Get A Raise: 11 Do's And Don'ts For IT Pros

Earlier this year, I wrote an article about how IT unemployment was extremely low, hiring was fast-paced, and yet IT pros weren't seeing much in the way of raises at the beginning of the year. Now, the monthly job data has come out and the economy added 280,000 jobs. Hiring is still strong. Are we going to see raises? John Reed, Senior Executive Director Robert Half Technology, thinks so. Hiring is also continuing to be quite robust, so we should expect a job market that really favors employees.

"We do a salary report every year that is a forecast of future year compensation that is rooted in trends including actual salary trends from the previous year," said Reed in an interview with IWeek, "That survey at the beginning of the year expected IT salaries to go up about 5.7%. What we're seeing right now is that the forecast is pretty spot on." That far outpaces the 2.3% that salaries are growing nationally across all industries.

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(ktsimage/iStockphoto)

"Of course, with any average, that 5.7% means you have some roles that are barely going up, getting just a cost of living raise, and some roles that are going up double digits," Reed said. Some of the hottest jobs according to Reed are in big data and analytics, mobility, mobile apps, security, especially healthcare, financial and retail security, and anything in software development. This matches what other studies we've covered have said about the hot jobs. Reed also suggested that cloud and wireless networking maybe future hot spots.

And it gets better. A Robert Half survey of 2500 CIOs shows 21% are planning to add staff head count (A 3% increase from the first half of the year, and an 8% increase from this same time last year), 68% plan to hire for open positions, only 11% are being force to put hiring on hold. Best yet, only 2% are being asked to reduce head count. This should put some more pressure on the market and allow IT Pros to look for another job that will allow them to increase their salary.

As Reed says, "the demand is increasing faster than the supply of new IT Pros. I've been on college campuses where they say that their entire computer science graduating glass had offers by Christmas before they graduate."

And you don't have to be a superstar to get in on the action. Companies are desperate for qualified candidates. The need for talent is so great that IT departments are rethinking who they are willing to hire. "Companies have begun to, I hesitate to say relax their standards, but to at least adjust their expectations for the skills they can get for the money they had allocated to that role. Companies every day are saying, 'Wow, we wanted a five-year experienced person, but it looks like we'll only get a three-year experienced person.'"

Of course, it isn't just job role that affects your salary. There's also location. Just look at the salary data

Page 2: Should hiring managers be worried?

from Glassdoor regarding software developers in five major metro areas.

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(Image: Glassdoor.com)

Software developers are one of those hot jobs according to Reed, and in San Francisco, you can see that's clearly true. In Chicago, software developers have actually taken a minor pay cut (though I suspect that is mostly a small sample situation). Don't get too disheartened if you are in the wrong geographical area, however, this data is from March and the job market has continued to heat up since then.

[ Want to know where the hot cities are? Read 10 Hot Cities for IT Pros in 2015. ]

Wherever you are, if you are an IT Pro, especially in one of these hot jobs, things are looking up. You should be looking forward to a nice second half of 2015. But if you are a hiring a manager reading this, you might be panicked. Reed has one bit of advice. "The best practice if you are a company trying to maximize your seat space? Being able to tell your story in the marketplace. What makes you a great place to work? What makes you different? In a tough market it can sometimes come down to emotion. If everything else is equal that might make the difference. Have that elevator pitch, that sales pitch, ready to go so they know why they should work for you."