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by bigfirebird (林教头，驰骋剑指千军) at 2008.2.4 11:16 (#4237579@0)

Is Your IT Job Safe?

The U.S. economy appears to be hovering on the edge of a downturn. Unlike the downturn in 2001, however, this one will not be tech-driven, but rather the result—in large part—of the housing market crisis impacting the rest of the economy. This is little reassurance to IT professionals, many still bearing scars from the dot-com bust. And should the economy go into a full-blown recession, what IT skills will be at greatest risk? Will IT departments be leveled, as they were during the dot-com bust? eWEEK asked experts in the field to rate the security—and insecurity—of different facets of the IT department.

By Deb Perleman



Is Your IT Job Safe? - Networking Skills


As the IT department has become increasingly responsible for supporting a remote workforce through BlackBerrys, Treos and other smart phones, the need for networking skills has become non-negotiable.

"Networking skills had been No. 2 in previous hiring index results and recently took over top position—not just end user support but connectivity, and ensuring that it is done in a secure way."

—Cameron Heffernan, recruiter, Robert Half Technology




Is Your IT Job Safe? - Business-Facing Roles

Even in a recession, companies need to grow and keep their customers happy, said Jim Lanzalotto, vice president of strategy and marketing for Yoh Services, a talent and outsourcing company. Project roles related to customers and company growth are "less susceptible to recession angst," he said.

"We're projecting even higher IT requirements in meeting business priorities. We're seeing much more effort around IT/business projects and less around operations."

—Jim Lanzalotto, vice president of strategy and marketing, Yoh Services




Is Your IT Job Safe? - Quality Assurance Testing


Companies cannot afford to put out faulty products.

"As we continue to develop more and more products, they have to be tested. There was no bigger scare than Y2K, [and that showed] problems that can come up when there is oversight."

—Greg Gary, managing director, Spherion




Is Your IT Job Safe? - IT Security Specialists


Ensuring IT security is non-negotiable in enterprises. IT security is "not just a nice-to-have technology, but one that is mission critical," said Yoh Services' Lanzalotto.

"Companies—especially those within the financial industry—are not going to cut back on IT security."

—Greg Gary, managing director, Spherion




Is Your IT Job Safe? - Consultants


On the one hand, consultants could be brought in to fill gaps if full-time employees are laid off. But Forrester vice president and principal analyst Andrew Bartels warns that CIOs are very reluctant to cut full-time staff—especially employees who work on R&D—which means scaling back on special projects and the consultants who work on them instead.




Is Your IT Job Safe? - Legacy Programmers


A recession could be just what it takes to get enterprises to expedite plans to move past systems that cost too much for what they are delivering.

"It is fairly clear to us that those that are the most vulnerable are involved in upgrading or maintaining assets that are beyond their period of depreciation, such as legacy systems."

—Andrew Walker, research director, Gartner




Is Your IT Job Safe? - System Administrators


Virtualization may put many systems administrators out of work in the long run, but a recession could speed this process up.

"Virtualization and other software management technologies will help reduce the number of people who need to man the machine."

—Andrew Bartels, Forrester Research



Is Your IT Job Safe? - IT Managers


What will put any IT manager's neck on the line is redundancies, as these are the first things companies cut when they have to scale back their spending.

"[Companies are] not going to have two or three individuals doing a job if they can avoid it. They're going to want to reduce overlap and redundancy—IT managers whose responsibilities overlap with others. If I were a CEO or CTO, this would be the first place I'd be looking."

—Josh Farina, Technology Business Research



Is Your IT Job Safe? - Help Desk

CIOs will look to positions that have historically been deemed offshore-able.

"[CIOs will] be asking, can we outsource? Can we get it for a lower cost? With so much help and support services being offshored, there is a lot of risk in these roles."

—Josh Farina, Technology Business Research

Is Your IT Job Safe? - You

Don't fall within any of the categories above? Multifaceted, skilled pros—such as tech generalists who can call on skills in a large number of areas—are much more marketable than those who work within a niche.

"Only a month ago, we were talking with CIOs about a depleted supply of IT pros and hard-to-fill positions—not that much changes in a month. An economic slowdown might mean that we can reduce our reliance on H-1B visas and overseas workers. This could smooth the spike we've had of excess demand over supply. ... If you're not too locked in one role-if you've got depth and breadth in your field, if you're not overly loyal to a once-hot technology—you can set yourself up with more choice between these down periods."

—Andrew Walker, research director, Gartner