| October 2006 |
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| In the span of a few short but rewarding years, Mike Jones has seen his IT career take him from a network security analyst with a telecommunications firm on the East Coast to a position as an ethical hacker for a large Japanese corporation based in Dallas.
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“The move has paid off tenfold,” he said.
The labor market for ethical hackers and penetration testers is hot across the country and even more so in Texas, said Jones. As Dallas and its surrounding metro areas continue to grow, companies are seeking out talented IT workers wherever they can find them.
“On an average I get three to four companies a week wanting to have a phone conversation about my skill set,” said Jones, who had previously worked for the Department of Defense as a computer network defense engineer in Norfolk, Virginia.
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| Dallas-area employers expect to hire at a brisk pace during the fourth quarter of 2006. |
| - The quarterly Manpower Employment Outlook Survey |
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And it’s not just ethical hackers that are in demand in the Dallas metro area, said Bob Valecka, branch manager with IT staffing firm Sapphire Technologies. “There are many different IT positions across numerous sectors that need to be filled,” he said. “The market demand is very strong.”
In fact, the IT job market in Dallas has seen steady growth throughout the year. Job listings on Dice went from 2,293 last December to 2,740 in September, a 19% increase. IT staffing consultancy Robert Half Technology also reported that its fourth-quarter IT Hiring Index finds that a net 10% of Dallas CIOs plan to make new hires this quarter.
And the quarterly Manpower Employment Outlook Survey found that Dallas-area employers expect to hire at a brisk pace during the fourth quarter of 2006. From October to December, 37% of the companies interviewed plan to hire more employees, according to Manpower spokesperson Maureen Marshall. “Dallas-area employers have stronger hiring intentions than in the third quarter, when 17% of the companies interviewed intended to add staff,” said Marshall.
Dallas IT professionals reported earning an average yearly income of $71,400, according to a salary survey by Dice. The national average tech salary is $70,300. The most sought-after IT skills right now on Dice include Java, SAP and Oracle.
“Dallas is an interesting market because of the numerous verticals that are expanding at the same time,” said Scot Melland, CEO of Dice. “As in most of the country, we are getting indicators that the solid tech job market in Dallas will continue through at least this year.”
That’s good news for specialists like Jones, who found out all he needed to do was take his experience and shop it around. “I went on Dice a few years back and landed a position as a network security analyst,” Jones said. “For my most recent job, I was directly hired over the phone while I was still living in Virginia.”
If you would like to be interviewed for the next Dice market report, or if you have comments about this article, please contact us at feedback@dice.com.
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