2010 Salary Survey Highlights IT Woes

CWmike writes "Trapped between flat salaries and ever-increasing workloads, IT professionals are about to explode. That's the top takeaway from Computerworld's 2010 survey of nearly 5,000 IT workers. 'Bonuses and benefits are way down, and workloads and work hours have increased. Meanwhile, salaries are stagnant (rising just a microscopic 0.7% on average), and — not surprisingly — satisfaction is on the wane.' Another finding of note is the shrinking female IT workforce. Have a look-see at how IT fared in your neck of the woods with this smart look-up tool."

Comments

You control your own destiny

[alain94040]

career experts say you have to take a strategic approach to your job search and application process. The best candidates are always taking steps to manage their careers...

I fully agree. If you sit passively and wait for your next raise, you may be waiting for a while... But if you are proactive, good things eventually happen to you. Contribute to an open-source project. Become the co-founder of a cool iPad app or whatever cool idea people are trading nowdays...

It doesn't pay off instantly, but a year or two later, your resume stands out from the crowd, and more importantly, you may not even need a resume anymore to get a great job!

Re:You control your own destiny

[Anonymous Coward]

This is why women steer clear of a lot of IT jobs. They have a much greater sensitivity to interpersonal factors. And when a company, or industry, starts playing behaving like assholes, they leave (or just never show up). Women are like canaries in coal mines.

There are good or at least decent companies to work for so I doubt this explains the gigantic sausage party that is IT. By and large, most women look at the world in terms of relationships both with people and with objects such as tools they use. By and large, most men appreciate the relationships they specifically want to participate in but view the rest of the world in a more utilitarian fashion. IT is all about utility and pragmatism. It's not a surprise that most IT folks are men while i.e. most teachers are women. Women either don't have the IT skillset or don't wish to do that kind of work and that's why many of them don't choose IT as a career path.

Honestly I don't see what the big deal is with this issue. Not every demographic disparity is because of racism or sexism, though that idea appeals to people who just refuse to admit that women are different from men and tend to have different preferences. I think they refuse to admit this because they think that saying "women are different" is the same thing as saying "women are not our equals" and that just isn't true. If anything, refusing to appreciate their differences is a disservice to them, a denial of the way they want to be. I think you'll find that actual discrimination against women is rare, that most men prefer a co-ed environment over a sausage party and would be glad to see more women who share their interests.

This reminds me of the absolute lunacy perpetuated in the name of feminism. Professors and others have been fired merely for suggesting that a woman's brain is "wired differently" than a man's brain, nevermind that this is demonstrably true. I think the same people who can't deal with such realities are the same ones who would automatically assume the scarcity of women in IT must be due to sexism. If some kind of discrimination is really going on, it's probably not sexism. It's probably discrimination against obesity, as the few women I've ever seen who were highly skilled in IT were all rather chunky. It's a shame this is so important to people because the bottom line in a workplace is whether they can do the job, not whether they make good eye candy, but this does happen.

Re:You control your own destiny

[Grishnakh]

If you are working your way up the tech ladder you should really be living as transient a lifestyle as is possible. This means renting rather than buying a home, not buying roomfulls of furniture (harder to move all of your stuff), limiting debt, etc.

Don't forget not getting married, or if you do, marrying a housewife and not a woman with any career aspirations beyond perhaps working at the mall.

would need to hire a mover,

Moving isn't quite as hard as you make it out to be; I've done it many, many times. These days, the best way to do it is to use a freight shipper. I used ABF when I moved cross-country in 2000, and it worked out quite well: you get some friends and move all your stuff into a trailer, close it up, and then the company comes with their semi-tractor and takes it away. 10 days later, your trailer shows up at your new home, ready for you to unload it.

Whatever you do, NEVER hire a full-service moving company like Mayflower. They'll hijack your stuff and hold it hostage, demanding extra payment for you to get it back. If you don't have any friends to help with your ABF move, then you can hire local movers (like from Craigslist) at each end to do the work for you. With locals that don't have any connection to the trucking company, you don't have to worry about anyone hijacking your belongings.

I know some guys who are stuck in areas like Boston, NYC, Michigan (multiple cities), etc who can't sell their house (not only is no one buying, they owe more than it is worth) which means they can't afford to move at the moment.

They can, but they'd have to walk away from their homes. They really should look into this; if they're underwater any significant amount, and don't want to be stuck in their current location for the next decade or more, then they NEED to walk away. House prices are NOT going to go up significantly for 5-10 years; it'll take them decades to recoup what they've paid for their homes. It's easier to just walk away, take the credit hit, and buy a new house in a few years (or at most, 7). Also, they can try to do a short-sale, which has less of a negative effect on your credit score.

"shrinking female IT workforce"?

[Vinegar Joe]

Maybe they are going into a better paying industry.

http://newsone.com/nation/news-one-staff/more-women-considering-stripping-in-struggling-economy/

Re:"shrinking female IT workforce"?

[shemnon]

Maybe they are going into a better paying industry.

http://newsone.com/nation/news-one-staff/more-women-considering-stripping-in-struggling-economy/

Or maybe they are running away from an industry that considers jokes like that acceptable.

Re:"shrinking female IT workforce"?

[Beardo the Bearded]

Possibly, but maybe not to where you are expecting.

The thing is, if you're in IT, you're probably smart. You understand basic math. For example, you can easily see that [(weekly pay) / 60] [(weekly pay) / 40]. If you're expected to work longer hours for less pay, you'll understand that you're getting paid less. There's a reason overtime is supposed to be time +; it's because it's shitty work that makes you neglect your Real Life. Women are just as smart as men, and they are surely aware of the same basic math. Why end up as a slave with worse pay than retail sales? It's not worth the hassle. I'm sure a lot of folks are moving into management, HR, and other fields that don't have 3am emergencies.

