Minnesota Headhunter

Most In Demand IT Certifications - March 2013

WantedAnalytics analyzed 800,000+ jobs in March 2013 and came up with a list of the Most In-Demand Certifications for Tech Jobs.

What I really want to know… what is the percentage of jobs asking for them and what is the trend?

Here in Minneapolis I am seeing less requests for certifications. That may be because I am working with more start up and tech small tech companies than I did in the past.

The req’s my colleagues send from large/enterprise companies (to see if I can lend a hand) seem to have fewer of these being asked for than a year ago.

Hmmm…

Here is the list:

1. Project Management Professional (PMP)
2. Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP)
3. Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA)
4. Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE)
5. Cisco Certified Network Professional (CCNP)
6. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA)
7. Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (CCIE)
8. Microsoft Certified IT Professional (MCITP)
9. DoD 8570 Certification
10. Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP)
11. Certified Information Security Manager (CISM)
12. ITIL Foundation certification (v3)
13. Certified Scrum Coach
14. IBM Rational Unified Process Certification (RUP)
15. Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator (MCSA)

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Minnesota IT Jobs Most In Demand By Title

Wanted Analytics used a recent report on cities seeing the most growth in IT jobs, Minneapolis was on the list, and did a little research to see which jobs were most in demand.

There are a few interesting points to note for Minneapolis (sorry St Paul friends, but you know you are included)…

- With Project Manager and Senior Project Manger both on the list we know this is good news for the IT community. This means we have a lot of work going on now and down the road. Good news for all in IT.

- Business Analyst and Senior Business Analyst same as above

- Software Engineer and Web Developer: I am mighty curious about what skill sets are listed with those jobs. it also leads me to believe that my Recruiter and HR friends could do a better job of listing the skill set needed… I wonder how many false positives candidates are seeing in searches. For example, a JavaScript developer is likely clicking on Web Developer and finding PHP jobs. That is a rant for a future blog post.

Here are the IT job titles by rank for Minneapolis, MN:

Study: Best Paying Jobs For Two And Four Year Degrees

Over the next couple of months I am doing a number of presentations with high school seniors and college students who have not yet declared a major.

I am giving them a recruiter perspective on what the job market looks like today, a few years down the road and how they can best prepare themselves.

Two of the most frequently asked questions from the high school kids are, “What jobs pay the most?” and “Do I need to go to college… do I need a four year degree?”

I tell them (in my opinion) money is not everything and that they should be life long learners… those both tend to get “eyes rolling”.

I get where they are coming from… I was the same way at their age.

I do talk about finding something they can be passionate about and how the STEM fields are in high demand.

Do I think they need to further their education? Absolutely and always.

In doing some research I came across this 2013 study from CareerBuilder and Economic Modeling Specialists Intl (EMSI):

Best-Paying Jobs For Two-Year and Four-Year Degrees

From the press release:

Fewer Employers Investing In Continuing Education

Robert Half has a new survey Discontinuing Education that shows fewer employers are reimbursing their employees for continuing education.

The question asked was:

"Does your company reimburse employees for the continuing education units needed to maintain their professional designations, such as the certified public accountant (CPA) or certified management accountant (CMA)?"

The results:

55% of Global Workers Are Considering A Career Change Because Of The Economy

This hit the wire and Internet today: Monster Worldwide Poll Reveals 55 Percent of Global Workers are Considering a Career Change in Response to Economic Climate

Before getting to the statistics I wonder:

- what percentage will actually do something about it?

- how many will actually find a better situation?

To the poll…

International results:

• Yes, I am trying to switch my career: 55%

• Maybe, if I can find a better career: 30%

• No, my career is not impacted by economic troubles: 15%

The numbers were fairly consistent:

• North American regions included US: 56%

• Canada: 55%

• Mexico: 51%

I do like these kinds of polls because over a period of time (ups, downs and trends) one can get a sense of what folks are thinking about.

That only 15% say their career is not impacted by economic troubles leaves me thinking there are a lot of worried people.

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Study: 466000 Apps Jobs Available

I don’t know how accurate this number is but TechNet partnered with Dr Michael Mandel to see what the number of jobs available are today versus the ZERO number in 2007.

Can you say thank you Apple, Google and Facebook among the many?

As usual I do not get stuck on the numbers or what search words were used for the survey. You can click Where The Jobs Are: The App Economy

What I always look for are the trends and no doubt here in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St Paul the high demand (and increasing every day) for mobile developers, app developers, software engineers and web developers who can create code like this is through the roof.

