|
RHI study shows strong
demand for network professionals
Jul 18, 2001
Jason Hiner MCSE,
CCNA
© 2001 TechRepublic, Inc.
CIOs across the United States have declared their need for networking
professionals. In RHI Consulting’s
semiannual “Hot Jobs Report,” 24 percent of CIOs rated
networking as the hottest IT specialty in their corporate IT
departments (see Figure A). Internet/intranet development, which had
overtaken networking in the last study, fell back to second place with an 18
percent vote, and Help desk/end user support came in third with a 15 percent
vote.
These numbers certainly reflect the shifting priorities during this
consolidation period in the high-tech industry as well as the waning interest in
dot-com initiatives. As we’ll see, RHI Consulting has offered some further
insights into the meaning of these numbers.
| Figure A |
 |
A closer look at the data
“Factors fueling demand for those skilled in designing and
managing internal and external networks include an increasingly
mobile workforce and an emphasis on safeguarding corporate systems,”
said Katherine Spencer Lee, RHI Consulting’s executive director.
In other words, because network administrators are typically
responsible for the infrastructure supporting hot technologies such
as WANs, distributed computing, and network security, the current
emphasis on these technologies is helping to drive the demand for
network professionals. The networking positions cited as areas of
greatest need by CIOs were network administrators, network
architects, and network analysts.
A specialty sometimes related to networking, database
management, also saw a healthy rise in demand from 9 percent in the
last survey (the first one in which the DBM category was included)
to 12 percent in the current survey. “There is growing demand for
individuals accomplished in Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server
administration to translate the massive amounts of data collected by
today’s e-commerce applications into business intelligence that will
aid decision-makers throughout the company,” Lee said.
Overall, the results of the survey, conducted in the second
quarter of 2000, definitely show some fluctuations since the last
survey taken six months ago and earlier studies. Figure B
compares the results of the last four RHI surveys.
| Figure B |
 |
The study also took into account differences among the various
regions of the United States and among different industries (see
Figure C). The West South Central (31 percent) and Mid-Atlantic (29
percent) regions showed the strongest demand for network
professionals. In eight of the nine regions, networking was the
outright leader in demand among all IT specialties. In the West
North Central region, networking was tied with both
Internet/intranet development and help desk/end user support at 19
percent of the votes. Among the industries, Transportation (29
percent) and professional services (27 percent) exhibited the
greatest need for net workers.
| Figure C |
 |
Logistics of the study
RHI Consulting, a services firm for placing IT professionals,
created the methodology for this scientific survey and commissioned
an independent research firm to carry it out. The survey polled a
random sample of CIOs from U.S. companies with at least 100
employees.
Become Network Expert ,
Get MCSE, CCNA and CCNP in 45 Days with Guaranteed Satisfaction and
Certification. Join Vibrant Bootcamp.
|
|
Testimonials |
If you're
serious about getting certified, this is the place to
go. Definitely worth their competitive price. Excellent
instructors, making it possible for anyone to learn no
matter what your level of experience or knowledge.
Michael Doty
|
 |
|
No Prestudy