servant Android Programmer
5. Malfunctioning Servant Android Therapist
6. Soldiers to fight Servant Android Rebellion

Skills Needed: C / C++

[jmagar.com]

We are finding it difficult to find good C programmers. The schools are teaching Java most of the way through and C is introduced late in the curriculum. This does not provide enough time for new grads to really come to terms with the low level intricacies when interfacing directly with the HW. Pointers, they seem to be a mystery to a majority of our applicants, that and bit wise operations. If you are poking registers in a device driver, you should be capable of toggling a bit in a control register... I was blogging about this frustration just a couple weeks ago. Here's the bulk of that item, aka: Shameless Job Posting

We are looking for 10 solid C / C++ programmers. These positions are excellent opportunities to break into the Avionics and Aerospace industries. We'll teach you our DO178B development practices and you get to work on the next generation of aircraft systems, designing industry leading hardware and software solutions.

Who should apply? Looking at the HR job descriptions it appears that you should have some graphics experience; but I'll tell you straight away that this is not important to us. We can teach you OpenGL, just as we can teach you DO178B. What we can't teach is how to develop using C. We can't teach you that refactoring is a good way to solve many design problems. We can't teach you that effort spent on design saves time when you write the code or the test plan. We can't teach you pointer math, or methods for optimizing your code. These are things that you either understand or you don't.

If you can reverse a singly linked list in place, or have ever implemented "Scatter Gather" DMA transfers, or if you can describe the benefits and drawbacks of function pointers, then you are ready for the interview. And knowing why these things are discouraged in safety critical avionics applications will win you a job very quickly. (We'll teach you why these are bad ideas too, if you don't already know it.)

Send your resumes to: resumes@altsoftware.com

In your cover letter, mention that you are applying to ALT Software after reading Mike Agar's (Vice President of Software Engineering) Blog. It will get a closer look.

Canadians aren't better.

[crovira]

I was on a contracting job for the Department of Supply & Services and I had a problem that needed management of four dimensional arrays, in COBOL which can only handle up to three dimensions. The answer was to use BLL cells. They has always done it by sorting and tallying.

What's the difference? The jobs ran a few hundred times faster and involved a one step JCL to go from input to output instead of three steps, including an intermediate, totally useless and computationally very expensive sort.

But the technique of using BLL cells was not an immediately evident one, so they ended up tossing out my code the next time it got revisited (okay it took a couple of YEARS,) and going back to the old 'cookie cutter' solution ands the old cookie cutter performance.

The job went from one pass, running flat out and making the maximum read/write time, to running into three passes with the middle pass running in n*log(n) time.

"Oh well, it's just a gig, I won't have to stick around and maintain this stuff" Damn straight. :-)

Re:Lies, damned lies, then...

[wtansill]

'Despite the notion that hordes of U.S. IT jobs are being sent offshore, in reality, less than 5% of the 10 million people who make up the U.S. IT job market had been displaced by foreign workers through 2004, says Scot Melland, president and CEO of Dice Inc.

Well, here's the rub. Let's assume that the numbers are accurate -- that only a small prtion of jobs are being offshored, and that the ones that are are low-level jobs that don't require all that much skill (far-fetched, I know, but just for the sake of argument).

So -- here's my question: How do you break in new programmers straight out of school? Do you immediately assign them to a critical position working with, say, a corporate accounting system? Do you assign them to write flight control/guidance software for fighter jets or the space shutle? Only if you are insane. Instead, you break them in on drudgework, or less critical maintenance work until their actual skills have caught up with their "book learning".

In my humble (well, not really) opinion, offshoring these types of jobs is the IT equivalent of eating your seed corn. In the long run you wind up starving due to your own stupidity and lack of foresight.

But that's just me...

Threat of offshoring lowers wages

[sam_handelman]

I don't doubt that the number of jobs offshored is relatively small - in fact, I would have expected it to be less than 5%, which is quite a lot of jobs.

  The point - at least initially - is not to shut down operations and move them overseas (which is often not really cost effective.) The point is that you can threaten people with outsourcing/offshoring/whatever in order to lower their wages.

  Large corporations - Caterpillar is a very famous case, type "caterpillar strike breaking" into google if you want detail on that - are very well served in having excess capacity overseas for this purpose. Technical workers do not generally form unions, let alone go on strike, but they still engage in negotiation for higher wages, and the *threat* of offshoring can be a powerful instrument in those negotiations, even if it is usually a bluff.

  This is especially important in that the thrust of the article remains true - demand for these skills is actually higher than it was at the peak of the .com boom, but salaries have been successfully contained.

Re:The hot languages for 2006

[swordfish666]

If the above post is being read in a country other then the USA, the list should just be English.

Re:My surefire job-seeking strategy

[VAXcat]

Yer laffin', but one of my pals at work swears he got hired at a big company to do a Powerbuilder application. He didn't know anything about it, but he figured he could fake it until he picked it up from his coworkers on the project. Turns out, that the other 7 people hired to do the project had done the same thing! Needless to say, this project was not on time, or written very well...

Re:Skills Needed: C / C++

[jmagar.com]

The quirks of safety critical programming are easy to understand. All functions must be deterministic. They must behave in a predictable manner and return in a predictable amount of time. Linked lists in the general sense have non-predictable computation times for insert, delete, sort etc. (get out your books on Big "O" notation) So we avoid using them.

Scatter Gather DMA is a more complicated DMA transfer where you program the DMA engine with a pointer to a data structure (often linked list) that points to discontiguous blocks of memory. The engine will gather the blocks of memory, and scatter them in the target memory, all according to the input data structure. It's a real pain in the ass to debug, when it goes wrong. In avionics applications the ARINC 653 standard requires all computation to be completed in the allocated time slice. Using DMA is bad since you give up control of the PCI Bus to the DMA controller and you have no way to ensure that you don't exceed your time slice; don't hog HW if you are expected to release at the end of your slice. If the DMA controller is transfering data in/out of system memory then the next application may not be the bus master, and thus will have to wait to read or write to system memory. You've backdoored into the next time slice, and few 653 systems are able to detect that violation. What ends up happening is the second app fails its time slice due to not having enough time to do what it normally does. Debugging that situation is nasty, since we'll start with the second app as it generated the error, all the while thinking that the first is fine. So we try to avoid it, or during system configuration ensure that there is only one app on the HW and its time slice is infinite. Think video capture and playback. If there is only one app using the bus, then it is free to consume all of the time...