I recently posted on LinkedIn, in response to the following question:
Question:
I have been Alumni since May of this year. I am currently seeking a position in I.T. and finding it very difficult to land the job. There are so many different levels to the I.T. industry and I am curious as to where I should direct my energy and time within the field. There are so many different types of software platforms that are used by so many different companies. One cannot possible be an expert at so many. I need information on what and where there best paying jobs are in the industry and what does the experts say is the most secure position for the future in I.T. will be.Â
My Response:
I can only tell you what has worked for me, and I’m sure others will disagree; I’ve tried to maintain a skill set that is not locked into a particular platform. The reason is that products often go away. For instance, I’ve had a number of friends who have based their careers implementing PeopleSoft software. When PeopleSoft was purchased by Oracle, they were afraid that the product would be brought to an end of life. While this doesn’t appear to be the case with this particular product, it could just have easily gone the other way. The people who’ve worked on just that one product for a number of years would have had to start all over again.
In terms of salaries, you can use tools like http://www.glassdoor.com , or http://www.indeed.com/salary to get an idea of what current salaries are.in a particular area.
One bit of advise, try to pick an industry and stick with it. Companies tend to value industry knowledge. For instance, If I started with a financial firm as a software developer, after five years, I would not only be an expert in the languages I’ve been working with, but I would also have knowledge of areas like equity trading, quantitative software development, compliance regulations and SEC regulations. Taking that knowledge to my next position would make me more valuable to another financial firm. By sticking to an industry, and gaining lots of industry specific knowledge, you in turn increase your value and your ability to lead others.
Once you figure out what industry you might like to work in, the next step is to visit the company job boards. Again, taking the financial industry as an example, I would go to http://www.morganstanley.com/about/careers/index.html or http://www2.goldmansachs.com/careers/index.html and look up the requirements for positions that you might be interested in working as.
If you’re looking into positions as a software developer, you may also want to use the trending tool at indeed.com: http://www.indeed.com/jobtrends?q=java%2C+c%2Fc%2B%2B%2C+php%2C+perl%2C+python%2C++C%23&l=
This will give you an idea of what languages are popular and how they are trending. Mix and match the languages you’re interested in working with and see how they trend against one another. Another resource is the TIOBE software index: http://www.tiobe.com/index.php/content/paperinfo/tpci/index.html . They use a number of measurements (described on the site) to determine if a language is becoming more popular. These tools are a good way to judge your skill set against trends in the job market. Also a good way to judge the next set of tools you should be learning.
If you’re interested in Systems Administration or database administration, look at the job requirements IN THE INDUSTRY YOU ARE INTERESTED in as well. Again, I stress industry because each industry has different needs. Since we’ve been using the financial industry as an example, investment banks look for a UNIX Engineers with Low Latency, Infiniband, kernel tuning experience. Market data experience is a huge plus for them (due to specific issues with processing THAT much data). A web hosting company would have different types of requirements. They may want expertise in adding Apache modules, setting up tomcat, load balancing, backups, etc.
A development position in a financial firm may want multi-threading multi-processing UNIX/Linux experience. Probably with C/C++, Perl and/or Python. Financial firms tend to seek fast code. Other industries like web hosting, will be more interested in languages like Java, PHP, AJAX, JavaScript.
Pick things you like to work with too. Don’t just consider industry vs. paycheck. I’m guessing that you’re just starting your career. Working at a job that you hate for 30 – 40 years is terrible. The money just isn’t worth it. Look at the “style” of an industry. Working at a financial company may pay great, but you’ll be dressing business casual and working in a cubicle for a good part of your career. Some academic or web kinds of positions might be a little less stringent. Start up companies offer a wide range of things you’ll be working on vs. an investment bank or insurance company where you’ll tend to be silo-ed. Meaning, if you work on equities development at a bank using C++, in 10 years it’s probable that you’ll still be working on the same kinds of projects, only with a few people reporting to you. Conversely, at a start up or smaller company, you’ll probably work with lots of different types of things.
Another thing to consider. Look at the public sector (NASA, FBI, NYPD, IRS) for technology types of jobs. While the initial salaries are usually lower, they offer pension plans, 401K plans, lifetime medical care, and many other benefits that if you add up, will often exceed retirement savings in the private sector. So, if I was a 25 year old software developer for NASA, after 20 years I’d be vested in my pension plan. At 45, I could then either seek work in either the private sector (while contributing to a 401K) or another public sector job (a second pension and 401K). In either case, you’d have a good chance at retiring early with a healthy pension (or two) and 401K savings.
Anyway, just some food for thought.