Add on the designer, marketing and support jobs that are created downstream and this 466,000 number seems realistic. It could also be very low.

It for sure confirms the trend.

Commercial Break:

I would be silly if I did not say that should you be reading this and looking for a Minnesota IT job including one creating mobile apps you should contact me. This includes those who may not be looking but just want to talk about salaries, demand, the local tech community, etc

Back to the post…

Here are some nuggets from the study and below is a short clip from CNBC that aired this afternoon:

Survey: Only 8% Of Companies Say IT Graduates Are Ready To Work. Who Is To Blame?

Well this certainly adds fuel to the industry fire that most schools are not turning out IT graduates that are ready for the “real world”.

SHARE, a professional association for IBM users, has some survey results:

Closing the IT Skills Gap: 2011 SHARE Survey for Guiding University & College IT Agendas.

Here are some highlights from the executive summary:

• 25% are concerned about the technical aptitude of job candidates

• 40% are concerned IT hires are not sufficiently prepared to perform jobs within their companies

• 44% say at a minimum there are notable gaps in skills.

• 8% would rate their IT hires as “well-trained, ready to go”

There are more statistics about jobs and skills in demand so be sure to click the link above.

Minneapolis - St Paul Ranks #13 in the U.S. With 98,600 Tech Jobs

TechAmerica Foundation has come out with their Cybercities 2010: The Definitive Analysis of the High-Tech Industry in the Nation’s Top 60 Cities.

Minneapolis - St Paul with 98,600 tech jobs rank #13, here is the Top 10:

• New York
• Washington, DC
• San Jose/Silicon Valley
• Boston
• Dallas – Fort Worth
• Los Angeles
• Chicago
• Seattle
• Philadelphia
• Houston

It is important to note that these are 2009 numbers.

53 of the 60 cities lost jobs in 2009 with Minneapolis - St Paul down 3,800 jobs from 2008.

Some more statistics:

Average salary is $81,600, or 65 percent higher than the average private sector wage

20 Cities With IT Job Growth

It Business Edge has been looking at statistics from Dice.com on the growth of IT jobs posted on the site.

While these cities may not have the most jobs they are experiencing a growing job market which is for me as someone who looks at trends is a handy tool to have.

Click 20 Hot IT Job Markets for the slides and here are the 20 cities listed:

Detroit, MI

Jacksonville, FL

Seattle, WA

Cleveland, OH

Charlotte, NC

Tampa, FL

Houston, TX

Silicon Valley

Raleigh, NC

50 Best Careers of 2011

US News and World Report has this list The 50 Best Careers of 2011 and with a lot of people thinking about their future in the workforce this might be a good place to start.

They have jobs listed by category and the link goes to their write up about each job with lots of good information to be found.

Business Jobs:

• Accountant

• Actuary

• Financial adviser

• Financial analyst

• Logistician

• Meeting planner

• Public relations specialist

• Sales manager

• Training specialist

9 Disappearing Jobs

As the economic times change there are going to be new jobs created and some jobs will slowly shrink away.

That is just reality and people, companies and our education system need to stay ahead of the curve.

CNBC took a look at some of these jobs using Labor Department statistics and posting their finds here -> Disappearing Jobs.

Here are the highlights of the 9 they focused on and below is the video to go along with it. Click Disappearing Jobs to see why these jobs are in decline (efficiencies, outsourcing, etc.):

Reporters and Correspondents

Employed in U.S.: 61,600
Change expected in next decade: -8%
Average salary: $34,850

Insurance Underwriters

Employed in U.S.: 103,000
Change expected in next decade: -4%
Average salary: $56,790

Computer Programmers

Employed in U.S.: 426,700
Change expected in next decade: -3%
Average salary: $69,620

Top 50 IT Certifications And Skills To Have

Almost no day goes by where I am not asked what is the cool thing to be doing in IT, should I get certified and if so in what and what should I be doing for my career in the long term.

I found the following list on ComputerWorld who sourced the Foote Partners IT Skills and Certifications Hot Lists for July 2010.

I think there are some skill sets not listed that should be (maybe they could have just added SAP one time and said all modules) like PHP, Java, .Net, etc but it does also depends on who replied to the survey (how big a company, industries, U.S. or global, etc.)

