The PlanetRecruit Blog

10 Hottest IT Jobs

By Dawn Lovett

Dawn Lovett holds a Master's degree in electrical engineering from the University of Michigan. She has worked in electronic and computer engineering for over 20 years for several companies, including IBM and General Motors. Dawn is currently based in Chicago, IL. She also owns the site Online Engineering Degrees for students interested in getting an online degree in engineering. 

IT professionals looking to upgrade their current positions should investigate job opportunities that address the growing demand for technologies such as virtualization, cloud, network security and social computing skills. Industry watchers report that increased interest in emerging and existing technologies will drive internal training and external hiring decisions.

“We will see a skills shift from IT personnel that operates only in the old, slow expensive ways to IT pros that can adopt agile methods. There will continue to be opportunities in analytics, for people who understand lean IT, Six Sigma, business processes and improvements -- it's going to be about information, connectivity and collaboration", says Mark McDonald, group vice president and head of research, Gartner Executive Programs.  

Here we examine 10 IT job titles that could gain traction in 2012 as new technology demands require evolving IT skills. 

1. Security specialist/ethical hacker – As security and data breaches continue to be a major problem for large corporations, IT specialists in security are a hot commodity. With hackers continuing to develop new ways to breach security, this is a job that won’t be disappearing any time soon. Security issues apply to every kind of corporation and are increasingly relevant for companies using software services and cloud computing.

2. Virtual systems manager – With the rise of cloud computing, management of virtual servers and networks is becoming increasingly important. A manager must make sure the cloud is monitored, secured and compliant with all systems. They must also minimize the risk of a catastrophic system failure and prepare the system in the case that it is compromised.

3. Capacity manager – Companies need to prepare ahead for needed resources and respond quickly to business needs in order to survive in today’s economy. A capacity manager fills this responsibility, especially when it comes to assigning financial values to IT resources.

4. Network engineer – In the age of the smart phone, networking, voice, and data communications technology continues to advance dramatically and at an accelerating pace. The future of IT lies in social interaction and collaboration across networks, which is why this role is so important today.

5. Open-source specialist – Many companies are turning to open-source software to add services while keeping their budgets under control. Although many open-source software makers offer support packages, it’s beneficial to a company to have an in-house specialist who is trained to know how the software works.

6. Service assurance manager – IT specialists may be skilled at identifying problems and optimizing performance in specific domains, a service assurance manager is in charge of ensuring quality service from all the domains. They track services from start to finish across a variety of domains, from network, system, storage, and applications.

7. Electronic health records (EHR) systems manager – There has been a significant increase in IT positions in the healthcare sector as a result of the government’s economic stimulus plan that has encouraged the use of EHR systems. EHR IT specialists must know the ins and outs of specific EHR systems in order to be able provide support to medical professionals.

8. Sourcing specialist – Companies are turning to services such as cloud computing, software-as-a-service and outsourcing to avoid hiring internal staff and save money. An IT manager with knowledge about various sourcing options can be a valuable asset for a business looking at such services because they can guide the company to ensure that an informed decision is taken.

9. Service catalog manager – IT service catalogs are a common way for a company to meet customer needs but such a catalog is only beneficial if it is properly managed. A service catalog manager is in charge of producing and maintaining the catalog, which includes such responsibilities as planning, implementation, financial management, and maintenance.

10. Business process engineer – In our economy, many businesses are looking to streamline operations and cut down on their budgets. A business process engineer combines their knowledge of technical systems with everyday business processes. IT professionals are often hired for these positions because of their advanced knowledge of technological solutions for business.

 

 Are any of the above your job title? 

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IT graduates could benefit from taking on bi-lingual roles

By Madeleine Field, FDM Group Recruitment Manager 

Madeleine is responsible for the Academy events and recruitment teams. As well as overlooking recruitment operations for FDM Academy’s graduate programme worldwide, Madeleine also organises all corporate Academy presentations, workshops, seminars and graduate fairs.

