IT skills shortage

Morba · 18 Nov 2006 at 12:09

regulus said:
If I may ask. What is the average salary in IT these days?

IT is a broad area.
Simple phone monkeys can be earning basic wage, consultants and contractors can be earning £1k+ a day.

there are a few websites that compare salaries for specific knowledge.

M0KUJ1N · 18 Nov 2006 at 12:22

Gilly said:
Me too. It'd be to tell me about themselves, as Uni degrees are unrequired in my area of business.

Well-spotted on the grammatical error in my previous post, good to see someone is more awake than me on this Saturday morning!

Anyway, back OT, unrequired!=undesirable. Imo, only requirements that are directly required by the job should be considered, anything additional is a bonus.

Me applying degree snobbery in the interview process is equally as wrong as you applying reverse-snobbery against people with degrees. For a post that does not need a degree, the person who will do the best job for the company and fits in best with existing company culture should be the one who gets that post. If they have a degree, big deal, it may be a bonus for the stats of our HR bean-counter up the stairs. If they don't have a degree so what, if they can do the job better than any of the other candidates.

Joe42 · 18 Nov 2006 at 12:53

Gilly said:
I've been interviewing for the past 2 weeks or so for four roles on my team. OK, so the positions are all internal so I have an idea of who they are from their current colleagues but the same still applies. I'd look as favourably on someone with good GCSEs, A-Levels and industry recognised qualifications as anyone with a degree. In some cases - especially if the person had the experience and knowledge to back it up in interview - I'd view the person with the industry recognised qualifications above the person with the degree.

As mentioned previously though it all depends on the area of IT you wish to persue. I'd prefer to get myself onto a 1st line desk and slog my way through than attend Uni for a waste of a few years and thats what I did. Thats only been possible because I went through the support route and thats where I wanted to go though.

What i've been told is that the degree becomes a requirement for the higher paid jobs, and if you work up instead you hit a ceiling at about 20k where you can't go any higher without the degree. Is this the case in your experience?

FordPrefect · 18 Nov 2006 at 13:01

I think there is a shortage of skills at high levels in specific areas. There is a big difference from being able to implement and troubleshoot kit in simple setups and then troubleshoot and implement more complex setups. I think there are plenty of low level 1st line and 2nd line support people but the higher up you go the harder it is to find people with the relevant skills and experience.

Training people up is all well and good but most of the time when recruiting you need someone ASAP who has the relevant skills and experience to be able to produce results from day 1. Also it doesnt always follow that someone who is a good 1st or 2nd line engineer can make the jump to the higher levels.

Haircut · 18 Nov 2006 at 13:06

Joe42 said:
What i've been told is that the degree becomes a requirement for the higher paid jobs, and if you work up instead you hit a ceiling at about 20k where you can't go any higher without the degree. Is this the case in your experience?

Depends, a guy I know dropped out of uni after his first year and got a job contracting (this was back in the boom time when you could do that with no experience)

Nevertheless he's now a software architect with a basic salary of £65K (package is worth > £90K)

Richdog · 18 Nov 2006 at 13:19

Joe42 said:
What i've been told is that the degree becomes a requirement for the higher paid jobs, and if you work up instead you hit a ceiling at about 20k where you can't go any higher without the degree. Is this the case in your experience?

Of course that's not true... a ceiling at 20k wthout a degree? Nonsense, as long as you are qualified and experienced enough and show yourself as capable you wll get the job whether you have a degree or not. There's a few people where I work that have no degree and yet are on 30k+, one who is only 29.

afraser2k · 18 Nov 2006 at 13:55

Morba said:
IT is a broad area.
Simple phone monkeys can be earning basic wage, consultants and contractors can be earning £1k+ a day.

there are a few websites that compare salaries for specific knowledge.

Also depends on where you live or part of the industry you work. Public sector used to pay a lot less than normal industry and used to have a few perks like better pensions/earlier retirement.

Morba · 18 Nov 2006 at 20:07

afraser2k said:
Also depends on where you live or part of the industry you work. Public sector used to pay a lot less than normal industry and used to have a few perks like better pensions/earlier retirement.

good point, i think i read that Finance companies pay more than most other industries.

Gilly · 18 Nov 2006 at 20:22

M0KUJ1N said:
Well-spotted on the grammatical error in my previous post, good to see someone is more awake than me on this Saturday morning!

Anyway, back OT, unrequired!=undesirable. Imo, only requirements that are directly required by the job should be considered, anything additional is a bonus.

Me applying degree snobbery in the interview process is equally as wrong as you applying reverse-snobbery against people with degrees. For a post that does not need a degree, the person who will do the best job for the company and fits in best with existing company culture should be the one who gets that post. If they have a degree, big deal, it may be a bonus for the stats of our HR bean-counter up the stairs. If they don't have a degree so what, if they can do the job better than any of the other candidates.

Not really. I take into account the fact that they have a degree but its not as relevant as other qualifications.

Joe42 said:
What i've been told is that the degree becomes a requirement for the higher paid jobs, and if you work up instead you hit a ceiling at about 20k where you can't go any higher without the degree. Is this the case in your experience?

At 26 I've cleared 20k for the last 5 years IIRC

Morba · 18 Nov 2006 at 20:34

Gilly said:
Not really. I take into account the fact that they have a degree but its not as relevant as other qualifications.
At 26 I've cleared 20k for the last 5 years IIRC

cleared as in salary + bonus + overtime + package, or just salary?

(not that im saying its not possible as clearly it is, i have no degree yet earn plenty over 20k in IT)

Gilly · 18 Nov 2006 at 20:36

5 years ago my salary wouldn't have. I was only 21

afraser2k · 18 Nov 2006 at 20:40

What kind of experience/skill set did you have to make that kind of money if you don't mind me asking?

I've been pretty lazy when it came to my career as there was a set progression for when my old boss left. Now that he has and I'm a senior technician I'm in a situation now where it feels like a dead-end job so looking to move on in a year or two once I get "senior" experience. Went the college route myself and learnt a lot of hands-on PC support and programming but not much server-side stuff.

Gilly · 18 Nov 2006 at 20:47

When I was 18 I worked for a year on a helpdesk supporting schools and technical colleges. I was doing 1st/2nd line stuff there and only had an Advanced GNVQ in IT. Following that I worked as a desk-based engineer supporting mostly Dell and Compaq servers but with desktops, laptops and printers thrown in too.

After that I was paid to switch to Manchester to work from Wakefield and every year since then I've seen more than 20k

I'd started on 8.5k :/

Morba · 18 Nov 2006 at 21:20

afraser2k said:
What kind of experience/skill set did you have to make that kind of money if you don't mind me asking?

skill set - something that companies need
experience - as much as possible