Skilled IT professionals remain sought after despite the tough job market
IT professionals remain in demand
IT professionals remain in demand
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IT professionals remain in demand
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Messugga
Honorary Master
Tell that to the people here in Bloemfontein. I'm interested in getting into the financial sector (Granted, I don't have financial experience) and I'm yet to get so much as a reply to any of my queries.
Moederloos
Honorary Master
huh? what does this mean.
Are there less professionals available, or less jobs. Not quite clear.
Neither side surprises me. Engineers emigrate. And the shortage of jobs would be due to the finishing up of infrastructure projects and stadium building.
Other Pineapple Smurf
Honorary Master
Good point.
drukkie
Expert Member
An interesting fact that emerged from the latest report is that while the Information Technology sector experienced a moderate increase in labour demand, the Engineering sector saw a remarkable decline of 30.25%.
Decline of jobs
nictron
Senior Member
New engineers can't emigrate. Thats where you have it wrong, the shortage is related to recession.. why upskill a new graduate when you pick up a recently retrenched contractor or job hopping experienced engineer? The decline is also in the number of graduate training programs except by a few like eskom etc. The Telecoms ones are tied to busaries though. For engineers I think the main problem is getting experience when you cant find a suitable engineer-in-training program.(hence most engineering graduates i know end up doing programing development work or working for banks, insurance, investment companies where the latter threee pay very nicely)
The upswing is VERY noticable for IT and development work. i've been approached a LOT since dec till now for positions albeit not the ones i'm interested in.(why would i want to quit my current to get paid less as a temp call center support person? why? <-- the recruiter was very enthusiastic even though you need just matric and a basic technical diploma/a+ :$ guess i need to adjust my cv)
The upswing is VERY noticable for IT and development work. i've been approached a LOT since dec till now for positions albeit not the ones i'm interested in.(why would i want to quit my current to get paid less as a temp call center support person? why? <-- the recruiter was very enthusiastic even though you need just matric and a basic technical diploma/a+ :$ guess i need to adjust my cv)
The public sector is really bad, jobs of temporary and contractors are let go off. Jobs posts are frozen, capital is 0, and most likely fixed to that amount for 3 years. Cape Town cannot even afford to pay the interest of the new stadium. The BRT for Cape Town ran over 2 Billion in budget. 
I just hope they finish the bridges for once.
I just hope they finish the bridges for once.
monkeeh
Well-Known Member
I suppose if companies paid developers decently there would be more job uptake.
Messugga
Honorary Master
A friend of mine walked into a R30k per month salary, straight out of university. I would hardly call that a small salary.
You just have to realize that currently we are in a recession and companies aren't exactly overflowing with money, so unless you HAVE to update/upgrade your IT systems, you count your coins and thus IT companies have less work.
There's still a fair amount of headhunting and whatnot going on though.
medraught
Well-Known Member
Salaries are company dependant, I'm afraid. And often very dependant on the company size and which city you're in. And the bigger the company, the more the salaries are artificially inflated in an attempt to retain their staff from defecting to the competition or in the case of the IT services industry, your suppliers/vendors. Also, having lived and worked in Durban, Cape Town and now in JHB, I can, with some degree of confidence, say that JHB pays more.
From what I've seen so far, salaries are at two opposite extremes. You'll get desktop techies earning a pittance in some places and in others, competing with network and security engineers. And those same security engineers could be earning the absolute minimum to "average" while at a small firm or service provider, then move to a larger firm or to a reseller/vendor and get a 3x or 4x boost in salary.
It's not consistent. And it's not fair. But we have to deal with it or move to greener pastures if and when the opportunity arises. Or stick it out and hope that you're eventually recognized for the value to bring to your companies.
My 2 cents (based on the last 14 years I've worked in IT as a developer, designer, engineer, administrator, etc)
From what I've seen so far, salaries are at two opposite extremes. You'll get desktop techies earning a pittance in some places and in others, competing with network and security engineers. And those same security engineers could be earning the absolute minimum to "average" while at a small firm or service provider, then move to a larger firm or to a reseller/vendor and get a 3x or 4x boost in salary.
It's not consistent. And it's not fair. But we have to deal with it or move to greener pastures if and when the opportunity arises. Or stick it out and hope that you're eventually recognized for the value to bring to your companies.
My 2 cents (based on the last 14 years I've worked in IT as a developer, designer, engineer, administrator, etc)