January 30, 2012
By Kristyn Schiavone, Tribune Media Services, January 30, 2012
Michael Dsupin, CEO of the information technology staffing firm Talener, has a problem that seems unusual in this highly technological age: he can't find enough skilled IT professionals.
"Every industry talks about lack of quality, but we're also seeing a quantity problem," Dsupin says.
After the tech bubble burst in the early 2000s, computer science and engineering graduates had difficulty getting jobs, and by 2007 the field had lost about half its students, Dsupin says. This year there will be a small increase, with about 15,000 new graduates, but it's still nowhere near the peak of 24,000 graduates the industry reached in 2001.
Today, the IT industry has more than enough positions to fill, and many of them are lucrative and rewarding. Salary levels for certain positions can reach $100,000 for just one to three years of experience, Dsupin says. The job in highest demand, he says, is web and mobile development.