But this is a good place to start when thinking about what skills one may want to pick up, learn and get better at:

IT Certifications

1. SAS Certified Base Programmer

2. Red Hat Certified Security Specialist

3. CompTIA Security+

4. SAS Certified Advanced Programmer

5. VMware Certified Professional 

6. GIAC Security Essentials Certification

Anecdotal Analysis Of The Minnesota Job Market Q3 And Q4 2010

Over the past six weeks between Recruiter and HR events, meetings with senior management in companies of all sizes and industries, what I hear from job seekers and what I see from job postings here is an anecdotal analysis of the Minnesota job market as we end the 3^rd quarter of 2010, ready???

I don’t have a (definitive) clue.

My Magic 8 Ball has a cracked lense and some moisture has gotten in there making it difficult to see the answer to my (all of our) question.

Yep, that’s what I have come up with.

Hold on here is some information you can use to come up with your opinion and do me a favor, tell me what you are seeing.

Please note that this is not scientific and specific to skill set, industry, education attained or salary range unless otherwise stated. But it does come from enough varied sources that I feel comfortable giving an opinion.

What I know I know:

40% May Do A Job Search This Fall, Time To Start Talking About Retention

Maybe because I hang out with recruiters and HR folks who focus on recruiting I am missing out on the conversation but are there any circles talking about retention?

Not an article here or there but substance. Or a HR event topic?

Try this: you are hiring Software Developers (or accountants, customer service associates, project managers, etc.) so you post jobs on your site, place some ads, engage the referral network (and a number of other tactics) and start looking at companies in your area that you might want to hire from.

Common sense, right?

News flash: other companies doing the same thing.

Are you on their list of companies to recruit from?

So back to retention, what are you doing to keep your people?

Surveys show employee satisfaction is very low and here is the most recent one showing 40% of U.S. workers are thinking about a new job when they get done with the summer vacation season.

Worker Confidence In Minnesota Drops Again And US IT Workers Moody

The October edition of the Hudson Employment Index is out. The national employment index is up after two down months and almost back to the level of a year ago. Although much lower than earlier in the year.

The Minneapolis and St. Paul Index took a dive for the third straight month. The Hudson Employment Index for Minneapolis-St. Paul showed:

• There was a five-point drop to 24 percent in the number of employees who expected their company to hire in the coming months. This factor has been slipping since registering 34 percent in June.
• Concern around job security rose in October, as the number of worker who indicated they were worried about losing their jobs increased two points to 21 percent.
• Compared to September when 11 percent of the work force rated their finances as “excellent,” just 9 percent made that statement in October. That figure was 13 percent as recently as August.
• The number of employees who said their financial situation was improving fell two points to 32 percent.
• Fewer workers were happy with their jobs in October (74 percent) than in September (77 percent).

The IT Index continues its roller coaster ride of one up and then one down month yet my IT friends are still doing much better than their colleagues in other areas. The Hudson Employment Index for IT workers showed:

• After skyrocketing to 80 percent in September, the number of workers saying they are satisfied with their job dropped in October to 74 percent.
• More workers expected their company to add headcount in the coming months (36 percent in October compared to 34 percent in September).  Additionally, there was a three-point drop in the number of workers who expected their company to cut staff (14 percent).
• Still, one in five workers were worried about losing their job, a three-point increase since September.

Technorati Tags: Hudson Employment Index, Minnesota Jobs, IT Jobs

Minnesota A Career, HR, And Recruiting Blog Hotbed

It is interesting how the stereotype of Midwestern values of working hard and not telling others about it holds true much of the time.

   

I had a conversation with a colleague who works at Microsoft and is very familiar with the use of recruiting blogs although he himself does not write one. I told him that Minnesota has 8 or so career related blogs that I am aware of and he was shocked to hear so many.

   

So often our area is looked at as “fly over” country. I am here to dismiss that, at least as far as the blogging goes.

 

In fact, we are working on an “unconference” of our own at the end of June. Looks like we have a cool program developing and we will likely have a well known name as a key note speaker. That is what I have come to learn as a tease, more on the “unconference” next week.

   

So who are the Minnesota bloggers writing about recruiting, being a recruiter, HR related issues, and careers in general?

