Back-to-School Debate: IT Degree or Certification?

It’s nearing that time of year again. The air will get crisp, the leaves will turn yellow and the days will be full of anticipation. As you prepare to return to campus, you’re probably more concerned with sharpening your pencils and dusting off your books than brushing up your resume. But isn’t the reason we go to school in the first place to better prepare us for that thing out there called the “real world?”

Taking the time out to map the best course of study will not only maximize your return on investment but will help you lay the groundwork for the career of your dreams. What’s your best move: four-year IT degree or specialized certifications?

“It’s really an apples and oranges kind of discussion,” said John Estes, vice president of strategic alliances at Robert Half Technology, an IT consulting and staffing services company. “What companies tell us all the time is they want people that demonstrate willingness and a track record of lifelong learning.”

A Degree in the Door

At many IT companies, a four-year degree is a prerequisite for a job and could be the deciding factor between getting an interview and getting passed over. “There are some companies out there that, as a condition of employment, won’t hire you unless you do have a college degree. That’s just part of their basic requirements,” Estes said. Many companies are flexible when it comes to the major of the degree, however. Estes said he’s seen hiring managers eagerly set up interviews with candidates who majored in art history, for example. That’s because the degree really signifies broad, basic knowledge and demonstrates your ability to follow through on a project. Just don’t count on your degree to get you promoted or to open the door to additional opportunities. “Many people, when they get out of college [think], ‘Well hey, that’s done.’ They’re done with their education. And in IT, you’re just getting started,” Estes said.

Continued Education With Certification

In addition to showing your employers you’re committed to furthering your education, there’s another reason to get certified: The speed of innovation in technology is so rapid that “by the time you learn a technology, the beta for the new version’s already out,” Estes said.
Thus it’s important to show employers you’re working around the clock to keep your tech skills current.

“Certifications have become more and more en vogue as just one more differentiator for someone,” Estes said. “Because, even if you’re getting a college degree, you’re getting [it] in computer science; you’re not getting [it] in Microsoft Windows Server 2008. The certification will come into play more specifically with what you’re doing.”

Half the battle, however, is knowing when to begin the certification process. As a new grad, you’re not expected to have specialized already, but when is the right time to consider it?
“I would say as soon as possible,” Estes said. “It’s not like they graduate in May and have to start the certification by July, but [they should start] once they get more of an idea of where they are in the organization, truly what they have passion for, what really interests them.

Even if you’re not interested in a hands-on implementation job, you still are likely to get into some type of project management or business analysis role as you progress in the field of IT, and it’s worth getting certified to back up your experience, Estes said.

It’s also entirely possible that, as a recent grad, you’ll start off in one discipline but come to decide you’d like to go in a different direction instead.In that case, you should definitely consider a certification, but know that you’ll need to back it up with real-world application, Estes said.


– Agatha Gilmore, agilmore@certmag.com

Study Finds Pervasive Networking Talent Shortfall in North America

Demand for Networking Professionals to Outstrip Supply through 2011

SAN JOSE, Calif., July 28, 2008 - Cisco, in collaboration with the Cisco Learning Institute, today announced the results of a study on networking labor needs in North America. According to an IDC white paper sponsored by Cisco Learning Institute, "Networking Skills in North America: Trends, Gaps and Strategies," there is a 60,000-person shortfall between the supply of networking talent and the market demand for highly skilled information technology (IT) workers in the workforce today. As the demand grows for IT professionals, who now represent 14 percent of the workforce, this gap is expected to continue through 2011.

IDC also found that shortages in specialty skills areas, such as network security, wireless and voice are particularly troubling. More than 35 percent of the businesses surveyed identified an immediate need for voice specialists, while 19 percent indicated that they have a need for a wireless expert. IDC also estimates that 11 percent of security specialist positions will be unfilled in 2011 because of a lack of skilled professionals, representing a gap of nearly 35,000 positions.
"This white paper confirms what many managers in the workforce are already keenly aware of: There is an acute and growing need for more IT professionals," said Cushing Anderson, IDC analyst. "With more and more businesses moving critical operational functions over to the network, the IT department is assuming a much more strategic role in the organization and needs its infrastructure to be designed, implemented and maintained by highly skilled, highly trained individuals."

