IBM to Obama: $30B in Stimulus Will Create 90,000 Tech-Tied Jobs

IBM CEO Samuel Palmisano advised Obama aides last month that $30 billion in government investments to expand broadband access, digitize healthcare records and enhance the electrical grid could create more than 900,000 U.S. jobs.

According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, IBM research shows:

Investing $10 billion in broadband networks to provide high-speed Internet access to areas that lack it, would create 498,000 new jobs in a year. Investing $10 billion in computerizing health-care records and other health-related IT would create 212,000 jobs. The government investment would come on top of $30 billion in public and private investment in health-care IT already slated for this year

IBM also calculated that $10 billion invested in equipment that allows electric utilities to monitor their transmission infrastructure more closely would create 239,000 jobs. Such technology can tell operators when transformers are failing or wires are overloaded.

If Not an IT Career, Then What?

Here's a book for professionals tired of working in IT or can't find a good job as an information technologist.

Janice Weinberg's “Debugging Your Information Technology Career” (Elegant Fix Press) identifies 20 other careers that use skills IT professionals offers. While most of them aren't usually thought of as computer jobs, a press release states, computer proficiency is a key qualification for success in each. Among her suggestions:

An architect's knowledge of best practices in systems design would be a strong asset in a technology due diligence position.

A business analyst who guided logistics staff in defining their IT requirements would be a credible candidate for a strategic alliance management position at a company marketing logistics software.

A network operations center manager who upgraded a change-management function would bring a valuable customer's perspective to a role as a change-management software product manager.

A network security administrator could become a broker or underwriter of cyberliability insurance.

A software engineer who supported customer relationship management applications could parlay that experience into a position selling CRM software.

A premise of the book, or at least the press release touting it, is that IT jobs are vanishing in this recession. No doubt, many IT pros find themselves out of work. But government data consistently shows that employment opportunities are greater in IT than in nearly any other occupation class.

If anything, what this book demonstrates is how closely linked IT is with the functioning of business. IT skills are business skills, and this know-how—whether in an IT or some other corporate job—will be needed more than ever.

On Job Interview, IT Professionals Advised to Show Strong Suit

Want to capture that next IT job? Many CIOs suggest they’re impressed by those wearing formal business suits to job interviews.

According to a survey conducted by the tech employment service Robert Half Technology, more than one-third of 1,400+ American CIOs say a business suit is the most appropriate interview attire. About one-quarter of the respondents cited khakis and a collared shirt as proper apparel as well as tailored separates. Says Robert Half Technology executive director Katherine Spencer Lee:

“Employers want to see that job candidates have made the effort to dress appropriately for the work environment. While a suit isn’t the best choice for every interview, it’s better to err on the side of overdressing versus appearing too casual.”

The CIOs were asked, What is the most appropriate interview attire for someone interviewing for an IT job with your company? Their responses:

Formal business suit, 35%

Khakis,collared shirt, 26%

Tailored separates, 24%

Jeans, polo shirt, 9%

Other, 6%

Lee suggests that when in doubt, candidates should ask an insider who works at the company to get advice on the employer’s work style and preferred interview attire. If you don't know anyone, just ask the person who will interview you.

Real-Life Lesson for IT Job Seekers

Apapito Soto’s story is a lesson that could benefit many IT pros seeking employment. As told in The Wall Street Journal on Monday:

Many workers, especially those out of work, turn to temporary-help firms for jobs. Unlike the past, staffing companies no longer are depositories for dead-end jobs, as they offer higher-paying positions.

"Temporary" is a relative term in staffing. In 2001, Agapito Soto, an Irvine, Calif., information-technology consultant, signed on with Sapphire Technologies, a temp agency that specializes in high-tech work. The agency placed the 55-year-old. Soto in a full-time slot with the Orange County sheriff's department, which continues to this day. Soto says he has notched on-the-job learning in his seven years at the sheriff's department.

He has even passed up permanent jobs that would match his salary because he figures those positions would be vulnerable to cuts that don't affect temps. "With the current climate, employers are looking at spending less," he says.

Follow the Money to Companies Hiring Technology Professionals

Want to know where to find jobs in this recession? Look at the firms where venture capitalists are investing.

Venture capitalist Trevor Loy invests in technology companies that haven’t stopped growing, according to a story posted on the McClatchy news service website. And, he says, these firms haven’t stopped hiring. "The end markets they serve are not shrinking," Loy said of some of the more than two-dozen companies he funds. According to the story:

They're part of a select swath of the U.S. economy that's been protected—so far—from the bad economic weather. They're schools and health-care providers, information-technology firms and green energy start-ups and other firms that, while not thriving, are at least still hiring.

