The Hottest Skills for 2007

NEW HIRING STALLS

Compared with this time last year, fewer IT executives expect to increase their overall staffing levels. 2007 Head count will increase Head count will remain the same Head count will decrease 2006 Head count will increase Head count will remain the same Head count will decrease Sources: 252 respondents to Computerworld's first-quarter Vital Signs survey 2007; and 338 respondents to first-quarter Vital Signs survey 2006.

Essentially, CIOs are looking for the "Renaissance" IT professional - for instance, the individual with sharp skills in the Cobit (Control Objectives for Information and Related Technology) framework for governing IT and evaluating internal system controls, and a good feel for internal business processes. Proof that a potential hire is well-rounded might include five in-demand skills recently identified in Computerworld's latest quarterly Vital Signs survey of IT trends: programming acumen, project management experience, IT-business analysis know-how, security savvy and technical support skills.

"For us, 2007 will be a year of focusing on what is really important to our company as a whole and what will bring us the most value," says Jim Niemann, vice president of DHL Express IT in San Francisco. "In past years, we've tried to solve every problem in the book. Now we are working those projects that show true bottom-line value."

To address the most pressing and critical challenges in 2007, DHL and other major corporations are looking for employees who can help establish priorities, roll up their sleeves and take action, Niemann says.

1. Well-Rounded Tech Chops

While today's IT job seekers need to develop strong communication skills and shrewd business sense, they must still have stellar technical backgrounds.

"Large organizations have traditionally focused on specialists," says Tom Carpenter, president of Sysedco, an IT training, staffing and consulting company in Dayton, Ohio. "However, this seems to be trending toward what I call 'deep generalists.' These are individuals who have in-depth knowledge in two or three areas but complement this with broad knowledge in both technical and business areas."

Corporate leaders will also begin looking for programming, application development and other technical skills in the portfolios of those farther up the chain of command, adds Dan Twing, vice president of research and consulting at EMA Inc., a St. Paul, Minn.-based consulting firm that focuses on the technology and business management needs of utility, public works and manufacturing organizations.

Twing suggests that midlevel managers seek certification in the hottest technical areas, such as Cobit, ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library) best practices, CMMI (Capability Maturity Model Integration) processes and the Six Sigma quality assurance framework. "These certifications might only yield pay premiums of 10% to 15%, but the training will make the candidate stand out and be more competitive in a crowded marketplace," he says.

Likewise, for hands-on programmers and others constructing core enterprise systems, a firm grasp of the big picture is essential, notes Susan Merritt, dean of the Seidenberg School of Computer Science and Information Systems at Pace University in New York. "The ideal candidate has at least a baccalaureate degree in computer science or a related field. He or she must also know how to build and 'read' software as well as have a good overview of systems and services," she says.

2. Project Management Prowess

DHL boldly asks on national TV, "Whatever happened to customer service?" The answer, offers Niemann, lies partially in the current dearth of project ownership. "For us, project management is a skill we consider a core competency and one we demand of all of our senior IT people around the world," he says. "It used to be the case that we would hire a program manager and that would be it. Now we realize this is a skill set we all need to have."

Applicants looking to become agile project managers should cut their teeth in the real world, not in the classroom, advises Andrew Field, CEO of PrintingForLess.com in Livingston, Mont. "If I were to make a recommendation to an IT person trying to sharpen skills, it would not be to run out and get an MBA. It would be to lead a project team and get something like that on your resume," he says. "Even if it is a small team, just prove not only that you can do things yourself, but also that you can get others to do things for you."

Self-starters will likely take the lead in the enterprise quest to blanket an IT shop with project management know-how, adds Brendan Courtney, senior vice president and group executive of IT recruiting firm Spherion Professional Services in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. "Volunteer for a project; get involved in business networking groups; perform work beyond the job you were hired to do," he suggests.

