Tech Skills Not Enough for a Job in 2010?

Within a few years, having a strong technical ability may not be enough

to get you a job.

That’s the warning coming from Gartner, Inc., an industry analyst firm.

Being a specialist in a specific technology, like Linux, Windows or

database administration, isn’t going to be enough of a calling card in

the not-so-distant job market.

”Let’s just say it’s no longer going to be a question of just having

good technical ability — of having a specialty,” says Diane Morello
vice president of research at Gartner. ”If you’re just maintaining a

specialization without raising their caliber, it’s not going to be

enough… Companies will need people who are broader. The people I’m

talking about are ‘versatilists’.”

Morello says a new Gartner study shows that the job market for IT

specialists will shrink by 40 percent by 2010.

To be employable, IT professionals will need to be skilled in multiple

technologies, and they’ll need to have experience working with the

business side of the company, participating in business projects and able

to communicate with co-workers outside of IT, as well as customers.

Morello says Gartner analysts asked CIOs what staff additions they plan

to make over the next few years. Respondents said that by 2009 to 2010

processes, relationships and sourcing management will be the biggest

areas of growth. The technology infrastructure and services space will

experience the greatest decline. And that decline is partly because of

the continued offshoring trend, as well as because of the growing

automation of IT work.

”People need to become versatile through relationships and involvement

outside their specific domain and work on various projects,” says

Morello. ”There is a shift afoot and many companies are really looking

for people with a broader set of expertise who can show real business

contribution and participation in business results.”

To get that experience, Morello advises IT professionals to work on teams

with the business side, to jump on technical projects outside their

specialty and to get involved with a list of business projects.

Kevin Knaul, executive vice president of the Hudson Highland Group, a

professional staffing and outsourcing company based in New York City,

says people with singular specialties need to rethink their resumes.

”It’s important to understand how employment trends and hiring trends

have shifted for IT workers,” says Knaul. ”When we look at them, we

have a host of individuals with specialized skill sets who are in the

highest demand they’ve ever been in — SAP and Oracle packages, or Java

or Microsoft.net… For the time being, we see that continuing but it

will reach a maturity.

”But specialization isn’t a great thing in the long run,” he adds.

People tend to pigeonhole themselves. If they’re not diversified, they’ll

find themselves in a bad situation. Plenty of IT people are on the bench

right now because they’re specialized in technologies that aren’t in high

demand. Look at some of the older PeopleSoft skills or older technologies

like Cobal or C++.”

It’s time, analysts say, for IT professionals to pick their heads up and

take a broader look at the industries they’re in, and the companies

they’re working for, or want to work for. It’s time to figure out how the

company is serving its customers and what they can do to help that

process.

”When we look at it historically, the IT department has had their heads

down and they’ve only be into the technology,” says Knaul. ”But people

in demand right now are increasingly in business-facing projects. They

understand how the technology supports the business. They help make

decisions about what technologies to bring in to help the business…

They need fundamental business experience and the technical background to

link it all together.”

But Gordon Haff, an analyst with Illuminata, a Nashua, N.H.-based

industry analyst firm, says it can be difficult to walk the fine line

between being a specialist and becoming involved with so many different

projects that you are nothing more than a generalist.

”It’s always somewhat of a tug of war,” says Haff, who adds that this

is a trend that’s been a long time coming. ”There’s often been this

specialty of the moment, and a lot of people run out and get this

certification or that certification. It often creates a flood and then it

turns out that a lot of IT shops are looking for people who can do more

than one narrow thing… I would agree there is a demand for people who

are less stove pipes in terms of what they can do.”

He adds that IT has been heavily criticized over the years for focusing

solely on technology, without giving thought to the business and

processes and customers. It’s a criticism, he says, that needs to be

addressed.

”Being the person who knows everything about Windows and wants nothing

to do with Linux — that’s not necessarily going to be good for your

career,” says Haff. ”It’s not what [the company] is going to be looking

for. Try to approach your IT role as a business person, as somebody who

is really looking to assist the company’s business processes, as opposed

to just focusing on the technology.”

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