IT Job Research Articles

A cluster approach to matching the competences of data specialists with skills in demand on the labour market

This paper addresses the challenge of aligning the competences of data specialists with skills in demand on the labour market in the rapidly evolving field of data science. Using an open dataset of 3,744 IT job postings, the study applies K-means clustering to identify key skill groupings for data specialist positions. The optimal number of clusters is determined using the elbow method, resulting in four distinct clusters: Data Analyst & Engineer, Data Platform Engineer, Data Science & Engineering Specialist, and Cloud Data Engineer. The research methodology employs unsupervised learning techniques, specifically K-means clustering, to analyze the distribution of skills across job postings. The clusters are visualized using t-distributed Stochastic Neighbor Embedding (t-SNE), providing insights into the relationships between different skill sets. The study reveals that job titles do not always unambiguously define the required skills, emphasizing the importance of focusing on specific skill sets rather than job titles alone. To bridge the gap between specific subject competences academic programs and industry requirements, the paper proposes a novel approach for comparing the proportion of skills in job clusters with the proportion of professional competencies in academic programs. This method is demonstrated using the Information Systems and Technologies Master's program at Kherson State University as a case study. The chi-square test is applied to confirm the statistical similarity between the skill structure of the Data Science & Engineering Specialist cluster and the competency structure of the academic program. The findings highlight the importance of continuous adaptation of profile of academic program to meet evolving industry needs. The proposed approach provides a data-driven framework for universities to align their programs with labor market demands, potentially improving graduate employability in the data science field. The study also underscores the need for personalized learning paths that can be tailored to individual career goals and skill gaps. Future research directions include the development of an artificial intelligence system to form individualized educational trajectories based on the skills required for specific job clusters. This could further enhance the alignment between education and industry needs, preparing students more effectively for the dynamic data science job market.

Future of IT Jobs in the Era of Artificial Intelligence

The rapid advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies is set to reshape IT jobs in the coming years. This paper investigates AI's evolving role in the sector and its implications for employment trends, drawing from a review of secondary sources including various research journal papers, and reports of White House, World Economic Forum, and McKinsey, etc. It analyses the current AI applications in IT, focusing on areas where automation and augmentation will likely impact traditional roles. The study views AI as complementing rather than replacing human labour, foreseeing potential for new job creation and transformations in existing positions, especially in cybersecurity, software development, and IT infrastructure management. Policy recommendations and strategic initiatives from various stakeholders are examined to maximize AI benefits while addressing employment risks. Insights from government and industry reports stress the need for workforce preparation through reskilling and upskilling. Ethical considerations around AI deployment in IT underscore responsible innovation and inclusive growth. Ultimately, this paper aims to offer a comprehensive overview of AI's future impact on IT jobs, providing insights for policymakers, industry leaders, and educators navigating the evolving digital economy. By synthesizing diverse perspectives and empirical evidence, it informs decision-making for a sustainable and equitable future of work in IT.

Enhanced Empowering Futures through Online Job Portal

This research aims to develop a job web portal for the students in the Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology. The main aims of this portal are to connect with industries and act as an online recruitment tool to support students in finding the right IT job after graduation. Furthermore, this system enhances the understanding of the concept and importance of the job portal for students in universities. A survey was conducted to identify the students’ problems with the existing portal of the faculty and to gather their requirements, which can be incorporated into the portal to be developed.

One Size Does Not Fit All: Global Perspectives on IT Worker Turnover

Although the IT workforce has become increasingly global, much of the research on issues related to IT workers published in leading academic journals is conducted in the U.S. However, the majority of the world does not share the same context as the U.S. Despite that, comparative studies exploring country differences rarely demonstrate how and why these differences occur on a global scale. By relying on a dataset based on a survey of more than 10 000 IT workers in 37 countries, we employed the decision tree technique to build an accurate model of IT job turnover in the U.S. We then applied this model to 36 countries to test whether it is more accurate in countries that are similar to the U.S. in terms of their geographical proximity to the U.S. and the proximity of their cultural, political, and labor market contexts. The findings demonstrate that while the U.S. model of IT job turnover is not necessarily less accurate for countries that are geographically farther from the U.S., it is less applicable in the countries with cultural, political, and labor market conditions different from those of the U.S. Thus, global IT managers are recommended to interpret the U.S.-centric literature with caution.

Analysis of Job Ads to Understand the IT Trend in Southeast Asia

In recent decades, Southeast Asian countries, including Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore, have witnessed substantial economic growth and enhancements in the quality of life. These nations have emerged as high-income economies and significant contributors to the global economic landscape. This study endeavors to illuminate the contemporary landscape of highly demanded occupations and technological proficiencies within Southeast Asian nations, with a specific focus on Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Singapore. A comprehensive dataset comprising 137,434 job postings spanning from January 2023 to June 2023 underwent analysis, employing diverse natural language processing (NLP) techniques.
 The analysis unveiled that the most sought-after job roles included engineering positions, developers, software engineers, and analysts. Technical competencies in software development, data analysis, database management, network administration, and cloud computing exhibited strong demand. The research also elucidated robust interconnections among domains such as software development, computer science, data analysis, coding, and information technology. These findings offer valuable insights for job seekers, recruiters, and policymakers, aiding them in aligning skillsets and making informed decisions. Further investigations are warranted to explore broader contexts and evolving trends within the IT job market.

