CompTIA Survey Reveals Contented IT Workers

Once upon a time, the makers of Carnation evaporated milk claimed that it was "twice as rich as ordinary milk" because it came from "contented cows." If that's a fairly standard correlation, then perhaps employers and customers are getting service twice as effective as ordinary service from the IT professionals of today.

That's because today's IT professionals are more contented than ever before — or at least more contented than they were two years ago — according to new findings released last week by IT industry association CompTIA. If you work in IT, and you aren't happy with your job, then you're something of an outlier.

CompTIA's findings come from a survey of more than 800 working IT professionals. The results of the survey were compiled and set forth under the heading Evaluating IT Workforce Needs. The survey was conducted earlier this year in June.

There are a couple of key findings that indicate overall contentedness among IT professionals. Nearly 80 percent of those surveyed are generally satisfied with their jobs. Additionally, 73 percent of those surveyed derive a sense of personal accomplishment from their jobs, while 71 percent feel their talents are being put to good use.

Those figure are generally improved over similar findings gleaned in 2015. In particular, the 79 percent of tech professionals who expressed general satisfaction with their IT employment is an improvement of six percent over the comparable statistic from 2015.

The outlook is not all sunshine and roses, of course, with the perceived cloud of rapidly advancing automation and robotics technology darkening the day of some tech workers. One in four of those surveyed worry that their skills may become obsolete before they are able to retire.

There's also strong concern among many that they are not being given the resources they need to perform effectively in their jobs. And a notable contingent feel that they lack adequate work-life balance, with the scales tilted too far in favor of time spent at the office or on the job.

Additional results of the survey are available to any interested parties in a two-page PDF document that can be downloaded free of charge from the Evaluating IT Workforce Needs home page. The study was supported by the newly rebranded and relaunched CompTIA Association of IT Professionals (AITP).