Windows of opportunity in IT

Canny IT workers will survive the dot.bomb meltdown, reports ESTELLE SARNEY.

Robert Gibberd has managed to keep working throughout the past two years.

So what, you say? When you're a contract software developer in the current climate, that's some success rate.

The dive in the dot.com industry has seen plenty of Gibberd's peers struggle for months without work, or give up on IT completely.

One Wellington recruitment agency has only 23 vacancies on its list compared with 10 times that number before the tech-heavy US sharemarket Nasdaq crashed two years ago.

Consultant Grahame Bilby says the IT employment landscape is the worst he's seen in his 18 years in the industry.

So what is Gibberd's secret? Granted, he has 11 years' experience in IT, something the young bucks don't have when competing for jobs in which experience is often valued above all else.

But even he struggled for work when America shut down post-September 11 last year. He got through, he says, by networking.

Not computers, old contacts. He called up a couple of former employers to see what they had going, and got a few weeks' work to tide him over until he picked up another lengthy contract.

Employers remembered him because he's made a point of broadening his skill base at every job he's had, such as getting involved in software design and business analysis, and taken a can do approach.

"You've got to be flexible, versatile and take ownership of problems. Do whatever it takes to get the project done."

Gibberd's advice is to figure out what you like doing, "because you'll do well at that".

Then exploit your most finely-honed skills, keep up-to-date with training, and take whatever work is offered, if only to get your foot in the door and build up your contact list.

It's his jack-of-all-trades ability that is now most in demand in the IT sector. Graeme Osborne of the Telecommunications Users Association of New Zealand (TUANZ) says the sector has evolved to a stage where systems need to not only be developed, but integrated to work together.

"Everything needs to talk to everything else," says.

"You can either do that at a technical level in the messaging areas, or at the business level in understanding what the processes you're automating are trying to do.

"I think the old term "analyst programmer" is coming back into favour - the ability to analyse a problem then create a technology solution to solve it. That is a valuable skill in the integration world."

Partly driving this evolution is the recently-launched .net software development platform by Microsoft.

Canny IT workers will be swotting to become familiar with it, says Rollo Gillespie of the New Zealand Software Association.

It is "indicative of ordinary platforms becoming integrated with web type and e-commerce type processes".

The takeover of object orientation software from traditional top-down designs has also opened up a huge demand for software testers.

Object orientation - an approach in which a programme is created from a series of items interacting with each other in pre-determined ways - has bigger potential for malfunction. Products using it need exhaustive testing before they can be launched.

"It's almost a new career," says Gillespie. "Big companies have a whole team of testers, many of whom have come from being analysts or programmers. It's a different mindset, going from being a pure innovator to a kind of policeman."

Jim O'Neill of the Information Technology Association says many of the multi-nationals are starting to use New Zealand as a testing ground for new products, and to support their activities in other parts of the world.

"New Zealand is seen as a place where there is strong capability for reasonable rates.

"In fact, for half the price they can test a product before launching it worldwide, in an environment where they can admit failures without it being a huge problem."

O'Neill believes the New Zealand IT industry may be on the cusp of regeneration from within, as many of the country's small and medium businesses are poised to go global.

The push they need may come with the hoped-for passing of the Electronic Transactions Bill.

"The Bill would give electronic transactions, such as contracts and deeds, the same status as traditional ones," O'Neill says.

This would fill a major need for a legal framework around e-business, stimulating its growth and creating a knock-on demand for IT workers to implement it.

Internationally, O'Neill says the current lull must only be temporary as ever-developing technology and demand for better IT solutions will continue to drive the industry forward.

"I've just returned from a world IT conference in Adelaide, and one of the predictions was that the world will need 200 million more IT workers in the next six to eight years.

"This is still a heck of a good industry to get into - and a passport to the world in many respects. Your skills are as relevant in London or New York as they are here."