[September 13, 2017] |
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TEKsystems Survey Pinpoints Most Important Factors Related to Best IT Jobs for Crop of Upcoming New Graduates
With the start of the new school year for students expecting to graduate
in 2017/2018 from universities and colleges nationwide, TEKsystems (News - Alert)®,
a leading provider of IT
staffing solutions and IT
services, today issued the results of a survey revealing the factors
related to the top IT jobs for upcoming graduates along with the key
elements hiring managers look at when considering entry-level
candidates. The survey was conducted in March 2017 and the results
represent the views of more than 250 IT hiring managers across the
United States. View infographic here.
This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here:
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170913005838/en/
Best IT Jobs for Entry Level Job Seekers (Graphic: Business Wire)
Key highlights from the survey include:
Developer Roles Provide the Best Job Opportunities
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Q: What skill sets provide the greatest opportunity for recent
college graduates searching for entry-level positions and how
difficult are they to source? Select all skill sets that apply.
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Job
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Percentage
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Ranked by Difficulty in
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Sourcing as of Q2 2017
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Applications developer
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60%
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1*
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Technical support
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54%
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4
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Business/systems analyst
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52%
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8
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Web developer
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48%
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NA
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Network/systems administrator
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39%
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11
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Network/systems engineer
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37%
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NA
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Database administrator
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35%
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10
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Quality assurance engineer
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27%
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14
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*Includes Programmers and developers (i.e., Java, .NET (News - Alert), web, etc.)
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TEKsystems' Take: IT hiring managers recommend applications
developer roles as the best opportunity for new college graduates.
This experience provides a foundation for future growth in a more
specialized area of software development. Coincidentally, developer
roles are consistently difficult roles to fill-a result of the
sky-high demand for qualified tech professionals across the industry.
Technical support, business analysts and web developers are also
mentioned as good opportunities for new graduates with generalized
degrees. Digital transformation will continue to create significant
opportunity for new IT professionals as organizations take on more and
larger IT projects. These initiatives will require a small number of
highly skilled and experienced individuals to design, but a larger
number of junior or entry-level workers to implement. Hiring managers
should note that those skill sets representing the most opportunity
for recent college graduates are not necessarily difficult to source.
Network/systems admins, database admins, and quality assurance
engineers are, relatively speaking, easier to source than some of the
other skill sets identified as representing the most opportunity for
recent graduates.
Generalized IT Degrees Preferred Over Specialized Degrees
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Q: For most entry-level positions, which type of degree is most
applicable for recent graduates? Select only one.
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Type of Degree
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Percentage
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Generalized/traditional degrees (e.g., CIS, computer science,
computing, software engineering
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83%
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Specialized/new age degrees (e.g., data analysis, human-computer
interaction, AI, game development
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17%
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Q: Which of the following programming languages are most
difficult to find? [select the top-3 languages that are most
difficult to find]
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Languages
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Ranked Most Difficult to Least Difficult
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.Net
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1
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SQL
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2
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Python
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3
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Java
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4
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JavaScript
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5
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*Perl, C++, C# and Ruby on Rails all tied for 6th.
**Scala and PHP tied for 9th.
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TEKsystems' Take: The vast majority of hiring managers, more
than 8 in 10, say a generalized or more traditional technology degree
is more applicable for new college graduates. Hiring managers often
prefer several years of experience when filling specialized roles,
while certain organizations internally develop individuals for
specialized roles requiring unique skill sets. The distribution of
programming languages seems to indicate that to advance as a
programmer or developer, new IT pros would do well to develop fluency
over a range of languages as opposed to specializing in just one.
Work Experience and Internships Dominate as Top Factors for Hiring
Over GPA and School Attended
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Q: When considering a recent graduate for a position, how
important are the following factors? Stack rank from most important
to least important.
