Wednesday 10 August 2011

Information Technology And Job Growth Explained In Layman's Terms

By Lynne Keller


Ever since it had started, the Information Technology (IT) industry has made countless rookie mistakes and undergone growing pains caused by the very same technological improvements that define the field in all actuality. Different industries have their own special needs and their own specific disciplines, and when technology moves forward, IT professionals often are forced to choose a different specialization just to meet these needs. This newfound emphasis on specialization has led to the creation of new positions within the IT field with expansion resulting in job diversification.

Time was, IT managers and administrators did everything - they handled every minute detail of a firm's data systems, including, but not limited to accessibility, development, storage and security. They were, pardon the term, the rock stars of the new computer age that rose to the occasion whenever they were tasked to maintain those systems that would ensure a business remains operational. A lot of companies employed a laissez-faire approach, not interfering when it came to the budget allocations for purchasing software and hardware required to remain conversant with the smooth and effective operation of all systems. Larger organizations often had in-house IT administrators who worked alongside the employees of companies that provided implementation services. The outsourced agents' role would be simply to ensure the smooth maintenance of major IT-related installations, while the people doing their jobs at the company would discuss all information related to purchased systems with management, albeit in a way that can be understood by the common man.

Today, the majority of small to medium sized businesses operate completely in-house. As for the larger corporations, they are minimizing the volume of outsourced personnel, replacing them with specialized IT employees who work on a permanent basis and fill those positions once held by contractual workers provided by a third party company. The distinguished sorts at the top of the IT totem pole would usually be skilled in business concepts and have a relevant education and experience to go with it, while their underlings would have skills related to software, hardware and/or security of IT infrastructure, but very seldom in all three. There has been a stratospheric rise in recent years in the demand for data security personnel, due to the analogous rise in data tampering cases.

In-house IT is now a staple of even smaller to medium sized businesses. Even larger organizations are limiting outsourced personnel to the bare minimum, preferring to hire specialized permanent employees to fill the positions that were once manned by a labor force provided by another company. IT managers in the upper stratum would most likely have more than just a modicum of knowledge on business - in fact, they would usually have completed a lot of business courses and have similar, relevant experience, while their subordinates would either be gaudy in terms of software, hardware or security skills, but rarely in all three at the same time. With data tampering and theft becoming a major concern in recent years, the job market for data security personnel alone has risen substantially.

The present trend of specialization in the world of IT is bound to continue as we move on forward and anticipate a bright new information technology future in due time. You may look no further than your nearest college and university, as their computer science programs now offer more IT degrees, even emphasizing on particularly obscure or Delphic facets of the trade. The computer age may have led to a generous number of lay-offs and redundancies in the human workforce, but this is such a labyrinthine industry that sooner or later, more new positions may be made available as we move forward and hope for a brighter future.




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