Chief Technology Officer Tools (CTO)

What is the jobs picture?

04/03/2012 -

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has released its biennial employment forecasts, and this year's report has some good news for IT workers. The agency predicts that employment in all computer-related fields will grow 22 percent through 2020. Some job titles will do even better, for example software developers (28-32 percent growth), database administrators (31 percent growth), and network and systems administrators (28 percent growth).

While the forecast looks good, some experts say the U.S. IT job growth isn't as high as it needs to be. Victor Janulaitis, CEO of research firm Janco Associates, characterized the IT job growth as "anemic," saying, "When you consider the overall demand for systems and applications in high-growth markets like China and India, [the BLS projections] mean the U.S. will be doing a diminishing portion of the development and implementation work. If that's the case, the U.S. will no longer be the leader in IT."

He added, "The BLS projections are a bad sign for the U.S. IT graduates from universities. Those numbers do not cover the net growth necessary to give all of the graduates jobs."

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BLS forecast is for anemic IT job growth

03/29/2012 -

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) forecasts that offshoring will hurt the growth of U.S. programming jobs in over the rest of this decade, though expansion of healthcare IT and mobile networks will in turn increase demand for software developers, support technicians and systems analysts.

By 2020, employment in all computer occupations is expected to increase by 22%, but some IT fields will fare better than others, according to the BLS biennial update of employment projections.

Demand for software developers will be the strongest in this period, with increases ranging from 28% to 32%, depending on the type of software development.

The agency's forecasts, particularly for technology-related jobs, are often controversial because they can't account for rapid market changes and tech disruptions. But its estimates are often cited in various policy debates on issues ranging from education to immigration.

The IT employment growth rate projected by the BLS was characterized as "anemic" by Victor Janulaitis, CEO of Janco Associates, a research firm that analyzes IT wage and employment trends.

"When you consider the overall demand for systems and applications in high-growth markets like China and India, [the BLS projections] mean the U.S. will be doing a diminishing portion of the development and implementation work," said Janulaitis. "If that's the case, the U.S. will no longer be the leader in IT.

"The BLS projections are a bad sign for the U.S. IT graduates from universities. Those numbers do not cover the net growth necessary to give all of the graduates jobs," Janulaitis added.

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Outsourcing via offshoring is costing jobs in the US and Europe

03/21/2012 -

Offshoring continues to shrink the number of IT jobs, but in 10 years companies will run out of jobs to offshore, study says
Offshoring is negatively impacting the number of IT jobs in large corporations. A management consulting firm examined services occupations in finance, human resources, procurement, and IT. They found that only 4.5 million of the 8.2 million jobs in these fields that existed in the U.S. and Europe at the start of 2002 will still exist in 2016.

Of the 1.8 million IT jobs at the companies represented in survey about 270,000 jobs in the U.S. and Europe will be moved offshore between now and 2016. The U.S. share accounts for about half of the total jobs lost, or 135,000. By 2016 the firm estimates that 1.8 million IT jobs in North America and Europe at large companies today will have declined to about 1.5 million, despite the growth of many of these companies.

This decline in IT jobs reflects decisions to buy IT services, in the form of cloud-based services. But the IT industry, which has been seeing employment growth, will still move some of those jobs moved offshore.

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Microsoft say cloud will generate 14 million job internationally

03/05/2012 -

Implementation of cloud services will create 14 million jobs internationally by 2014, with the greatest increases occurring in emerging markets, which are not constrained in deploying cloud systems by legacy infrastructure, according to a new study from Microsoft.

China and India alone could create up to 6.8 million new jobs related to the cloud, the study found. Because many of the businesses in these emerging markets are young, they aren't bound by the "Legacy lag" -- as the study calls it -- that could be holding back cloud adoption at larger enterprises around the world.

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IBM lays off over 1,200 employees in US and Canada

03/01/2012 -

According to an IBM employee organization, reports and independent sources, IBM has laid off more than 1,000 employees with some estimates going as high as 1.200 or more in the U.S. and Canada

According to an IBM employee organization, reports and independent sources, IBM has laid off more than 1,000 employees with some estimates going as high as 1.200 or more in the U.S. and Canada.

Some industry experts say that the layoffs in the U.S. are part of an IBM strategy to limit the number of Big Blue employees in the U.S. in favor of lower-cost workers in emerging countries.

