Demand still exists for IT professionals

Sunday Business Post - Computers in Business Magazine - Mar 01 2009

Read the article on the Sunday Business Post website by clicking here.

In the current economic climate, IT professionals who can help potential future employers to cut costs are highly sought after. Fergal Keys, manager at IT Panel, said that specialists in technologies which helped companies to make their business more efficient were very much in demand.

“Clients are looking at investing in technologies that will reduce costs,” Keys said.” That might mean investing and upgrading systems. That is leading to new project management type roles. Everyone is looking at their bottom line and how they can do things better.”

This is leading to specialists in customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems being highly sought after, according to Keys.

“The CRM and ERP areas are important at the moment,” he said. "Business intelligence (BI) and SAP candidates are in demand. That side of the market is busy.”

Aoife Donnelly, director at Next Generation Recruitment, said that companies were looking to hire business intelligence and consumer insight specialists due to challenging market conditions.

“Business intelligence and data and consumer insight analysis candidates are in demand as businesses look for trends and patterning to see where consumers are spending revenue,” said Donnelly.

“Product patterning and consumption trends are being delivered straight back into the business, so that production can be aligned to meet demand, particularly in the FMCG [fast-moving consumer goods] space. IT is critical for that swift turnaround so that a company can maximise revenue.”

Colin Donnery, general manager at FRS Recruitment, said organisations were looking to hire people with virtualisation skills.

“Virtualisation can have massive cost savings for large organisations and it has been the main area of growth for us in the last number of months,” said Donnery. “Ireland has companies based here at the forefront of the technology, so it should lead to a steady stream of jobs in the next number of years.”

Aoife Donnelly said the spread of unified communications (UC) technology had lead to a requirement for suitably qualified candidates.

“Unified communications is in serious demand resulting in high need for engineers with voice and data skills,” she said.” The Cisco certifications and Call Manager and IPT Contact Centre skills are in demand.”

Siobhan Ryan, HR and IT resourcing manager at Ergo IT Resourcing, said there would continue to be strong demand for candidates with SharePoint skills and experience.

“SharePoint is the latest in-demand technology and there appears to be a significant lack of skilled resources available in Ireland,” Ryan said.” Demand for skills in this area will definitely increase in 2009 and into 2010.”

A good number of employers were also looking to fill multimedia-type roles at present, according to Donnery.

“The gaming industry is picking up massively in Ireland,” he said.” Anyone with Web 2.0 skills is also doing well.”

Ryan said that candidates with solid development skills were always in demand.

“There is still a good level of demand for Agile Developers for permanent roles,” said Ryan.” We also continue to see strong demand for Java skill sets, J2EE, back-end and front-end and developers with strong C#, ASP and .NET skills.”

Donnery agreed that companies were looking for strong developers at present.

“.Net, Java, and to a lesser extent Care the technologies where there is still plenty of work,” he said. “Anyone with solid skills in these areas should be able to find work at the moment. We placed a Java developer with about six years' experience with a financial software company in October. The company then got into trouble in December, and we had him in another job by the second week of January.”

Who's hiring?

Keys said that, despite the doom and gloom, there were still companies looking to recruit IT professionals this year.

“If you just read the newspapers, you would wonder what was happening, but talking to clients and candidates and other people in the industry, IT roles are still out there,” he said.” A number of big clients are stil l going through the projects to be rolled out in 2009.That will then determine their recruitment for the year.”

Donnery said there were fewer roles around now than 12 months ago, with the financial services sector particularly quiet.

“In terms of numbers of jobs we are definitely down on last year, particularly in the Dublin market, but it is quite sector specific,” he said.” Within the finance industry, the numbers are way down on last year.”

Ryan said that some of the bigger traditional IT employers were not hiring at present.

“In general, bigger multinationals are not hiring with a lot employing strict headcount freezes as a standard policy for 2009,” she said.” Some consultancy companies are hiring, albeit at a lower level than normal; however, you also see some of the bigger consultancies, like Accenture, announcing redundancies.”

Donnelly said there was more demand for candidates coming from smaller companies in the current climate.

"There are SMEs hiring and there are consultancies hiring, but they are more the smaller operations as the larger are in trimming mode,” she said.

Levels of opportunities
Most of the IT opportunities available at the moment were in mid-level positions, Ryan said.

“We see steady demand for mid-level resources,” she said.” There is really no demand for entry-level roles and we have seen little movement or demand at the senior level.”

Donnelly agreed that senior IT vacancies were scarce at present.

“There is really limited movement at the senior end at the moment,” she said. "Mid-range there is more movement up to the €65k range as it's a less risky decision to make.”

