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Cloud The Almighty Buck United States IT

What Cities Want Your IT Skills? 123

Posted by timothy from the telecommuting-only-goes-so-far dept.
itwbennett writes "Are you a SQL expert? Check out apartments in Jacksonville, Florida. Oracle more your speed? Head down to Dallas, Texas. Looking for a job that uses your Windows skills? Send some resumes to Providence, R.I. Blogger Kevin Fogarty looks at the top skills in demand in the fastest-growing US IT job markets and finds that different cities want different kinds of techies." This reminds me of the recent book Who's Your City? Considering how many people of all stripes live in any large city, and how much migration goes on for work, school, or other reason (I'm thinking of a few I've lived in, like Austin, Seattle, and Philadelphia), it amazes me how strong are the differences in social atmosphere between cities.
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What Cities Want Your IT Skills? More

What Cities Want Your IT Skills?

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  • Only skill needed in Washington D.C.... (Score:3)

    by gatkinso ( 15975 ) on Tuesday June 07, 2011 @05:33PM (#36368932)

    ...your security clearance.

    Oh what's that? You've actually touched a keyboard in the past? That's nice, too.

  • So... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by TheRealFixer ( 552803 ) on Tuesday June 07, 2011 @05:36PM (#36368960)
    What I learned from this list, is all anyone cares about is Project Managers. So, who's actually going to do all the real work?

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Offshore labor from the lowest-cost body shop.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by zevans ( 101778 )

        I am currently in project management, moving the virtualisation teams offshore. Fear me.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by spads ( 1095039 )
      Yep, you can tell the recovery is in full swing when helium skills demand is sky-rocketing.

      • Yep, you can tell the recovery is in full swing when helium skills demand is sky-rocketing.

        More likely is that you're nearing peak in the selected region when unessential or even unimportant jobs begin to balloon (and isn't balloon the precursor to burst bubbles?)

    • Everyone is always chomping at the bit to work on something, so you need project managers to make sure that only the right work gets done. If you need a garden shed then don't let them build a skyscraper. Instead direct that extra energy to get some weeds pulled.

    • I bet there's high demand for fast food employees, too. It's just not on this list because that's not "IT".

    • I'm going to guess it's because the list came from Dice.com, and that IT people got pushed into that category as well. Dice.com charges a lot to post a job title, so maybe companies aren't willing to do it except for high-paying jobs.

    • Actually that's a very good question. The ratio of PMs to Devs should be at least 1-to-5 at the lowest level (i.e. 1 team leader per 5 developers) and as one goes up the management chain the ratio between a level and the one below should remain similar.

      For a company to have as many devs as managers the ratio would need to be at least 1-to-2 .

      So, how come the top looked-for professionals in almost all cities are Project Managers?

      The only explanation I can think of is that Developers are listed in a more spec

  • Looks like it's time to get my PMP cert

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by blair1q ( 305137 )

      Good luck. The only certified PMP I know has been unemployed since we fired him a year ago.

      Get some project management experience and then apply for the job.

      • I wasn't aware that project management experience and a PMP cert were mutually exclusive...

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by syntap ( 242090 )

          Lol, not unless you cheated on your PMP exam application form. You have to document years of project management experience, broken down by PMI's definition of project components, as a part of the application. One can lie I supposed, but they randomly audit those applications.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by blair1q ( 305137 )

            I'm laughing. My ass isn't falling off, but it's on the schedule.

            The only certified PMP I know couldn't find MS Project with a map and a computer with only MS Project on the desktop.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by syntap ( 242090 )

              MS Project is a tool one can use, but not the only one. The PMP exam tests knowledge of the Project Management Body of Knowledge, not skills with Microsoft Project. Go to Brainbench or similar for those kinds of certifications.

              • Re: (Score:2)

                by blair1q ( 305137 )

                I wasn't using MS Project as a requirement of the PMP exam. I was using it as a placeholder for the word "ass" as in "find his own ass with both hands". I.e., it didn't matter if he could legitimately claim to have been in a job that had experience in the field, because there was no correlation between his claim and his ability, even after he took the courses and passed the test.

    • First, you have to get your PMP cane and hat.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by sjames ( 1099 )

      They have schools and certs for that? How hard can it be to beat a hoe where the bruises won't show?

  • Stupid article (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Just the fact it lumps together C, C++ and C# in the same category is the fucking proof the author has no clue about software development...

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by blair1q ( 305137 )

      This is almost exactly what I was going to post, except I would have put the "fucking" 4 words to the right.

