With dubious signs of economic recovery, Bay area tech professionals continue to observe the market with a certain degree of anxiety. While there’s no crystal ball that can guarantee any particular outcome, we recently conducted a bit of our own research to determine where the market is headed. In addition to looking at IT salary trends across the United States, we’ve also identified the technologies that are creating demand for new technical resources.

What we found, generally speaking, may alleviate some of that anxiety, as it appears that the outlook for IT professionals and organizations over the coming months is quite optimistic.

Generally speaking, we see pent-up demand for IT services resurfacing, as previously frozen IT budgets begin to thaw. This is the year for CIOs to look beyond cost-cutting measures and leverage their tech spending for innovation that will position their companies for long-term growth.

Based on the salary information collected from thousands of IT staffing placements managed by the company each year, we’ve found that: 

• High demand for new positions include mobile “app” developers for Google’s Android, Apple’s iPhone and iPad platform and social networking sites such as Facebook.
• Salaries at the highest levels continue to increase. VPs of IT will see salaries spike upwards to 7.1 percent over the next 6-8 months. C-level IT executives enjoyed a similar hike in 2010, but will see a flat change this year.
• Database administrators will experience flat salary growth with an average salary high of $120,000.
• Network administrators and managers will finally see salaries creep back up to pre-recession levels.

Overall, we see a need for companies to align IT with strategic business goals, and shift from managing resources to managing results – especially now that IT-related spending appears to be returning to pre-recession levels. This is further evidenced by Oracle, SAP and Microsoft’s recent moves, which indicate growing recognition that – while on-premise infrastructure still dominates the IT landscape – the future is in the cloud.

Likewise, Bay area tech professionals should recognize that the post-recession IT landscape will be quite different, and update their skills accordingly. As companies begin to modernize their IT departments, demand for “hot” technologies such as Flash, Flex, PHP, Ruby, Amazon Web Services and Salesforce.com is increasing, prompting CIOs to rethink their technology priorities and seek new skill sets for IT hires.

Today, as Fortune 2000 companies compete against savvy start-ups, the need for skilled IT staff is just as crucial as being able to implement the technology itself. In the post-recession IT era, the professionals who will position themselves for success are those who are flexible, adaptive, and attuned to the bottom-line business needs they serve – just like the new technologies they will be called to manage.

Do you agree? Share your POVs. 

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Article first published here: Job Outlook for Bay Area Tech Workers is Optimistic - National Technology Careers | Examiner.com