Article by:

Do you think the IT industry has bottomed out? Not so… IT is merely morphing. If you enjoyed the excitement of the 90s boom in technology, hold on to ride the next wave. Chances are you won't be doing programming. Offshore outsourcing is a reality. The Information Technology Association of America 2003 Workforce Survey confirms that 22 percent of the large IT company respondents are already sending jobs overseas. Top on the list is programming. So…what will you be doing instead?

Dr. Christopher Carothers, the leader of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institutes IT Master's networking concentration, says you might find yourself involved in "quantum cryptography." RPI students in two other concentrations, Software Design and Database Systems Design, believe the answer could be social gaming and database or text mining. Michael Miller, editor of PC Magazine returned to his alma mater last fall to give the Rensselaer community a preview of the top 20 promising technologies of tomorrow. Quantum Cryptography, Social Gaming, and Text Mining all made the list, along with Biosensors, Self-Driving Cars, and E-bombs. See the July 2003 issue of PC Magazine for all 20: www.pcmag.com. These fields are your new gateways to future opportunities.

The ITAA Workforce Survey confirms what we all know: IT jobs are not as easy to come by as they used to be. Yet, that is a different reality from the fact that an estimated 500,000 IT jobs need to be filled in the coming year. So, what can you do now to prepare yourself for the new morph of IT? Get as much real-life, hands-on experience as you can. ITAA reports "As the job market has softened, employers are more apt to seek education and specific experience."

Look for schools that offer opportunities for you to get both. In many courses, like Rensselaer's IT Master's Capstone for example, students work in teams on projects for real corporations with project management deadlines and deliverables. That makes for some nice text on your resume! Co-op assignments and internships as well as on-campus work assignments can also give you the experience component and an edge in the job market.

In addition to hands-on experience, Information Week's April 2003 issue listed eight concrete suggestions to raise your resume to the top of the pile. These are: understand the business issues in IT; stay absolutely current in the field; have a specialty in one area but understand a number of areas; look at one of the biggest projected employers- government; think team work/project management; be open to other cultures; and stay flexible about your moves-both geographic and in different job categories. The article states: "You're a business person first, an IT specialist second." So, start by giving some thought to each one of these suggestions and finding a concrete way to act on them.

Geographically, where are your best IT job prospects? IT Careers Managing Editor, Lisa Vaas, used data from the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, tech job board listings, industry earnings, and interviews with hiring managers to come up with three regions: New York's Capital Region, Northern Virginia, and Southern California. In Troy, New York, one new company, Evident Technologies, Inc. served as her example of why the Capital Region made the list. Evident Technologies is already the world leader in manufacturing semiconductor nanocrystals, focusing on biotechnology applications. They expect to hire 200 new employees over the next five years-all IT specialists in a variety of fields, from data mining to networking. In Northern Virginia, the unfilled IT jobs are primarily with government contractors like SAIC, BAE Systems, and CACI International Inc. Southern California is seeing its IT metamorphosis in distribution and management companies, along with a robust group of biomedical companies.

If you are interested in riding this next wave, start by checking out the interdisciplinary graduate programs and certificates in IT. (Hint: there are also related degrees with titles like information science or systems engineering, informatics, and technology management!)

Gail Gere is the Director of Program Development for B.S. and M.S. Programs in Information Technology at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.