   

If you know of a blog not on the list please send me an email so it can be added. Here goes:

Steven Rothberg of CollegeRecruiter.com has a group of blogs (eight) that you can find by clicking CollegeRecruiter.com blogs. The RSS Feed is http://www.collegerecruiter.com/weblog/index.rdf

Josh Kahn of Best Buy writes The Sourcing Riff. The RSS Feed is http://thesourcingriff.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

GL Hoffman of JobDig writes What Would Dad Say. The RSS Feed is http://feeds.feedburner.com/Wwds

Toby Dayton of JobDig writes Diggings. The RSS Feed is http://feeds.feedburner.com/Diggings

Derrick Moe of Select Matrix writes The Hire Sense. The RSS Feed is http://feeds.feedburner.com/selectmetrix/gZUw 

HotGigs has three blogs written by various members of their team: StaffingExchange the RSS Feed is http://hotgigs.typepad.com/staffingexchange/index.rdf, HiringExchange the RSS Feed is http://hotgigs.typepad.com/hiringexchange/index.rdf, and ConsultantExchange the RSS Feed is http://hotgigs.typepad.com/consultantexchange/index.rdf

 

Nicole St. Martin of HotGigs www.hotgigs.com writes HR Search Marketing. The RSS Feed is http://feeds.feedburner.com/blogspot/nqpq

   

And of course myself writing this blog MN Headhunter. The RSS Feed is http://feeds.feedburner.com/MNHeadhunter

   

There is another blog that has not been updated in some time, New Workforce – The Weblog of New Equities. The RSS Feed is http://feeds.feedburner.com/NewWorkforce-TheWeblogOfNewEquities .

   

So there you have it.

Minnesota as a thought center on career, recruiting and HR related issues. Other than the concentration of blogs coming out of Microsoft and the Redmond area I am not aware of another part of the country with as many as we do.

Good Reading

Below are articles from recent weeks that I have not yet written about. A few posts in the coming days will be on topics like the job market for IT professionals and information for CIO’s. Until then you should find interesting information in these items:

   

Dealing With Email

-Hoarders vs. deleters, I am both depending on the day. I go through extremes with email much like blog posts. Either the Inbox is empty and everything answered, categorized, and archived or as is today I have 2000+ messages mostly answered I think, a few not open, many needing to be deleted, and a few to be archived.

-Take These Steps to Avoid Spam Purgatory, including 8 simple rules for making sure your message is received.

   

Business And The Use Of Technology

-20 Great Ideas From InformationWeek 500 Companies, there is always a lot of hype around the next tool that will change how we operate. I like to wait and see how someone uses it first. I am rarely an early adopter of the next best thing, my use of this blog for business, marketing and public relations being the exception.

   

   

List

-2006 InformationWeek 500

   

   

IT Hiring

There have been quite a few articles on the tight job market, good for the professional and bad for the employer:

-IT Job Market Looking Good, even those who have been cautiously optimistic are becoming bullish.

-Careers: IT Hiring Still Strong, CIO’s planned in 2006 4^th Quarter to hire 13%, reducing 3%.

-Building the Perfect IT Person, sure would make hiring easier.

-Panel discussion: tech getting easier, employers looking for more than just tech skills.

-Study Shows 95% of IT Pros Happy With Their Jobs, maybe I am reading this wrong but maybe they are happy with their function or what they are working on but less so with their employer.

-Three Experts' Tips for Hiring, Retaining IT Staffs, nothing earth shattering here but worth reading.

IT Salaries Are On The Way Up, 2.8% is not a significant increase but at least its in the right direction.

Older Workers More Loyal to Employers, I thought being loyal had gone out the door.

   

   

Outsourcing And Offshoring

-Outsourcing: India Skills Gap Widens, apparently India is not able to produce enough qualified talent and are now increasing training efforts and looking to recruit from abroad.

-In India, even Google finds job recruiting tough, between having the necessary skills and the competition of those that are skilled, even Google has a hard time in India.

-Indian IT recruiting goes global, Tata Consulting Services will double the number of non-Indian workers. Infosys Technologies is hiring grads form foreign universities, training them in India, and send them back home to work.

Insourcing: Is IT Heading Home?, certainly an interesting shift in favor of the in house staff.

   

   

US Versus The World

-U.S. Education, Competitive Edge Not Adding Up, hopefully the new funds for science and math will help.

   

   

For The CIO’s

-Six Rules for Great IT Project Success, going old school by using Einstein and Pareto.

-Just How Important Is IT Anyway?, and the debate goes on.

-Sink or swim: 10 steps to rescue a foundering project, I like the first one, “Stop the Project”.

