Slashdot Asks: Which IT Hiring Trends Are Hot, and Which Ones Are Going Cold?

snydeq writes: Recruiting and retaining tech talent remains IT's biggest challenge today, writes Paul Heltzel, in an article on what trends are heating up and what's cooling off when it comes to IT staffing. "One thing hasn't changed this year: Recruiting top talent is still difficult for most firms, and demand greatly outstrips supply," writes Heltzel. "That's influencing many of the areas we looked at, including compensation and retention. Whether you're looking to expand your team or job searching yourself, read on to see which IT hiring practices are trending and which ones are falling out of favor." What are you seeing companies favoring in the hiring market these days?

Comments

Demand outstripping supply?

[rsilvergun]

Unless we're talking H1-Bs I don't see that in the slightest. What I do see is several of my buddies in dead end jobs (and a few acquaintances rocking recent CS degrees stuck in crap IT jobs) while workers here on cheap visas and outsourcing dominate the industry. I suppose if they can keep this up though nobody local will go into IT (since you can't get work). I can tell you this, I just sent my kid to college to be a nurse. IT ranked below liberal arts degree on the list of things I wanted her to major in.

Re:Demand outstripping supply?

[Anonymous Coward]

The key word here is "top." Every single business wants to higher the top of the industry elites....not just regular people who managed to get a degree.

There is a difference in what top tier talent can deliver. Plenty of people consider themselves to be top tier talent until the real world hits them in the face. But that is a separate issue.

There are three problems with retaining top tier talent:

1) they are expensive, and businesses want top tier on the cheap.
2) Other businesses want them, so their have competition luring them away.
3) They don't like being overworked or otherwise made to put up with shit, and know they don't have to put up with it, and will quit when things get bad.

These are the real reasons why demand outstrips supply. It has nothing to do with the total supply of IT talent, and everything to do with the much smaller supply of top-tier it talent that is willing to be underpaid and overworked.

Re:Demand outstripping supply?

[JohnFen]

This depends a lot on where you are looking. There are tons of companies that have a great deal of trouble filling developer positions, but they aren't in the usual cities or (often) with companies that are well-known in the computer industry.

They also tend to have the most interesting and challenging work. For example, do you want to work with room-sized robots tackling computer vision and AI problems? There are lumber mill equipment manufacturers who badly need you.

Re: Demand outstripping supply?

[ShanghaiBill]

Females get harassed in programming anyway

Sexual harassment exists in all professions. I have seen zero evidence that it is more common in programming. My company has dealt with dozens of complaints from the sales dept, from shipping/receiving, and even one from the accounting dept. Number from programming or IT: 0.

 

Re:Demand outstripping supply?

[p4nther2004]

Egads. Here I am nearly 50 and I'm still programming. (And I worked with a guy who literal wrote a book on C++ and he was still doing daily programming in his 70s) The work is out there..

Re:Demand outstripping supply?

[JaredOfEuropa]

Also, they often don't know why, where or when they need to recruit top talent. Many jobs don't require rock star talent and can be filled by IT staff who are merely good.

Re:Demand outstripping supply?

[russbutton]

The dev with 10 years experience just turned 30 and is ripe to be fired and replaced by the new grad. The old dev will never work again, not anywhere, not ever. Experience is a curse, and if you don't believe it, you're next to be fired. Bye-bye!

Really? I've been doing UNIX/Linux systems admin, now called DevOps work, since 1989. The job keeps changing and evolving, but it's a lot of the same kinds of skills being called for. Of course in that 28 years I've been let go one way or another 7 times and 10 of the companies I've worked for no longer exist. One company laid me off on a Tuesday, the bank seized the company on Friday and my last check bounced. I eventually got paid, but you just had to laugh.

I'm now 66 years old and still get calls from recruiters almost daily. I have yet to see anyone turn me down just because of my age.

The truth is that you have to keep your skill set current. The old standbys of UNIX/Linux savvy, regular expressions, problem solving, and most of all. a willingness to jump in on stuff you know nothing about and figure it out on the fly. That's your bread and butter on a day-to-day basis. Be able work in puppet/chef and have some hands-on with AWS is what everyone wants today. Tomorrow it'll be something else. Ya gotta keep an eye out for what's coming next and get a taste of it.

Hiring Chief Security Officers with music degrees

[Anonymous Coward]

Definitely in a downtrend.

One thing hasn't changed this year:

[Gravis Zero]

Most firms are still offering too little money for the positions they want filled. Translated, this means most companies do not value IT staff.

The companies with management that believe "demand greatly outstrips supply" are earning the security breaches in their futures.

Infrastructure is a dead end street

[Gussington]

A good trench digger might dig 20% more earth than an average one, a good plumber might lay 20% more pipe, or save 20% through a clever approach . But a good technology person can deliver a lot more than an entire team of their more average peers. But corporate pay grades never reflect this.
If the good people were paid what they are actually worth you would have no problem attracting them.(Free market etc...)

Oh and Infrastructure is dead, dev and design is where it's at.

Run Logan, Run!

[Tablizer]

TFA: "In terms of job opportunities, it's probably no surprise that Millennials have the edge. Those between 25-30 years old get the most job offers, reports Hired's 2017 State of Global Tech Salaries. After the age of 45, the average salary and number of job offers decline. After 50, most IT pros see a significant decline in salary in line with their experience."

Just like the NBA: churn and burn. It may be better to become a domain expert with IT knowledge rather than a "direct" IT expert. For example, accounting and chemistry don't change nearly as quick as direct IT. Thus, domain experience is more likely to be valued after age 45. I don't see bunches of accounting and chemistry fads equivalent to IT fads. There's no "Quarks are Obsolete! Learn NoQuarksNeeded 2.0 in 21 Days Head First Unleashed" books in the chemistry section. (Hmmm, maybe there's room for con artists in those industries.)

IT is closer to the clothing fashion industry than real topics. That's why they want younglings. I've seen several dozens of way to do plain old CRUD screens over the years. Do we really need 38 ways to do the same thing and throw out #1 thru #37 to get 38? Plus, they often grow more complicated over time, not less. De-evolution. "It's agile functional separation of scale-able and cloud-able concerns that provides nimble global synergy..." Yeah right, shuddup[1]. The cloud, for example, is often used as an excuse to do really stupid unproven shit in order to out-buzzword your conpetition[2]. Con artists rule over IT.

[1] and git off my lawn
[2] misspelling intentional

Problems with the search for "top talent"

[codeButcher]

1. The first obvious problem with companies looking for "top talent" is that they often are not able to recognize them when they see them (mainly because of caving in and hiring what comes along, due to project pressures, who then get to think they are "top talent" and hire others like them). I know because I've been employed by 2 or 3 of these.

2. A lot of interviews/tests focus on technical skills. But I find that people skills, time management skills (uhmmm, I'm on /. while I should work...) etc. make up a good proportion of the skills needed in the modern workplace. No use if you could code circles around the next guy if you can't negotiate with your client around what's feasible, or get along with your BOFH team lead to work around ambiguities.

3. So you want to hire rockstar programmers? Where's the groupies and drugs?

The more realistic view IMHO is that most companies do not absolutely need top talent for all their job functions. It's more realistic to develop (and retain) the talent inhouse. Talent is overrated. Talent can be learned up to a level that is sufficient for operational needs. But you need to keep your people for those 10000* hours and keep challenging them (* I mention the figure just as a nod to Gladwell's book, although I do not necessarily agree with the exact figure or some of his points.).