3. Critical Thinking

With data warehouses bursting at the seams, enterprise IT shops are crying out for business analysts and others able to link IT efforts with corporate missions. "There is so much data available everywhere that we need business intelligence analysts. There will also be a greater need for high-level business relationship managers," observes Eric Fowler, a senior corporate recruiter on the human resources/talent acquisition team at Columbus, Ga.-based Aflac Inc., a Fortune 500 health insurance company.

"Critical thinking is also very important to us," says Niemann. "We are looking for people who can execute what you ask them to execute. We want them to have an opinion, speak up when they may not be going in the right direction, tell us to take a left here instead of a right to get there faster. Rote workers are not what we are looking for."

4. Security Sharpness

High-profile security breaches and the specter of security audits that stem from daunting new regulations have hiring officials scouting for talent with sound security credentials and experience, says Carly Drum, managing director of Drum Associates Inc., a New York-based executive recruiting firm.

"Since the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 passed its fourth anniversary in July," Drum says," the need for security, risk management and compliance specialists has put executive-level information security officers in even greater demand. These positions can't be offshored and require an underpinning in security as well as good analytical and program management skills."

The stepped-up hunt for job applicants with security experience is tied to the ways corporations now house and share information, says Larry Bruce, vice president of Woburn, Mass.-based IT staffing firm Sapphire Technologies LLC. "Security jobs are in very high demand right now, and we expect this trend to continue. As businesses increasingly rely on Web-based information sharing, security replacements are remaining high on corporate priority lists," he says.

Bruce notes that savvy security staffs must also keep up with new means of stealing sensitive corporate data. "The proliferation in the use of iPods, PDAs and smart phones has forced businesses to safeguard their networks from internal threats as well," he says.

Having credentials blessed by the federal government is a surefire way to prove security prowess to potential employers. "Someone who has an active government security clearance along with other core skills is going to have an easy time finding employment," says Scot Melland, CEO of Dice Inc., a company in Urbandale, Iowa, that runs specialized career sites and career fairs for high-growth vertical sectors.

Although keeping employees at all levels tuned in to new risks is important, overall security responsibility should rest with an organization's top IT executives, advises DHL's Niemann. "Security is obviously a growing need for all companies. There is also the realization that security is of such importance that people in high-profile, director-level positions should be monitoring risks to an organization," he says.

5. Help Desk Support

Although hiring figures might dip slightly, companies are always looking to fill hands-on support positions. "Help desk/technical support positions notoriously have high attrition rates. These are usually entry-level positions and as such have a pretty steady need for replacements as workers advance," notes Wendy Kemp, Sapphire's regional manager for Florida and Atlanta.

However, some officials will consider filling these jobs in unconventional ways, adds William Howe, Sapphire's regional manager for Texas. "Many companies are choosing to offshore jobs involving trainable, repetitive duties like programming and first-level support, so demand for these skills has lessened to some degree in recent years," he says.

For some companies, help desk and support staffers represent front-line contact with customers and are now regarded as a crucial in-house resource. Explains DHL's Niemann, "We've got people calling all of the time, and many of our systems have Web exposure to our customers. Literally, we have a help desk in every region we serve, and we are looking for individuals with strong customer-service skills."

Niemann again points to his company's ad campaign. "If we are advertising the fact that we are bringing customer service back to the shipping business, that effort might often begin with the help desk," he says.

Whether looking to step up the emphasis on project management, bring in top officials with strong security skills or staff a formidable help desk, hiring managers will be more selective in the coming year, predicts Scott Dare, IT director of Eisner & Lubin LLC, a New York-based accounting and consulting firm.

"In a word: cautious," says Dare of the mind-set hiring officials will adopt in 2007. "While we no longer have the glut of tech labor seen after the burst of the 2003 Internet bubble, there are still more technically qualified job seekers than there are jobs."

Given the spate of options, employers may want to insist on well-rounded hiring officials as well as applicants. "IT hiring managers must focus on nontechnical skills to find the best candidate - qualities like interpersonal skills, impressions of trust, reliability and so on," says Dare. "This is difficult for even seasoned hiring managers, but now it's important for any IT interviewer."

This Article Reprinted Courtesy of http://www.computerworld.com