IBM, which employs more than 425,000 people around the world, in 2009, stopped releasing figures on the number of employees it has in each country. In 2009, IBM listed 105,000 employees in the U.S., down from nearly 134,000 in 2005. Now, Alliance@IBM estimates that in 2011 IBM employed 98,000 workers in the U.S.

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Younger workers are different

02/27/2012 -

A recent study discovered some key trends about millennials and how they view technology and workplace IT departments. The study found that younger workers:

Have very high expectations when it comes to getting a response regarding support calls
Prefer interactions with IT beyond just calling the helpdesk, including email, chat, and texts
Will typically research problems on their own (either before calling IT or while waiting for a response)
Tend to work outside of typical business hours and off premises
Will develop their own solutions and processes with the tools at their disposal, including consumer-oriented cloud services and personal devices
Value working collaboratively with colleagues within their organization and beyond it
Are often willing to share knowledge about solutions provided to them by IT and solutions and processes they develop on their own

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Certifications are not highly valued by CIOs

02/24/2012 -

While some staffing firms report that IT salaries are growing according to Foote Partners, has been observing a different trend. They are in agreement with data that has been publsihed by of Park City, UT and eJobDescription.com.

Foote says pay premiums for 82 specific technical skills and 88 different technical certifications have been dropping for a year. Premiums are the extra cash companies sometimes pay to full-time employees or contractors on top of their annual salaries or hourly rates in order to acquire a specific, desired skill or certification.

The value of IT certifications has been sliding for five years. Meanwhile, pay premiums for technical skills began falling at the end of 2010, after 20 consecutive months of increases. The dip in demand for technical skills and the corresponding drop in pay premiums for them represents a "correction" in the way IT leaders are structuring their IT organizations, and consequently, in the way they value various skills.

In short, according to Foote's assessment of the market, IT leaders see technical skills and certifications as a dime a dozen, and thus, not worth paying premiums to acquire. Moreover, IT leaders are not necessarily looking for pure technical skills as they re-staff their IT departments, undertake new projects and focus on innovation. Tech skills are third, fourth, and fifth on their lists of desired skills according to Foote.

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IT hiring trends

02/16/2012 -

As the economy's recovery and corporate earnings improve, business across North America are reinvesting in IT projects that were put on hold through the recession. The industries with the strongest growth, including technology and health care, are adding the most IT jobs today, and the IT positions in demand today are a combination of those directly related to profit drivers (product and service development) and back-office operations (such as networking and database administration), a positive indicator for the economy overall.

The distribution of the employment opportunities metro areas across the country confirms that IT job growth is not confined to those areas traditionally considered IT job markets such as Silicon Valley. The Metro areas with the greatest opportunities for IT professional are:

Minneapolis (Overall Unemployment: 5.1%)
Salt Lake City (Overall Unemployment 5.4%)
McLean, Va. (Overall Unemployment: 5.5%)
Boston (Overall Unemployment: 5.7%)
Houston (Overall Unemployment: 7.6%)
San Francisco (Overall Unemployment: 7.6%)
Walnut Creek, Calif. (Overall Unemployment: 7.6%)
Denver (Overall Unemployment: 7.9%)
Toronto (Overall Unemployment: 8.5%)
New York City (Overall Unemployment: 9.0%)
Jacksonville, Fla. (Overall Unemployment: 9.5%)
Orlando (Overall Unemployment: 9.7%)
Detroit (Overall Unemployment: 10.7%)

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IT drives company success

02/14/2012 -

Top-performing companies are top performers in IT, too. Enterprises ranking in the highest quartile for annual revenue, growth, profitability and innovation, and with revenue growth of more than 5% in the past year are better at measuring data, interacting with customers via mobile tools, and mobilizing applications to the cloud, among other things.

"Raising a firm's digital IQ means improving the way it leverages technologies and channels to meet customer needs," says a principal at PwC. "The core of the ecosystem for innovation has moved from inside the firm to out in the marketplace. Customer and employee expectations are being shaped by this environment -- if you miss this trend you will be increasingly irrelevant to the market."

