2010 IT Job Market: Best of Times, Worst of Times

To paraphrase Charles Dickens, the 2010 IT job market is expected to be the best of times and the worst of times. 

As noted in a new report by Foote Partners, a market research and advisory firm, "there is slim to no chance of meaningful IT jobs recovery in 2010." Even in traditional recessions - and this one's far, far worse - hiring lags recovery. So it's no surprise that In the current downturn, now stretching into its agonizing third year, a resumption of normal hiring patterns will be a long time coming -- not until 2011, by Foote's reckoning. 

Instead, employers will focus on skills, not hiring, Foote predicts. In response to long-term resistance to hiring, companies will assess what actual work needs to be done, and will look for people -- sometimes even in-house -- who have those skills. The emphasis will be more on plugging gaps than on hiring waves of skilled IT staffers. 

"Finite resources are shifted very quickly toward retaining and building - or renting - those skills and workers," and will shift just as quickly in another direction, writes Foote. This shift can happen in weeks or even mere days, where it was once pondered over months. 

Of course there's a major downside to this blink-and-you-miss it shuffling of IT talent. "Quick decisions to cast off anybody and anything that is a drag on finite resources often results in unfortunate consequences post-recession when unique experience and skills held by certain cast-offs are desired once again," notes Foote. 

Truer words were never spoken. 

Not all, however, is gloom - here's where the "best of times" comes in. Those IT staffers with the right skills will be partying like it's 1999. In particular: boutique SMB consulting firms in hot segments such as security will be in demand (partially due to being lower priced than their big firm competitors), predicts Foote. Other hot skills: ERP, open source, virtualization, architecting, an array of IP networking skills, and business processes. 

The trick, it seems, is having the right skills at the right time (that is, during the right IT business mini-cycle). It appears that success as an IT professional in the coming years will require the flexibility of a chameleon.