My cousin has been asking for some career advice and was thinking of going into the IT field because of the high pay. I know that in some areas of California, the IT people aren't demanding the high salaries that they once were. It seems now that there are so many IT people and not as many government contracts and projects because things that needed done were already done. Friends working for contractors are having difficulty finding jobs that paid as much as their last contracts. Is this happening everywhere? I'm not in the IT field but have many friends who are and from what I hear... this doesn't seem to be the big money maker anymore.|||IT is still going, going and going. Sure in the late 90s up to now a zillion people rushed out and got degrees and certifications. But it became a dime a dozen kind of thing.
The major problem with those who do contract work is in not developing other skills or placing themselves with the right company. A smaller company with just a few contracts will often pay double than a big one. The person who has decent social skills (often lacking in IT), is available for whatever (the exective director needs help with powerpoint) and is doing anything to get out of the IT box) makes the cash.
The person who takes a few classes working toward a project manager certification makes themselves super valuable in many areas. They can be a go between with those who do the work and those who see the big picture.
But all in all it depends where you live. Government contracts? The place to be is in the Washington DC area.|||Your info is correct, but not necessarily for the reasons you state. The main reason is that many IS/IT jobs are being outsourced to places like India where there are a lot of employees with a high level of technical skills who work for lower salaries than US employees do.
The area that is an exception is in networking/micro PC support. Since those clients are located here and require on site service and support, this is an area that cannot easily be outsourced.|||You can make big money, but you have to be in the right area of IT, have years in the industry and also have a master's degree in IT.
Help Desk, which is where most graduates start, pays horrible and it's hard to get out into networking and other areas.|||Depends on what part of the IT field you are talking about. The Business Analysts, project managers, etc really cannot be outsourced/offshored, and the salaries are still pretty good. Code Monkey's on the other hand have been having a tough time, as that stuff is offshored a lot more easily. My advice to him is if he wants to go into IT, there are still a lot of jobs out there, and the salaries can be pretty good- but he needs to learn both technology and business, and be able to have a foot in both areas. That is where you can bring a lot of value, not be offshored, and get a good salary.|||I just received 2 job offers for $100k+ for a sales engineer position. The money is still out there but it will certainly depend on your specialty and your non-technical skills and experience. Highest paid will always be in revenue generating positions (ie, sales, presales). Most industry press is saying there is a measured up-tick in salaries (see infoworld.com, computerworld.com, etc.)
My advice to your cousin is don't choose a career simply because of the expectation of high-pay. If he doesn't enjoy working with technology, he/she probably won't make much money in it.
I agree with the earlier poster who said low level coding (monkey) jobs will continue to be outsourced, you need project management, leadership, sales, people skills etcetera to command the high salaries.
As with any field, you start out low, and as you demonstrate value you see your income go up and up and up.
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