Ryan said that contracting positions in particular were hard to find, leading contractors to consider full time roles.

“We have witnessed a significant decline in contract opportunities in the marketplace,” she said.

“The contract market was practically non existent during the latter half of 2008, however there has been some slight upturn so far in 2009.We have seen a huge increase in the number of long-term contractors who are now focused on securing full time permanent employment. These individuals now value job security and an overall package more than contracting's higher earnings potential.”

However, Donnelly said that the current tight labour market favoured contractors with high-end or in demand skill sets.

“If you are experienced and expensive, go contracting,” she said.” You should be able to retain a higher annual return by working this way even if you are working less days a week. Companies looking for an experienced resource are having difficulty getting it signed off through HR.”

Salaries
Ryan said salaries for IT professionals in Ireland were currently stable.

“There has been a stabilisation of permanent salaries in the last six months in particular,” she said. “Most IT professionals currently working are realistic enough to know that the trend at the moment is towards reducing salaries and salary cuts in a lot of instances, so demands for increases would not be entertained at the present time.”

Keys said that employers were generally offering smaller packages for new positions than previously.

“We are definitely getting people saying a role might have been worth €75k last year, but we can fil l it for €60k or €65k this year,” he said.” It is without doubt a tougher market.”

Donnelly said that salaries for general roles were falling quicker than those for positions that required specialised skills.

“Salaries for jobs that require a broader technical skillset are dropping further than the more niche technical roles that are system or product suite specific,” she said. "Broader roles have easier transferable characteristics and therefore there is a wider pool of candidates eligible to do them.”

Keys said that IT professionals knew that they had to be realistic with their salary demands.

“Peoples' expectations are in line with market reality,” he said.” People made good money while the sun shone, and now they are happy to reduce their expectations, based on the current market environment. If they do not do that, they wil l find it hard to get a job.”

Donnelly said that candidates should consider more than just their take-home pay when weighing up potential new jobs.

“Salary expectations for 2009 should be tempered and it is better to be in a role than not,” she said. “When going for a role consider what you want to look like technically in two years time and then weigh up what that is worth to you. You are investing in your future for the long term not the short.”

Talent pool
Donnery said that IT professionals in a job were generally not looking to move.

“People are sitting tight, and thinking that they are ok where they are for the moment, and they will see what happens with the market,” he said.” People seem to be a bit afraid to move at the moment.”

Donnery said that employers were much less likely now to take on a candidate who was not an exact fit for the vacancy.

“Clients are quite fussy now, they are looking for the add-ons and extra development tools that candidates have,” said Donnery. “They might have previously taken on a solid Java candidate and trained him up in something like EJP; now they are looking for the full package, so the person can hit the ground running.”

Keys said that technology certifications were very useful for candidates at present.

“People are looking for the guy with the qualification,” he said. "They only want to know if he has the Cisco cert, or the Microsoft qualification. Client specifications are higher.”

Having a good CV, which was tailored to the particular vacancy, was a must given the tight market, Keys said.

“The CV has got to be good,” he said.” There are so many CVs being submitted for various roles, that if the first page does not jump out at the client, they tend to move on to the next one. It is important that, in the profile space, you look at the job spec.You might have done a lot of that type of work before, but your CV may not highlight that sufficiently. In your profile you can put down why you are a good fit for that particular role.”

“Do it in bullet points,” said Keys.” What is your role, what were your responsibilities. What have your achievements been in each role you worked in? Have you been promoted within your company?

Make sure you outline any of these. If you are going for a technical role, make sure you highlight your level of expertise in each individual technical area. The more information you can give the better.”

Donnelly said that some IT professionals recently made redundant were finding it difficult to return to the labour market.

“Some of them have worked for the same firm for 15-20 years,” she said. “Systems-wise they know only one infrastructure architecture. That can be limiting.”

Looking overseas
Donnery said that there were not huge levels of Irish IT professionals looking abroad for work at the moment.

“We are doing a bit of work placing people abroad, but not a huge amount,” he said.” Things are tight in other countries. Britain is in a similar situation to us, as is most of the world. Probably Australia is somewhere there is plenty of work, but that is a long way to go.”

Keys said that mainland Europe did offer some opportunities.

“There is work in Germany and in Luxembourg,” he said.” We are asking al l candidates whether they are open to going abroad, for a six-month contract or a permanent role.”

There were attractive IT positions in some other EU countries at present, Donnelly said.

"Holland and Belgium are the two more suited to Irish IT contractors,” she said. "There is a history of good performance from Irish IT professionals on projects there over the years and culturally there is a good fit. Language is less of a barrier.”