For what's it's worth, my pay is 165% of what I made at my first post-grad job in 2004. I've left a job that wanted me to work 60+ hours a week "because I'm a computer guy" (I'm an EE). Now, I never work overtime. I've also got an 8% raise coming up this summer. If you look for better work and hold the same level of loyalty to a company as they do to you (i.e. none at all) then you can be more successful at home and at work.

Re:"shrinking female IT workforce"?

[CAIMLAS]

How is that an unacceptable joke (or even a joke, necessarily - it's an extrapolated guess based off of disjointed but related data)? I know of a guy who left IT to become a Chip'n'Dale stripper because it paid better and was less stress (go figure). Woo, nakedness - big deal! If it's acceptable to say "men are leaving IT for construction jobs" (some are) why is stripping (physical labor for work) any more offensive?

If you want equality, then you better want it equally. People are sick of this "equally better" PC bullshit the women's lib movement has been pushing for the past 50 years. If you can do the work, great: step right in and pull up a chair, etc.

What?!?

[Anonymous Coward]

Really?

What jobs are you talking about?

Most of the jobs that actually pay a salary don't give a rat's ass about any F/OSS projects you've worked on. Recruiters want to know what your paid experience was. If you're applying for your typical corporate IT department (read a MS shop), no one really gives a shit. They want their laundry list of skills and at least 2-3 years experience with each.

I would be astounded if someone post a job description that says FOSS experience a plus.

Re:What?!?

[causality]

I've put over 15 years into a mostly-microsoft IT career. Sure, I can use/have some Linux in my environment, and I'm not a retard and can use whatever flavor of *nix you want. And I have a touch of Apple in my marketing department. And yeah, some *nix experience is mandatory now. But people who don't understand that its a Microsoft ruled world with required skills of interoperability between OS's in the corporate arena are fucking delusional and a waste of fucking space.

It's hard to look at interoperability problems and then blame them on the Open Source folks who use open standards. So perhaps people agree with you, in a way, and are just more up-front about where to assign the blame. Not to mention that it will forever remain a "Microsoft ruled world" if no one is ever willing to value alternatives.

And it might change too someday...Microsoft isn't the holy fucking mother either. There's a lot of shit that I HATE about proprietary software. But you know what? I work hard, I enjoy life, I have a good gig, and I'm fucking happy where I work...and these people could give two fucks about the FOSS community, and they're a "positive work environment"

Honestly you don't sound very happy or content to me. You sound angry and venomous. If you have a great source of joy in your life, something that makes it easy have patience and be at ease with all the things you don't like, you seem rather selective about expressing it. Even if you're right and they are indeed foolish, why would the opinions of some "fanbois" take away your happiness by making you so upset?

Last time I had to hire for a non-programming IT job, the first guy that I turfed the resume into the circular filing bin spouted on and on about his FOSS involvement. And beyond that, he didn't have a fucking class, session, certificate, traning program, or touch of experience in the Real Fucking World that actually shown he would have been useful in a real world corporate office.

If someone has no formal training and still managed to become an important part of a real software project, doesn't that tell you something about his or her resourcefulness and ability to take initiative? Why do you believe they would fare poorly in an environment like an office that comes with additional advantages like structure, training, clearly spelled-out expectations, and financial compensation?

Accountants and marketers running the show...

[Anonymous Coward]

This is exactly what happens when you have non-technical accountants and marketers making technology-related decisions. Look at the executives for nearly any American company. You'll find the number of technical people at or near the top is virtually none.

Accountants are concerned with one thing: the next quarter's numbers. Software and IT infrastructure, on the other hand, often takes longer than that to properly implement and to see their benefits. So these accountants ignore IT, and often do what they can to deny funding, especially if it won't result in a near-immediate balance sheet gains.

In the past, when America still had some manufacturing base, engineers often had a prominent place within the leadership of most companies. They could think beyond the next quarter's financial results, and saw how technology could make their companies more efficient in the long run. Unfortunately, these people have retired or been forced out.

America now generates its "wealth" not through the creation of tangible goods and improving productivity at existing enterprises, but rather by creating and selling a variety of bullshit financial instruments. Things won't improve until technical folks are making the calls, rather than accountants and marketers.

Re:Exactly.

[commodore64_love]

On the other hand, after a year without a job, I decided to just take whatever was offered (i.e. $30,000 below my former salary). In 2011 I'll look for something better but for now, having a job is better than not having a job.

I'm also working lots of paid overtime to make-up some of the loss.

Re:Rate of inflation

[jellomizer]

Not really...

If your pay goes at the same rate as inflation it means your value in the company even after an other year of experience hasn't increased. Normally you should expect a 10% increase in your pay per year until you reach 15 years of experience then it will slope down as your years experience is having a slower rate of return.

Re:Exactly.

[wmbetts]

What's paid overtime?

Re:and please raise your hand

[Grishnakh]

I have. However, all my "raises" came from changing jobs. It's simple: if you want more money, you need to find another job. Employers these days NEVER give out pay raises, unless they're a pittance. However, in their utter stupidity, they're more than happy to give new hires much more money than the people who've been working there for many years. My advice is to stay in a job for about 2 years, and then go looking for a new one. You should be able to get a 10-20% increase.

Watch as some trolls try to refute my comment. Of course, if job-hopping were such a bad thing in the eyes of employers, they wouldn't be hiring, now would they?