We have been in the recruitment industry long enough to know that there is a certain amount of flexibility in IT that other sectors are not fortunate enough to have.
There is always a market for IT support analysts, software developers, network engineers, systems specialists and the like. In fact, having IT skills is in many ways like having a passport: they can potentially get you employment with a wide range of companies in many countries.
This is a source of comfort to many in these troubled times, and probably accounts for the following statistic: in a recent national survey of IT workers, 90% said they were thinking about looking for a new job this year. More than 50% of these put it down to finding better career opportunities, and 45 percent said it was in order to earn more money.
Nearly two thirds of techies plan to further develop their skills through a new job, and more than half believed that a career change would help to improve their work/life balance.
Almost half of those surveyed believed that the economic downturn would have some negative impact on the IT sector, but that it would not be affected as much as other industries.
Of the 11% of respondents who did not plan to look for a new job this year, 46% said this was because they were happy with their current job, and 36% thought that the current economic climate would prevent them from doing so.
However, despite the findings presented above, we don’t believe that we’re going to see a stampede in the Channel Islands. There has been lot of investment in IT in recent years, and it is true that by its very nature, through automating tasks, new technology reduces headcount, which every employer is currently looking at. But what we're seeing at the moment is a steady market both locally and internationally.
For advice about IT careers in any part of the world, please contact us today.