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Which industries are hiring?

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by Member 33207995

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With so much attention focused on the businesses that have been hit during the current recession, there has been little discussion on the industries that are actually hiring consultants. For example, one of our members recently suggested that the U.S. government will soon begin hiring consultants for wireless, security, and training projects. Do you agree? Where else is there a demand for consultants? Tell us, and your fellow consultants, where they should look for their next contract.
Paul Baldwin
Editor, IT Consultant Republic
TechRepublic

14 replies

by prefbid ii

I don't know about anyone else, but the healthcare industry seems to be adding staff. We have a new wave of government regulation (HIPAA) that is likely to increase the deand for IT for the next 18 months or so.

by tom

I don't think it's any particular vertical market that's needing consultants right now, it's more of horizontal market.

Let me explain...

Healthcare is a vertical market. The needs from one healthcare client to another are pretty much the same, within reason.

Security is a horizontal market. It covers the security needs for clients in manufacturing, financial, healthcare, etc. Each of these may have their own specific needs such as HIPAA, but security in itself would be considered a horizontal market.

Over the last few months I've seen more security projects than anything. However, these haven't necessarily appeared on the contractor's sites (www.dice.com, www.computerjobs.com, etc.) but I've noticed from my own marketing, thatclients have been "secretly" looking for security consultants.

Other "hot" markets are:
Migration from Novell to Microsoft or Linux. I've seen an increase in the number of clients looking to abandon Novell. Clients are moving from GroupWise toExchange 2000. I didn't see much movement to Exchange 5.5, but I do see a lot to Exchange 2000.

Implementing Linux. I've seen an increase in the number of clients willing to take a serious look at Linux. Either as an addition to W2K or to replaceMicrosoft at the server level.

Migrating desktops to Windows 2000. This has been going on for over a year now. But clients are looking at automated ways of doing it this time. Previous desktop movements have allowed "manual" methods. I think clients feel now is the time to put some automation strategies together because this constant updating of the desktop OS is not going to die any time soon.

Thomas J. Raef
20 year computer consulting veteran and author of
"Consultant's Guide to Becoming Gainfully Self-Employed"
www.consultantsadvocate.com

by prefbid ii

It may be that for some companies the only part of HIPAA that concerns them is the security aspects, but HIPAA covers a lot more than security. It also impacts vendor-to-vendor communication, data storage, and patient access to data. Some of theseare easy to solve issues and some are going to be hard. I can't tell how many will impact the consultant market, but they will all increase the overall demand for IT labor.

by great.plains.pgm

I had a one year contract that was cut by 9 months because the government couldn't get the requirements figured out, and extended the deadline. The company I was working for handles pharmaceutical claims, and probably will wait till the last minuteto restaff....and then, it will probably use H-1B contractors to cut cost.

by prefbid ii

The government is allowing companies to request a 1 year extension if they find that they can not meet the current deadline. Only foolish companies wait till the last minute to start getting their stuff together. However, if they do, then the increase in work will just occur 9 months from now rather than immediately.

by natliz2

I believe that small to medium sizes companies will be hiring consultants with a "complete solution package", because the economic times are bad and resources are strictly budgeted, the consultant has to adjust to the budget, no frills, and try to accomodate the customer. It is difficult for a small company or medium size to hire and IT manager a Network engineer etc... they need percentages of those positions,(20% it manager etc.) and a consultant full pachage will satisfy that need.
NATLIZ

by xpertdragon

I agree with you 100%. Small to Medium Size companies are the ones that have suffered for the most part, but have been able to control their losses as far as lay offs go. These small to medium size companies have been abandoned in a sense by big ITgiants and large corporation. These smaller companies relied on the bigger ones for both outsourcingm, and a sense of expertise in the industry. Now, these small to mid size companies are fed up, they realize that it is more beneficial in the longrun to have your IT needs satisfied from within, and we just may expect a hiring frenzy in the IT field from the smaller guys.

Paul M. Chavez

by admin

from a Health Care organization. They are unhappy about their current inhouse IT (3 person staff) and want to outsource. They specifically want to know if I can do this. Basically, I am saying "No" because I can't do it without quitting my day job and taking on other people to be responsible for.
Otherwise, my regular clientle for consulting consists of small businesses -mostly independant, medical related offices.

I have 2 friends in this area who partnered and went out on their own consulting full time less than a year ago. They are looking at hiring their first person because there is more business than they can handle too. Talking with them, we agree that what is in demand is real help (from the clients perspective) that is affordable and that many are unhappy with people they have worked with. When other people consulting around here start talking about the lack of work, I tend to just nod a lot. People that fill their customers needs and have the acumen and sensitivity to understand this are not looking for more work in this area.

So, the area I see isn't a particular business sector -it's a particular skill set that is related to, but not intrinsically an IT skill set.

by srk

With years of experience in the Financial market for managing enterprise data and presently into telecom, I chanced on a small project in the educational market which snowballed with repeat reference business. I started the search for a synergy tie up with major players for Consultant Solutions and found that Education market was just not existence as a reckon also.

There sure is a massive untapped oppurtunity for various Academic campus across the globe. To give the scope of what we are offering , just visit us at http://shoonyainc.net/IRP.html

Best wishes

I am

RK Dhanvada
srk@vsnl.com

by dgrey

Petro Chemical Industries are experiencing some movement on upgrading recently. With the up surge in revenues recently there has been a call for upgrading and new projects to a small degree. Specialists in this industries'areas will have some callfor their services.

by mcseguy

I tend to agree with what the survey found, in that the defense dept. will have more need for technical "whizzes" , especially with the concer of cyber-terrorism and overall growth of homeland security. Although the defense budget has not been publicized in regards to the IT sector, I feel there will be increased concern and funds for such departments. As for the financial sector, it will run a close second due to the deadline of June4.

by mcseguy

I tend to agree with what the survey found, in that the defense dept. will have more need for technical "whizzes" , especially with the concern of cyber-terrorism and overall growth of homeland security. Although the defense budget has not been publicized in regards to the IT sector, I feel there will be increased concern and funds for such departments. As for the financial sector, it will run a close second due to the deadline of June4.

by bizwriter

don't forget that many of the companies that have gone through layoffs still have work to do and in some cases not enough people to get it done.

As a technical writer/editor, my peers were among the first to go and the easiest to cut (anybody can write or edit -- just ask the engineering manager who wants to give some editing work to a developer because after all, it's just grunt work and users will never know the difference between a user's guide editted by a real editor and one editted bysomeone whose first language isn't English!) Now that things are quieting down (economically speaking), they are discovering that they need people to do the work, do it right and do it fast. That is the perfect situation for a consultant to step in and save the day!

Some companies are also looking for new markets or more cost-effective ways to improve customer/employee satisfaction which can also open up opportunities -- like the one I just accepted translating internal job procedures for an international chip manufacturer.

by dghaus

The Canadian government claims they want to be the most wired country in the world by 2004. If this is the case job opportunities should be aplenty in all areas of IT.

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