At FDM Group we have has just announced a surge in the number of bilingual job vacancies we have available and firmly believe in the benefits of taking on these roles for IT graduates.We are currently calling for English speaking graduates with a technical background and a second language of French, Cantonese, Mandarin, German or Polish.
 
Personally, I strongly support the belief that bilingual opportunities can offer graduates the chance to gain the experience that will provide them with a competitive edge over other university leavers. Due to the need to associate ideas and objects with a set of words from two or more languages simultaneously, bilingual and multilingual workers often develop a flexible and creative way of thinking.
 
This is an attractive quality for employers and candidates who have taken on these roles will often be favoured over monolingual jobseekers. Although we place solely English speaking graduates across the globe, the ability to speak the language of the country you are placed in makes a graduate far more marketable to us and far more attractive to our clients.

Taking on this type of role in a foreign country could also provide IT graduates. with a distinct advantage by building on their sense of independence, communication skills and ability to adapt to new environments. At FDM we strongly believe that it is important to alert graduates to the fact that bilingual work does not only centre around translating, interpreting and teaching.
 
Graduates are often deterred from bilingual roles because they don’t want to go into the fields associated with these particular positions. However, due to the business facing nature of IT roles, there are plenty of opportunities for IT graduates to remain in their chosen field and still reap the benefits of taking on a bilingual role.We would urge IT graduates. who are lucky enough to be bilingual to seriously consider developing their career through the use of their second language. 

 

Are you a recent graduate? Are you bi-lingual? Got a question or thoughts to share?

Feel free to leave your questions and comments below.

Don’t turn your back on IT Opportunities in Hong Kong

By Neil Holland

Despite mixed messages about IT opportunities in Hong Kong - the UK’s largest IT graduate employer - FDM has begun accelerating its recruitment drive in the region. The recent revelation that a number of investment banks are set to introduce major job cuts in Hong Kong in the coming years, came as unwelcome news to many, particulary those considering roles and job placements in the area. However, the employment prospects for IT professionals and graduates seeking Hong Kong based IT roles may not really be so bleak after all.

As the UK’s ‘Best Technical Graduate Recruiter’ of 2010, FDM is aiming to place 150 candidates in the region within the next year for a number of reasons. The Hong Kong Computer Society (HKCS) recently reported that more than 70% of the IT professionals questioned for its latest employment survey received an average pay increase of four to six percent in 2011. The results of the survey also revealed that 51.2% of the firms questioned hired fresh graduates this year, 90% of which received an entry level salary of over HK$10,000 a month.

The Job of the Recruitment Futurologist

Being a futurologist has always struck me as an odd job, like a professional daydreamer or fantasist. Personal feelings aside, their musing makes for good copy in the tabloids. Recently I read a piece discussing the future of tablet computers, phones and social media suggesting that all of these would be combined into a single headset with a drop down visor over one of our eyes, which displays information about the person you are looking at based on the their social network profile.
 
The 'vision' was that you would be able to see people who have similar hobbies or pastimes, their relationship status so on. I'm not heavy on social networking but this whole thing just sounds strange to me. This said, it did occur to me that in the same way you could display your personal availability and other details, you could use your social network profile it to find a new job.

Maybe you could indicate your current role and willingness to be approached about new work in a floating bubble above your head, possibly even with a salary attached. For example: ‘Java Developer, Available, no less than £350 per day’. You might be doing your weekly shop and you get a tap on the shoulder from an IT Director on his weekly shop who then gives you his card and asks you to get in touch (perfect!); although there would probably be no such thing as business cards. Maybe you'd have to bump heads or something. Finding a job would be so easy. 
 

Industry Event: Women in IT Advantage Session

As part of its commitment to encouraging more women to work within the IT industry, FDM Group will be holding a “Women in IT Advantage Session” on 17th August at its London Bridge office.
 
The free event will give female graduates and students the opportunity to learn more about the different career options and support available to them, should they wish to pursue a career in the field.
 
FDM Chief Operating Officer Sheila Flavell said, “We are delighted to be holding this event with the aim of promoting the lucrative world of IT to this latest generation of female graduates.”
 