-The Team at the Top, a look into the building of an IT team.

   

   

Online Social Networks

-Social Networks: Execs Use Them Too, not just for the recruiters and kids.

-Web, Wikis: Models For Business Software, Panelists Say, Wikis and an ant colony.

   

   

Web 2.0

-Web 2.0 venture capital increasing, but real success hard to find, maybe this space is not evolved enough yet to realize its money making potential.

-Bubble 2.0?, glass half full or half empty? The previous article talkes about little cash going into Web 2.0. This article talks about it pouring. This does feel like 2000.

   

   

Thoughts On Business In Silicon Valley

Can anything good come from outside the Valley?, do they drink a special kind of Kool-Aid out there?

   

   

Future Of The Web

-Warning over 'broken up' internet, a UK perspective on the issues facing the Internet.

   

   

Impact Of US Elections On Tech Industry

-Few tech changes if Democrats control Congress, written right before the election.

-New Congress Likely To Support Net Neutrality, good news if you want neutrality.

-What the Democrats' win means for tech, including net neutrality and digital copyright.

   

   

IT Certifications

-Another Nail in the IT Certification Coffin, I tend to agree that they are not what they used to be.

Minneapolis And St. Paul Job And Pay Growth, More Good News For IT

I had a client ask me to dig up some statistics on job growth and average salaries for information technology professionals. The Minnesota Department Employment and Economic Development has this web site High Growth/High Pay Occupations with up to date (2006) median annual salaries ranked by job growth.

   

Occupation, Estimated 2002 Employment, 2002-2012 Net Growth, 2006 Median Annual Salary:

   

Total, All Occupations 1,721,521 +14.9% $37,192.70

1) Postsecondary Teachers, All Other 15,106 +50.6% $50,848.60

2) Network Systems and Data Communications Analysts   3,409 +50.3% $72,013.07

3) Computer Software Engineers, Systems Software   4,363 +47.4% $81,079.74

4) Computer Software Engineers, Applications   9,685 +41.4% $78,328.28

5) Database Administrators   1,904 +41.3%  $69,949.47

6) Network and Computer Systems Administrators   3,693 +36.9% $63,797.75

9) Computer Systems Analysts   8,317 +35.0% $69,785.99

11) Computer and Information Systems Managers   5,646 +33.9% $104,755.69

14) Computer Specialists, All Other 8,433 +32.1% $65,572.43

17) Computer Support Specialists   9,180 +30.7% $45,720.97

   

Hmm, seems to me this would be a good time to be a techie in the Twin Cities.

$100,000 Jobs, Where To Find Them And What Does It Buy

CNNMoney.com with Pay differences: Same job, 10 different cities and Where the (best) 6-figure jobs are. This is very interesting to me following my trip to San Francisco. Although I had not been there before I had done quite a bit of recruiting there from 2002-2004.

   

I know the statistics about the cost of living adjustment from Minneapolis to the Bay Area but now having experienced it, oh my. Of course the thing that shocked me the most was the price of housing but that’s a post for another day.

   

Definitely worth reading if you are thinking of relocating or if like me you are recruiting in other parts of the country and candidates may be relocating.

   

Always looking for the local angle here it is:

We asked job listing sites 6FigureJobs.com and The Ladders.com to provide us with a snapshot of where they have had the greatest number of listings for six-figure jobs in the past two months.

   

Predictably, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. were in the top 10. But there were also a relatively high number of such jobs in Chicago, Atlanta, Seattle, Cleveland, Denver, Philadelphia, Milwaukee, Houston, Dallas, Minneapolis and Charlotte, NC.

It should not shock anyone that I still believe that when you compare the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul with other areas of the country that this is one of the best places to be.

   

Cold weather included.

Promising Days Ahead For Minnesota College Grads

The St. Cloud State University Career Services Center has issued a report MN College Job Outlook 2007 showing a good outlook on the local job and salary prospects for the Class of 2007.

   

The report is good news and I believe the market is definitely going in the right direction but I am a little cautious on the sample of companies. I would expect companies that were hiring at a job fair in 2006 and likely attending in 2007 to be hiring. So maybe the results are a little skewed but I think overall they are close to.

   

Besides the positive  job market outlook the results show that salaries may be increasing. The flip side is that the respondents suggested that grads may want to tone down their expectations.

   

Let me give the message they want to say, Do Not Be Greedy!!!