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Rank
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Factor
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Percentage (ranked 1 or 2)
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1
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Work-related internship/experience
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86%
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2
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Referrals/references
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50%
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3
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GPA
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24%
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4
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School attended
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18%
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5
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Extracurricular activities
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11%
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6
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ROTC or Military Reserve Program
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10%
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TEKsystems' Take: When considering recent college graduates for
entry-level positions, IT hiring managers are loud and clear that
work-related internships or experience is the most important factor,
ranking it twice as high as the next factor, referrals and references.
This is significant as it has implications for both hiring managers
seeking candidates, as well as students themselves: experience trumps
potential, and work-related internships and experience, along with
referrals and references, are better predictors of performance for
first-time graduates than either GPA or the particular school
attended-especially in the fast-paced, ever-evolving industry of
technology. It could also speak to an increased focus on finding the
right cultural fit versus technical fit, where the decisive criteria
in competing candidates with less proven backgrounds would be
practical experience and an ability to assimilate into an existing
team. A more "build versus buy" approach.
Salary Still Tops, but Workplace Flexibility More Important Than
Healthcare
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Q: How much do you expect FULL TIME & CONTINGENT IT hiring to
change (as of Q2 2017)?
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Change
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Full Time
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Contingent
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Increase
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35%
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31%
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Stay the Same
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49%
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54%
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Decrease
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16%
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15%
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Q: In terms of a hiring package, which factors do you consider
most attractive to a recent college graduate when offering them a
job?
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Rank
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Package
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Percentage (ranked 1 or 2)
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1
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Salary
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85%
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2
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Workplace flexibility (i.e., ability to telecommute, flexible work
schedule
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68%
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3
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Healthcare
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26%
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4
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Tuition reimbursement (on-going education)
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16%
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5
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Retirement/401k
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5%
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TEKsystems' Take: Not surprisingly, IT hiring managers say
salary is the most attractive aspect of a hiring package for recent
college graduates. Hiring managers are well aligned with the desires
of IT candidates when thinking about the most attractive pieces of the
hiring package puzzle, ranking workplace flexibility as the second
highest factor-even above healthcare. Although salary is important to
job seekers, and no company can compete for IT talent with salary
bands below market value, an increasing trend among new job seekers in
IT talent is workplace flexibility. It allows them the freedom to
structure their own working hours, which in turn, can offer a better
work-life balance, time to pursue further training, or accomplish
other goals. Hiring managers who wrap flexibility into their employee
value proposition should stand out in the competitive IT job market.
"Those graduates entering the IT market in the next several months are
in the enviable position of seeing high demand for their skills,
depending on their specific qualifications," said TEKsystems Research
Manager Jason Hayman. "In fact, our research shows that truly
exceptional candidates stand a good chance of being offered a 10 percent
premium above what has been budgeted for a specific position. However,
it is still true that they are most likely going to be offered the types
of junior/entry level roles where they're primarily being asked to
maintain, update or fix currently deployed software programs.
Organizations are showing a heavy preference for generalized degrees
over specialized, where in the future they can develop the skill set of
a capable individual to fit their own specialized requirements. Newly
graduated job seekers may be surprised that it's not about the name
recognition of an expensive school or a cutting edge degree that gets
you in the door, it's more about experience, skill sets, programming
languages, and making yourself a valuable member of whatever team or
project you get the opportunity to work on."
TEKsystems' Jason Hayman is available for additional commentary. For
more information about the survey, or to schedule an interview, please
contact Nathan Bowen at [email protected].
About TEKsystems®
People are at the heart of every successful business initiative. At
TEKsystems, an Allegis Group company, we understand people. Every year
we deploy more than 80,000 IT professionals at 6,000 client sites across
North America, Europe and Asia. Our deep insights into IT human capital
management enable us to help our clients achieve their business
goals-while optimizing their IT workforce strategies. We provide IT
staffing solutions, IT talent management expertise and IT services to
help our clients plan, build and run their critical business
initiatives. Through our range of quality-focused delivery models, we
meet our clients where they are, and take them where they want to go,
the way they want to get there.
TEKsystems. Our people make IT possible.
View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170913005838/en/
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