I am an IT Expert, and those two always confound me. Granted, I prefer smaller organizations, as the larger ones tend to be filled with clueless middle management. Which gets me back to the subject.
Why would anyone be paid vast amounts of money to farm out resources to another company? Especially when you are in a large company. Likely, your large company has real-estate and connectivity.
At $100k, you should be an expert on building and managing a 'cloud' internally. I think the issue comes when all the 'required resources' for your 'expert' are added up: MS licenses, VMWare licenses, SAN/NAS systems.. These can all be built in house at a fraction of the cost of outsourcing each part. The problem is the quality of the majority of IT people involved, and the lack of trust management has in those people. That lack of trust leads to even good IT people outsourcing solutions just to be able to point to a vendor for issues - because typically management wants a definitive answer to a problem no matter how much time is wasted on it.
We're not even touching on the security of cloud systems. You accept credit cards? You need to keep emails, spreadsheets, databases, backups, and whatnot containing card data out of that shared cloud (that is, keep it from leaving your controlled environment). Yes, theoretically you can say "Don't store card data", but many times the environment is much more complex than that.
If you want to earn the biggest paychecks in the technology field, what skills are you expected to possess?
According to job site Dice.com, over the last ten years in the United States, tech professionals enjoyed the largest jump in 2012 in relation to salary. But with rising salaries, a number of skills are now in high demand — and a number will net you over $100,000 a year. Average salaries based on location are below:
As a website focused on tech-related jobs, the firm combed through over 83,000 vacancies in conjunction with a survey of 15,000 participants. The resultant report (.pdf, registration required), suggests that these ten skills are some of the most highly sought-after in the industry:
1. Big Data: Worth $113,739, whether Big Data is simply a buzzword for the higher amounts of data we can store and analyze or not, it still appears to be one of the top specializations today’s businesses look for in a job applicant.
2. Azure: Worth $101,237, Microsoft’s Azure cloud is a service which hosts corporate applications. As the cloud’s popularity continues to climb, if you have knowledge in this field, it’s worth mentioning.
3. SaaS: Software-as-a-Service, otherwise known as SaaS, continues to remain a hot commodity. An example of SaaS is Salesforce.com, which allows firms to pay “rent” to use software through online services rather than purchasing outright and being required to install it. Knowledge of these systems could net you $100,971 a year.
4. Change Management: Worth $101,117, we’ve all heard the phrase that “nothing is achieved by standing still in business,” and that goes for modern businesses as global competition continues to climb. Being able to assist with rapid changes and keep operations running smoothly is a good pointer to include on your resume.
5. NoSQL: Worth $113,031, in order to cope with “Big Data,” new, more efficient database systems have been designed — and NoSQL is one of the results. Also known as the cloud database, this system is far more flexible than its predecessor, MySQL.
6. Hadoop: Open-source software that can store and analyze vast amounts of data for little cost, Hadoop is another “Big Data” related skill that business owners like to see. It’s worth $115,062.
7. PMBok: Worth $110,885, this certificate in project management is something many IT project managers are expected to hold — and the paycheck proves its worth.
8. Lean: Worth $103,625, “Lean Software development” is all about minimizing waste, cutting the red tape, and making business processes more efficient and less time-consuming.
9. Weblogic: Worth $102,311, the software — owned by Oracle — is used to run apps written within the Java language. Java security concerns aside, technical ability remains attractive to prospective employers.
10. Data Warehouse: Data Warehouse, a traditional, old-school method of storing corporate data, is fast being trumped by advances in technology and new systems, but is still worth $101,061.
In addition, business intelligence, knowledge in Shell, Java and disaster recovery will also net you over $90k a year.
The technology industry aside, it’s not only your prowess with Twitter or understanding what SEO and tablets are. There are a number of skills which are prized by businesses worldwide, including your time management, involvement in professional conferences and flexibility — and these are only ignored at your peril.
Image credit: Flickr / Dice
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- Working for Apple: Innovation by burnout?
- Google: Keeping staff happy is down to experiments, not just laundry
- Employee outsources own job to read Reddit, earns a fortune
