Organizations Use Flexible IT Talent Pool

By Samuel Greengard

As organizations turn to the cloud and anarray of tools to manage IT resources more effectively, the nature of IT work ischanging. According to an April report from Dice, a growing number of ITspecialists have two bosses: They are working for the firm that employs them?typically a consulting firm or services company?as well as a client.

"Companies are using flexible talentmore frequently," stated Tom Silver, senior vice president, North Americafor Dice, a career site for technology and engineering professionals.

The proof is in the numbers. Technologyconsulting firms added more than 70,000 positions last year, according to datafrom the Bureau of Labor Statistics. These organizations added another 16,000positions in the first quarter of 2012, and there’s no sign of a slowdown. Thebiggest demand for positions is currently in the New York/New Jersey metroarea, Washington D.C./Baltimore, Chicago, Los Angeles and Boston.

The report noted that access to emergingtechnologies is a big draw for tech consultants. Toiling for different clientson different systems is challenging, but it offers engaging work. This alonecan improve job satisfaction levels.

What’s more, IT professionals that can learnand use business language?and understand the underlying concepts?have adistinct advantage. The audience and career opportunities widens for theseindividuals, Dice notes.

Finally, Dice found that a growing volume of ITwork is performed within virtual teams and for multiple customerssimultaneously. Likewise, a growing amount of software development is performedvirtually and on teams.

Software developers with high-demand skill setsearn about twice the salary as the general IT population, partly because of asevere, ongoing shortage of developers. Similarly, consultants earn about$20,000 more than their full-time counterparts.

"Tech professionals have to look out fortheir best interests," Silver concluded. "Considering a flexiblearrangement may be just the ticket."