  • There are lots of cities looking for people of all stripes. Buffalo, NY for instance is looking for IT people of all stripes with a fairly robust number of smaller companies. Look outside of the places you might expect and there may be a surprising amount of opportunity in the second tier cities like Buffalo.

    • There's always work available in undesirable places. The question is whether it's worth the money.

      In my case (not IT), it was - my town is a dump, but I'm earning twice what I would in a nice place, and the cost of living (esp housing) is low.

    • Taxes in Buffalo are fucking insanity. Even if you like the weather, the taxes, utilities, etc. are bullshit.

      Hell, I have a ton of friends in Buffalo, but that's what IM is for. I love to visit and get the only wings worth eating, but then I get to leave and not pay the rapacious income or property tax!

      • It's their Libertarian Repellent Program.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by zevans ( 101778 )

      Ah, that's because you get better throughput from striped employees.

  • Lumping C, C++, C# jobs together seems a bit useless.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gatkinso ( 15975 )

      Well, they all begin with C...

      Seriously, I mostly agree. C and C++ more easily can be lumped together, C# not so much.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by zevans ( 101778 )

        The interesting question is how many of the applicants for the C# roles have any clue about OO.

  • The only IT skill that deserved a link (probably to explain what is it to typical site users) was Linux?
  • Anywhere in NY outside of NYC. I moved from the Mohawk Valley to Rochester just to find any IT job, and now I'm a highly paid consultant at $33k/yr

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by RMingin ( 985478 )
      Not snark: 33k/year is highly paid in rural NY? Is that part time? I make 40K/year in very distant suburbs of PA. That's full time, though.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by avm ( 660 )

        Eek. If that's how IT is I'll keep driving a truck at $55k/yr. I used to live in NY but wanted a change and moved to rural PA.

      • Sarcasm intended... it's full time, 40+ hrs/wk minimum. New York just sucks because of the taxes and the fact the politicians do everything they can to get businesses to leave the state. I've considered hopping the border to PA for more than just the legal fireworks and cheap gas. Also, I wouldn't call Rochester "rural"... it's the second largest metro area in the state after NYC :-p
  • I have been spending the last few months hopping hotels between columbus, cincinnati, and cleveland. There is real growth in this area if you can get in with a good corporation that is *in* with the ohio government and corporate network. The only way to describe myself now is as a total engineering whore. GIS database? Biogas? Solar projects? Urban Streetscapes? Got groundwater contaminated with Fracking Brine? Whatever pays baby. Never really spent any time in ohio before January. It was pretty cool r
  • The city that gets me the job?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by blair1q ( 305137 )

      Pretty much. Or they're supposed to. That's part of what your FICA pays for. Not that they're any good at it.

  • Uhh... "SQL" is a subset of "Oracle" (Score:5, Insightful)

    by AtlantaSteve ( 965777 ) on Tuesday June 07, 2011 @07:05PM (#36369760)
    This summary reminds me of every dumb phone I've ever received from incompetent I.T. recruiters, as they mindlessly read off buzzwords...

    Recruiter: Do you have "JEE"?
    Me: Yeah.

    Recruiter: Do you have "Java"?
    Me: That's included in the previou... oh, nevermind. Yeah.

    Recruiter: Do you have "Oracle"?
    Me: Yeah.

    Recruiter: Do you have "SQL"?
    Me: That's part of...... yeah.

    Recruiter: Do you have "agile"?
    Me: Oh fuck my life...

    • Yeah HR has no clue. Our company has an HR/IT person that's supposed to be up on these things, but she pronounces C# as "sea pound".

      • Most people spend more time on their cell phone than on their monitor, chances are they will say "press the pound key" rather than "press than sharp key".

        • What are you talking about? I'm a developer, and to me it is the Pound Sign. It's only the Sharp Sign if you are a musician.

        • Well, the musical sharp sign is actually different to the hash sign in like in C#. The vertical lines in the sharp sign have a 'negative' slope, from bottom right to top left, /pedantic.

          I refer to # as a hash, a pound is £ but YMMV if you are from the States. But C# is see sharp, doesn't matter what the symbol is, that's what the damn language is called. Calling it see pound out of ignorance is one thing, but insisting on being obtuse is a different thing entirely

          • Actually in the sharp symbol, the vertical lines have infinite slope (they are perfectly vertical). The vertical lines in the hash symbol have positive slope. /pedantic.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        But... Butt... it's See Octothorpe!

      • Instead you expect HR to make a hash of it.

