When job openings were few between 2001 and 2004, students and their parents dismissed IT as a viable career. This low followed an inflated high when IT was tackling Y2K compliance, Web development and ERP projects. Both the high and low times were aberrations and unfortunately were back-to-back, exaggerating the misperceptions about IT careers.
Meanwhile, the media magnified the impact of offshore outsourcing, contributing to fears that the difficult IT employment situation would continue. There is growth for IT careers domestically and globally with end user companies and IT vendors. Research that I conducted with a team sponsored by the Society for Information Management (SIM) shows that nontechnology companies plan to increase their internal IT staff and supplement that staff with vendors. Companies using offshore sourcing are more likely do so by engaging a domestic sourcer with an offshore staff. And two new sources of jobs have emerged: Some global IT providers like Infosys Technologies and the Tata Group are hiring U.S. citizens. Meanwhile, there are new jobs within IT organizations due to the need to manage global teams—positions such as relationship managers.