Other key findings of the IDC white paper include:

Employers of all sizes and in all industries surveyed indicated that they will expand their skilled networking personnel over the next four years.
The projected supply of skilled networking workers is not expected to keep pace with demand, resulting in an 8 percent gap, or 60,000 full-time skilled workers each year over the next three years.
The emphasis on more specialty skills also implies that the competencies required in networking professionals are evolving in order to support employers' increasing dependence on their networks.

"The IT workforce is changing," said Amy Christen, vice president of corporate affairs and the Cisco® Networking Academy®. "With networks becoming more ubiquitous in business and everyday life, it is essential to raise awareness of the need for IT professionals. Students of all backgrounds need access to the knowledge-based economy, so they can further their educational and occupational goals while keeping America competitive in the global economy."

IDC collected data from 500 telephone interviews with network managers across a wide swath of industries and business types and sizes and correlated that data with projections from a number of sources including the U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.

The report is available at: http://www.ciscolearning.org/learning_initiatives/evaluation.

Computer Jobs Hit Record High

Source: http://www.cioinsight.com/c/a/Workplace/Computer-Jobs-Hit-Record-High/?kc=CIOMINUTE070908CIO1

Computer Jobs Hit Record HighBy Eric Chabrow2008-07-07

Unemployment among computer-related jobs hovers near historic lows as the U.S. information technology workforce tops 4 million for the first time.

The size of the IT workforce in the United States has topped 4 million workers for the first time last quarter, according to CIO Insight’s analysis of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data. And the number of employed IT pros reached 3,956,000 in the second quarter of 2008, also a record high.

The IT unemployment rate inched up one-tenth of a percentage point last quarter to 2.3 percent, but still hovers near historic lows. That’s in contrast to overall unemployment, which last quarter stood at 4.7 percent, more than double the IT jobless rate. (In June, overall unemployment stood at 5.5 percent for the second consecutive month, after shedding 62,000 jobs that month. Comparable numbers aren’t available for computer-related occupations.)
Why would IT employment remain robust as unemployment rises in most other job categories? IT performs a critical role in business productivity, and the efficiencies it brings are crucial for employers looking to trim costs—including payrolls—as fuel and related expenditures soar and the economy and dollar weakens. In addition, companies today cannot operate without functioning IT systems, so certain business technology skills cannot be eliminated if a company wants to remain competitive.

A year earlier, the IT unemployment rate stood at 2.1 percent, with 3,599,000 workers employed in IT and 77,000 jobless and looking for positions in the field, for an IT workforce size of 3,675,000.

With 4,050,000 managers, professionals and other staffers holding or seeking computer-related positions last quarter, the IT workforce has grown by 10.2 percent over the past four quarters.
Another sign of a strong IT economy: the number of workers employed by IT services firms rose by 56,100 this past year to 1,414,400, a 4.1 percent increase, according to last month’s BLS establishment survey of some 160,000 businesses and government agencies covering about 400,000 worksites. The active sample includes about one-third of all nonfarm payroll workers.
The increase in IT services employment reflects the continuing need by companies for outsourcers to manage corporate IT infrastructures as well as provide hard-to-find but needed skills to develop and support new applications and systems.

Not every person employed by IT services firms—officially labeled by the government as computer systems design and related services—is an IT pro, but a majority are. A 2006 government report estimates that 53 percent of IT services firms' workers hold IT jobs such as programmers; software engineers; computer, network systems and data communications analysts; or database, network and systems administrators. Another 3 percent are computer and IS managers. The remaining employees—44 percent of payrolls—encompass non-IT managers and administrative and operational support personnel, including those in finance, human resources and sales.

Besides the establishment survey, the government also queries 60,000 households to determine employment and unemployment in the U.S. For our analysis, we use a BLS quarterly report that aggregates the monthly reports and details employment in hundreds of occupation categories. The government tracks seven major computer-related job categories: computer scientists and systems analysts, computer programmers, computer software engineers, computer support specialists, database administrators, network and computer systems administrators and network systems and data communications specialists plus computer and information systems managers.

CIO Insight analyzes these eight occupation categories to determine current IT employment conditions. Because these IT professions comprises less than 3 percent of the overall workforce, and each occupation category’s size on its own would be statistically unreliable, CIO Insight aggregates the last four quarters to determine each quarter’s workforce, employment and unemployment levels. For example, we added BLS data from the last two quarters of 2007 and the first two quarters of 2008 then divided by four to determine second-quarter 2008 data. Statisticians and economists say aggregating four quarters worth of data makes them more statically reliable than just using one quarter’s worth of data.