        Translation: to many in the English speaking world "#" is a hash. I've never heard anyone call it "sea hash" though no matter how much of a dope they are.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by syntap ( 242090 )

        It is pronounced "Sea Sharp" and here is a blog posting (not mine) about the history of the name:

        http://jameskovacs.com/2007/09/07/cnet-history-lesson/ [jameskovacs.com]

        "So back to the original question of the origins of C#. The codename of C# was Project Cool, which was rumoured to be a clean-room implementation of Java. This was back in the days when Sun was suing Microsoft over bastardizing the Java language. As I recall, Sun didn’t like the Microsoft-specific extensions in J++, which allowed it to interoperate with

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

          That might be true for why it's officially called C-Sharp, but the meaning of the # comes from C++.

          It's a better C++, so they wanted another ++ on it, so they put ++ below the ++ on C++. So it looked a little like:

          ++
          ++

          which hey, they could shrink to C# (see? it now looks like ++ on top of ++). Stylize it a bit and it looks like a #.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by zevans ( 101778 )

          Yeah, F#, the saddest of all programming languages.

    • Re:Uhh... "SQL" is a subset of "Oracle" (Score:4, Insightful)

      by syntap ( 242090 ) on Wednesday June 08, 2011 @07:10AM (#36373230)

      When I read SQL vs Oracle I take that to mean one has experience in Oracle setup, backup, maintenance, etc. as opposed to being a data miner or analyst. In my experience those are different skill sets that one can specialize in.

      But the recruiters are just going through key terms to check off, and the questions a non-technical recruiter gives to technical people are often quite amusing.

  • Slashdot has categories for everything else. As I write this, there are, at least, two articles that are career related. And why not? Careers are an important of "news for nerds, stuff that matters."

  • It is interesting to see so much Oracle demand, but Oracle encompasses many areas now. The database, financials, etc. At one time if they listed Oracle, it meant they wanted either someone who was good at PL/SQL, maybe Oracle Forms, or as an Oracle DBA. But now that isn't the case any more. For example, around this area (Greater Toronto Area), if they ask about Oracle, they are talking more often than not about Oracle Financial applications. But the ads only list 'Oracle' as a requirement (HR people without

  • Moving to a city with zero income tax and a relatively low cost-of-living, but plenty of stuff to eat, do and see. 20 Schrute bucks if you can guess which city and state ;)

    At this point, I'd need to spend $80-100k per year to pay in sales tax in an average state what I'm paying right now in income tax. Fuck income tax.

  • They actually listed jobs for Detroit? Does anyone still live there? I thought it was the new "Escape from New York."

    • Detroit IT jobs are growing. I know several people (none of them know one-another) who have moved there and are working, all from the Chicago area with the exception of one from Sillicon Valley.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gr8_phk ( 621180 )
      I'm still here. We're on the bleeding edge of vehicle electrification (hybrids electric cars etc...). Qualified engineers (and software people) are not that common. Then there are all the companies that tried to diversify out of automotive and are now becoming more established in other industries without leaving town. Also, witness a resurgence among the hacker/maker crowd in actually making things - you can make anything here and find companies to assemble/manufacture at any scale. BTW when they say "Detro
  • The problem i seem to be having is that whenever someone wants a Java Developer there seems to be a common set of additional requirements along with that(Hibernate, Struts, JBoss, WebSphere, WebLogic) and with C++ there also seems to be a common set of requirements for that too..(ASP.net, C#, IIS, VB.net, Visual Studio 2003,2005,2008, Microsoft SQL Server). Oh yeah and don't forget about MFC...even Microsoft has abandoned it, yet companies still want to use it. I haven't used Visual Studio*.* is years and b
  • Although I live in the region listed as having the lowest salaries for IT, I think it's worth noting that I also live in a state with no income tax and a very appealing income to cost-of-living ratio. I was recently researching a job position in Chicago, and spent some time determining how my salary would need to change in order to maintain the same standard of living I have in east TN. Long story short, I hit the salary ceiling for the job in question before reaching an income offering the comforts I have

  • ...and all the other people who argue that *nix admins are super-rare? Look at those Unix and Linux numbers in the article. Read them and weep.

  • CapTech (my employer) is actively seeking top-tier Java developers, .NET developers, architects, sharepoint experts, etc. We have offices in Richmond VA, Charlotte, Philly, and DC. We only hire the best of the best - if you're qualified, check us out at http://www.captechconsulting.com./ [www.captec...ulting.com] The current job listings are here: http://www.captechconsulting.com/careers/jobs [captechconsulting.com].

    Good luck!

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