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Participate in IT Salary Survey

02/11/2012 -

Janco is just starting it data gathering for the 2012 Mid-Year IT Salary Survey. Everyone who participates will get a copy of the summary data and those who provide at least ten (10) data points will get a copy of the full study. In addition anyone who provides data within the next 30 days will be entered in a drawing for a fifty percent (50%) discount on any product in the eJobDescription.com catalog. Just click here and follow the link to participate or cut and paste the link below into your browser. - more information

CIO begin to think about growing the their IT organizations

02/02/2012 -

According the Hackett Group's, company leaders have identified the need to grow their emerging market presence as one of the most important priorities for 2012, compared to 2011. They now want their current level of globalization to triple within two to three years, and among their top goals is expanding the reach of their IT service delivery models.

But simply growing and tapping new markets isn't enough. Companies want to remain agile so they can adapt quickly and intelligently to volatile changes in customer demands and costs, according to the firm. "Getting the right information to permit quick action can only be accomplished when mechanisms are in place to gather high-quality data, conduct rigorous analysis, and make decisions with confidence. IT and other support functions overwhelmingly recognize this fact and are focusing their technology priorities for 2012 around the themes of improving the foundation of unified data (to create 'one source of truth') and being able to provide analysis and access to those findings."

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H-1B Visa program continues to grow

01/28/2012 -

The data comes from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service. One list shows new applications for H-1B visas; the second list shows the combined totals for new visas and renewals. A H-1B visa must be renewed every three years.

The U.S. issues 85,000 H-1B visas annually. Of that number, 20,000 are reserved for advanced degree graduates of U.S. universities.

In total, the new visa applications from the top 10 users account for 22% of all the visas allowed by the U.S. each year. But offshore providers probably have a much larger percentage of the visas issued under the 65,000 cap, which includes graduates for foreign universities. An exact breakdown isn't available.

H-1B Visa Renewals and Approvals

Cognizant - 5715
Infosys- 4042
Wipro - 2817
Tata - 1758
Larsen & Toubro - 1608
Microsoft - 1586
Accenture - 1370
HCL America - 1128
IBM - 1063
Google - 615

H-1B New Visa Applications

Cognizant - 4222
Infosys - 3962
Wipro - 2736
Tata - 1740
Accenture - 1347
Larsen & Toubro - 1204
HCL America - 1033
Microsoft - 947
IBM - 853
Google - 383
TOTAL - 18427

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Recruiting using social media

01/28/2012 -

Social media sites provide distinct clues that help identify top talent. Look at the candidate's presence on Linked In, Facebook, Twitter, or blogs, and look at:

Writing style: Many top-tier recruits have blogs with at least a small readership. Take the time to read his or her blog posts - and not just the most recent ones, but the early ones as well. It will give you an idea about his or her professionalism, communication skills, and ability to evolve and progress.
Followings: A good way to differentiate between two seemingly equal candidates may be to see how many people are commenting on their blog and, more significantly, how many followers they have on Twitter. Followers are a rough vote of interest and confidence in an individual.
Word of mouth - online: Wall posts, Twitter @replies, blog comments, and LinkedIn recommendations provide insight into what people think of an individual.

Social media has proven to be a valuable resource in bad times, and it may also be a compelling resource for businesses in times-a-plenty. Tracking potential talent across social media venues is smart business because the top players in any industry or profession are likely to be actively engaged in online communities.

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Talent in high demand at large firms

01/20/2012 -

CIOs and other top organizational executives foresee a global talent shortage looming for the next several years, according to recent research from Deloitte. The consulting firm released the results of its survey in a new report, "Talent Edge 2020: Redrafting Talent Strategies for the Uneven Recovery." When it comes to adequately appointing leaders and staffing key operations, the report says fallout from the talent shortage could be significant. In addition, retaining younger workers has emerged as a key issue for many organizations.

Ultimately, companies that invest aggressively in talent management and development programs will reap rewards, the report concludes. "Today's top talent organizations are not sitting back and waiting for a slow recovery to solve their talent challenges," says the talent services leader for Deloitte Consulting. "These executives are more likely to invest ‑ by a two to one margin ‑ across the board on talent priorities." More than 375 senior executives and talent managers at large companies worldwide took part in the research.

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Hiring is on the uptick

01/14/2012 -

Janco Associates and eJobDescription.com have found that hiring seems to be on the move up. In the last few months they have found that companies are beginning to look into the future.