Indeed, healthcare concerns and companies creating solutions to reduce carbon emissions are among ventures most in need of IT know-how.

Finance Dreamer Eyes IT Career

On college campuses across the country, students who once thought of a career on Wall Street, now find themselves looking elsewhere as the financial meltdown vanquishes their dreams of making it big in the canyons of Manhattan.

One of the beneficiaries of those shattered dreams could be the IT field. Take, for instance, Vinay Lekharaju who entered college with hopes of becoming an investment banker but now is studying for a master in engineering management at Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering. Here's what Lekharaju told Jin Noh, writing for The Duke Chronicle:

"I actually applied to quite a few companies and only got a few calls back. The economy makes it difficult and I don't see it improving. Friends of mine are more or less apprehensive to go into investment banking while many are being laid off."

Lekharaju said he'll seek a job in IT consulting once he graduates, but might resurrect his dream to pursue a finance career when the economy improves.

Citing stats from BusinessWeek, the article pointed out that fewer than 3% of the students in Duke's master in engineering management class of 2009 intend to seek finance jobs vs. 17% from the class of 2009.

A few years back, I interviewed then Pratt School Dean Kristina Johnson, now provost at Johns Hopkins University, about getting more students to major in technology fields, including engineering. Click here to watch the video interview of Johnson.

Survey: Vast Majority of UK IT Pros Would Relocate Abroad for Job

Eight in 10 British IT professionals say they'd happily relocate to a foreign country if a job or work opportunity arose, according to a survey conducted by a British online IT job service.

More than one-quarter of those surveyed said they'd move abroad for career development reasons. Only 16% cited current economic conditions as a reason to do so. Despite the credit crunch, more than one-third of techies believed that the UK would continue to see the biggest growth in demand for IT professionals, according to The IT Job Board.

Other key findings:

• 62% search for IT jobs both nationally and internationally.

• 36% see language barriers as being the main challenge when moving to a foreign country.

• 71% would also relocate to a different UK city for work.

The Most Secure Job in IT

Cyberattackers have been a thorn for computer users for years, but attacks are growing exponentially, and they're becoming more costly to consumers and business, even threatening our country's infrastructure. Unfortunately, the computer security industry is having a hard time keeping the bad guys at bay.

An article Thieves Winning Online War published in The New York Times on Saturday under contends Internet security is broken, and nobody seems to know how to fix it.

One of the warriors against these bad buys is Phillip Porras, a program director and computer security expert at SRI International, a contract research institute that's collecting more than 10,000 unique samples of malware daily from around the global. Here's what Porras told The Times about his job:

“To me it feels like job security.”

The Labor Department expects a big jump in jobs related to computer security in the next decade. Here's what the department's current Occupational Handbook says about computer security specialists:

Demand for computer security specialists will grow as businesses and government continue to invest heavily in “cybersecurity,” protecting vital computer networks and electronic infrastructures from attack. The information security field is expected to generate many new system administrator jobs over the next decade as firms across all industries place a high priority on safeguarding their data and systems.

The government doesn't specifically track IT security occupations, but classifies them under the category computer support specialists and systems Administrators. That category is projected to grow between 2006 and 2016 by 18%, much faster than most other professions.

Who Is an IT Pro?

Are there 4 million IT professionals or more than 10 million in the United States? Both. It just depends who's defining an IT pro.

In an article I wrote four years ago titled The New Math: Seeking The IT Workforce's True Size, I noted the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Information Technology Association of America used different methods to define an IT worker. At the time, the government pegged IT employment at 3.3 million and the ITAA at 10.4 million. The numbers may have changed a bit, but the rationale in determing those stats haven't.

Here's what I wrote in 2004, which holds true today:

The answer can be found at Liquid Pictures, a four-employee company that creates computer-generated animations. Owner Zachary Rymland turns to senior animator Piyatida Shiozaki when he needs extra aesthetics in an animation. Shiozaki, with a master's degree in computer arts, doesn't think of herself as a technologist. Senior animator Jeffrey Reynolds is the resident techie, a math whiz who customizes and automates processes to generate a complex animation.

Are they artists or IT pros? The Labor Department likely says they're artists; ITAA, technology workers. Shiozaki and Reynolds are the 7.2 million gap.

But Shiozaki and Reynolds reflect what's truly happening in today's workforce. A convergence in the workplace is occurring where more and more jobs require a higher level of tech- and business-savvy.