Representatives from key organisations such as the UKRC and Women in Technology will be delivering presentations to give graduates an insight into how their organisations operate and benefit women in IT.
 

Why IT Graduates are Seeking International Job Opportunities

While questioning a focus group of graduate IT consultants recently, we discovered a key reason behind the phenomenal amount of graduate applications we have received this year – international opportunities.
 
The chance to travel the world after graduating – when ties have not yet been formed and the thirst for discovery is at its peak – has always been popular with university leavers.
 
As the economy creeps back on to its feet, it is no surprise that many graduates are taking on pre-university jobs to fund a post-university gap year.
 

The Job Interview Mind Reader

Wherever you happen to be at the moment, take a look at the person next to you – what are they thinking? Can you tell? Don’t be surprised if you can’t; it turns out that human beings are surprisingly bad at guessing what others are thinking.

In 2005, scientists at the University of Cambridge began developing a device to help autistic people decode the emotions of others via their facial expressions. People with autism find this apparently simple task extremely difficult, so such a device would be very useful for them.

While calibrating their device, the scientists discovered that the average person correctly identifies the emotion behind an expression just 54% of the time – a useful skill to have for a job interview. Their prototype device, on the other hand, was right 64% of the time.

More Women Required to Combat the IT Skills Shortage

On 30th June 2011, UCAS revealed that 378,138 women applied for a place at university this year, compared to 291,818 men.

The statistics also revealed that 60,219 prospective students applied to study Computer Science, with 12,023 seeking to take technology courses.

But according to the e-skills 2011 report ‘Technology Insights’, only 9% of students studying A Level Computing and 15% of those reading the subject at university are female. 

And in March 2011, around the time of International Women’s Day, industry research revealed that only 16% of all IT job seekers are women.

Bob Clift, Head of Higher Education Programmes at e-skills, explained one of the reasons behind the female shortage: “What a lot of women don’t realise is that most IT roles are business focused and are equally applicable to professionals of either sex. The problem the industry still faces, is the common perception that IT roles are reserved for ‘geeky’ men but this couldn’t be further from the truth.”

IT Jobs Rise...But Who’s in Demand?

Recent research published by the Association of Professional Staffing Companies (APSCo) has confirmed what many professionals in the IT industry have known for some time – IT jobs are on the increase and have been steadily rising for the last year. In fact, the research finds the number of new IT jobs created in the UK has risen 28% year-on-year.

However, this research seems to be based largely on the numbers of job adverts posted, information that is freely available online through several monitoring sites. Using job ads alone is quite a blunt measurement of the health of any employment market but unfortunately, such is the fast-paced nature of all employment markets that in-depth qualitative-based research is more or less impossible – the results likely to be out of date by time of publication.

The report I saw gave generalisations around movement in the contract market (less) and permanent market (more), but my own research suggests that contract positions currently remain flat and the growth appears to be in the number of permanent roles registered.
 

How Equipped Are You For Employment?

The unemployment rate in the UK is currently 7.7%, with almost a million Britons between the ages of 16 and 24 unemployed. These numbers look alarming, but it isn’t necessarily the case that there aren’t enough jobs to accommodate a good number of worried jobseekers. The truth is that finding the right candidates is no mean feat: the majority of job applicants are simply not ready for the business world.

We are not the only organisation to have noticed a ‘skills gap’. A recent survey from the Chartered Institute of Personnel (CIPD) found that employers are being swamped by unsuitable candidates, and David Frost, the outgoing director general of the British Chambers of Commerce, recently commented that the UK’s education system leaves school-leavers so unequipped for the workplace that “five years later we spend billions offering them remedial training to make them work-ready”.

Where is the Skills Gap?

Finding intelligent and knowledgeable candidates isn’t the problem. There are plenty of knowledgeable people around, particularly in the IT industry. It’s not just about having some understanding of technology and its business applications, it’s about quickly recognising clients’ problems and identifying the most appropriate solutions.