Employment research exec lists hot IT jobs

No matter what profession you follow, every worker wants to have a resume that screams, "Hire me!" There's generally high demand in the IT employment world — if you have solid computing skills, whether you're a programmer, security know-it-all, database expert, or networking wizard, then you probably have a lot of options. Hiring ebb and flow takes its toll even in the IT sector, however, and as some fields heat up, others inevitably cool down.

Hot on the heels of Labor Day, ZDNet posted an IT hiring trends feature on Tuesday that points to some hot-button job titles which will doubtless be of interest to certified professionals. The piece was written by Mary Shacklett, president of technology research firm Transworld Data, and includes some details of the overall IT employment picture. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported at the end of July, for example, that unemployment is shrinking, while tech jobs are growing. (GoCertify's Ed Tittel parsed the July BLS report at greater length in a recent post.) And tech hiring firm Dice found more than 47,000 full-time IT jobs available in August.

Some IT pros, on the other hand, have greater reason for optimism than others. The explosion in development and deployment of apps, for use both inside and outside the companies that produce them, has cranked up the demand for software engineers. (Shacklett differentiates here between engineers and programmers, specifying a demand for skills that extend beyond coding.) Firms are also competing to hire network analysts and engineers, especially those who have a good grasp of wirless network technologies.

Database analysts and architects are likewise in demand, as companies deal with increasingly large caches of mission-critical data. And while the demand for software programmers may have ebbed slightly, there's a healthy interest in top-flight web programmers, especially those fluent in such technologies as NET, Java, PHP, MySQL and others.

Shacklett identifies a handful of other hot job titles, but also pins down two "hidden gems." There's a very specific need for programmers who understand mainframe computers, the large and powerful data processing units that play a vital role in everything from finance to telecom. The average age of mainframe systems specialists hovers dangerously close to 60 these days, and universities in recent years have consistently beefed up course offerings to train the next generation of behind-the-scenes systems operators.

You don't have to be insanely proficient at any one thing, on the other hand, to line up for the other hidden gem. Shacklett says small and some mid-size businesses increasingly need all-around IT whizzes who are comfortable addressing a variety of needs. There's plenty of work for the Jack-of-All-Trades generalist who's willing to be "the computer guy," handling everything from the company network to the phone system.