TEKSystems, an IT staffing firm carried out an “IT Professional Perspectives 2013” survey recently of IT professionals. The survey was interesting insofar as it showed that half of the surveyed experts have concerns about long-term career growth and prospects while two-thirds are secure that there will always be an opening available for them. Despite fears professionals stated that there is a shortage of expert IT professionals. 45% of those surveyed stated that the companies they work for has issues in attracting and retaining the right talent. A number are worried about technology upgradation and changes that they have to keep pace with while a percentage is worried due to new entrants.
Significantly, 45% of those surveyed had concerns that outsourcing and emerging cloud computing would be a cause for redundancies. Some professionals are concerned that high level of qualification and experience do not count for much with contracting and outsourcing being the preferred options these days. Jason Hayman, market research manager of TEKSystems found that organizations as well as professionals have to keep pace with emerging technologies in order to remain on top. However, all professionals were uniform in agreeing that the job sector offers high pay and exciting job prospects with new technologies. Apple, Microsoft, Walt Disney, IBM and Google are the top companies when it comes to job preferences. The survey reveals that from a purely technical skillbase, IT professionals need to move to acquiring business skills too along with communication and other soft skills.
