InformationWeek

Fannie Mae isn't lowering its hiring or salary plans just yet. This year, it will boost by 10% its approximately 1,500-person IT staff, which represents about a third of the company's total head count. "We're close to a full staff, but we're always looking for good people," St. John says. The Federal Reserve's recent interest-rate cuts have triggered lower interest rates for loans, sparking more business for Fannie Mae. "Our volumes have tripled since the rates have dropped," she says.

As for compensation packages, a year ago the company offered stock options to the best IT performers to stay competitive. It will continue to do so despite the collapses within the dot-com world. St. John also created two new career tracks for IT talent so they can get raises and responsibility without going into management. One is principal technologist for those with strong, specific skills in an important technology, such as E-commerce or large-scale data warehouses; twenty-five of these positions have been filled so far. The other track is technology director--people in charge of large-scale initiatives. Five directors have been appointed.

Not all IT professionals have lost their swagger. Even among those in the most vulnerable industry sectors, including computer technology, IT feels somewhat insulated. Among industries, managers salaries at computer software and hardware manufacturers were among the highest of those surveyed (see chart, below).

"There's no question that some key sectors, but particularly the technology sector, have been hit by the downturn of the economy," says Meta Group analyst and program director Maria Schafer. "But the Old Economy is still chugging along. There are also still a lot of businesses getting into E-business. They need the talent. And so, overall the demand for IT skills is still very strong."

Compaq informed employees in March and again last week of plans to consolidate some divisions and lay off thousands of workers. But that doesn't worry Beth Mills. As a Washington consultant in Compaq's federal IT services division, Mills is helping a federal agency migrate from Windows NT to Windows 2000. "On the services side, Compaq isn't cutting back," Mills says. "Lots of services organizations can't find enough qualified people with the right skills. There's a huge learning curve for Windows 2000."

In fact, Mills has a pretty good deal with Compaq. When she was hired earlier this year, Mills negotiated an $80,000 salary for a 35-hour workweek, as well as annual vacation time that exceeds the company standard of two weeks, allowing her to spend more time with her child. Mills' pay is a healthy clip above the median base salary of $68,000 for IT workers in the Baltimore-Washington area, according to the survey. But the median pay reflects the salaries of people with skill sets of all levels, including those with less experience than Mills. In addition to Windows 2000 knowledge, she has experience with Windows Active Directory, Exchange, and public key infrastructure, the security standard.

Managers of enterprise application integration projects topped the list as the highest-paid professionals by function, followed closely by application development and security.

Nevertheless, Mills isn't blind to what's going on around her. She suspects that if the economy remains sluggish, it may limit her ability to negotiate good raises, which for her have ranged between 7% and 10% in recent years. Still, Compaq's willingness to be flexible with her work hours is what counts most. "Money is nice, but flexibility is more important," she says.

Most IT workers agree. A flexible work schedule ranks second only to job challenge or responsibilities in what matters most to IT workers, according to the InformationWeek Research survey.

Consulting work continues to pay extremely well and is the highest paid vertical-market segment for managers. Business-consulting companies were also among those giving their IT staff and managers the biggest raises--about 12%. Only hospitality and travel gave IT managers bigger raises, nearly 15%.