A Study of Organizational Changes that Occur to the Adoption of Cloud Computing Technologies in Organizations: Ministry of Communication and Information Technology in Afghanistan

Cloud computing services such as file storage and big data analysis provide cost effective, secure, flexible and reliable services to their users; however, their advantages, the adoption of many cloud services is still limited, and many organizations are unsure of adopting cloud technologies for various reasons this study using a systematic review of the factors influencing organizational regarding the adoption of cloud computing technologies, categorize and compare these factors and show that much of the literature has highlight the technical aspects of technology adoption, such as cloud security further show that factors such as top management support, relative advantage, cloud complexity, and competitive pressure are the most important factors affecting organizational attitudes toward cloud technology adoption. Furthermore, analysis of interview data collection techniques showed that cloud computing technologies affect the structure, size, tasks and work processes of organizations. These variables change at different levels. The findings showed that IT jobs have the greatest impact on cloud computing readiness and performance. Additionally, the results showed that organizations that adopt cloud technologies integrated some departments, increased work speed, removed some duplicated steps, overcame management changes, centralized IT works and removed some traditional hierarchical parts.

Academic Community and Practitioner Perceptions on Information Technology Competencies: A Gap Analysis

Academic institutions must be able to adapt to rapid technological advancements and bridge the continuous skill gap between industry expectations and student academic preparation. This study aimed to analyze and present an updated view of the essential IT competencies perceived by IT practitioners and highlight the skills gap between the perceptions of industry practitioners and the academic community. The study utilized quantitative and qualitative research to determine the most relevant competencies according to IT practitioners and academicians. The findings revealed that competencies in microprocessors, semiconductors, embedded systems, mobile and wireless computing, and robotics were perceived as somewhat important/important by IT practitioners. However, IT faculty members perceived these competencies as very important/important. These findings suggest that there is a gap between the acquired competencies in the university and the competencies needed by the industry. Further, the analysis of the competencies in the different IT jobs revealed the competencies perceived by the IT practitioners vary depending on the specific IT job. This research brings insights into the relevant competencies of the IT workforce and how to improve the IT curriculum to produce professionals who meet industry demands.

To study the impact of screen time on IT job professionals in India

This study aims to understand more about the effects of screen time on the eyes, musculoskeletal problems, and work efficiency in IT professionals. Problems faced by the people and the measures taken to solve them: A questionnaire was designed and distributed among IT professionals. Respondents discussed their issues regarding their eyes, musculoskeletal problems, and efficiency at work. Furthermore, respondents were asked if they and their organizations were taking any measures to deal with the issues due to the excessive effects of screen time. Insights were also drawn on how they can improve the current working system to deal with the impact of screen time. These insights were represented in the form of a word chart. In conclusion, a significant percentage of the population faces screen-related problems, but many people are not taking any measures to deal with them. Organizations and employees alike are advised to take these problems seriously and start implementing their solutions as soon as possible.

COVID-19 Impacts on the IT Job Market: A Massive Job Ads Analysis

The Covid-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on many economic sectors. The most severe immediate financial effects of Covid-19 include job losses and decreased hiring, and we can expect generalized lower economic growth in the long term. While such phenomena are there for all to see, measuring their scope is complex. In this work, we performed a massive analysis of job postings (ads) taken from LinkUp, a popular job search web platform, to better understand the occupational trends in IT. We analyzed about nine million ads for computer and mathematical experts to measure the impact of the virus on the IT job market. We also extended our investigations to almost 109 million advertisements (about 300 GB of data) for all kinds of positions to overview the effects of Covid-19 on the job market at large. The results show that the Covid-19 crisis hit the job market during the first two quarters of 2020, causing the number of job advertisements to drop across all sectors (except one). Specifically, the IT sector lost between 15% and 48% of the ads, depending on the specific professional figure. Since the last quarter of 2020, the ad numbers have recovered for some sectors, and by the first 2021 quarter, all of them have more job ads than in the last five years. Finally, we used text analysis to understand the trends of interest in teleworking. We found that in the second quarter of 2020, the number of ads explicitly mentioning telework was almost three times the average of the previous quarters.

Mitigating Age Biases in Resume Screening AI Models

As populations age, an increasing number of workers beyond the traditional retirement age are opting to continue working. Nevertheless, discrimination against older job seekers seeking new employment opportunities remains widespread. To address this issue, we enlisted a pool of crowdworkers to assess the resumes of IT job candidates and guess each candidate's age, race, and gender. Using this crowdsourced data, we trained an AI model and applied bias correction techniques from IBM's AI 360 and Microsoft's Fairlearn toolkits to correct for biases based on race, gender, and age. We analyzed the effectiveness of these tools in mitigating different types of bias in job hiring algorithms, explored why age may be more challenging to eliminate than other forms of bias, and discussed additional approaches to enhance fairness. Our results indicate that implicit age bias, or ageism, is prevalent in hiring decisions and more pervasive than other well-documented forms of bias, such as race and gender biases.

Understanding the Diffusion of Business Analysis Responsibilities

ABSTRACT Business analysis is core to the information systems (IS) discipline. Historically, those performing business analysis held the “Business Analyst” job title; however, in recent years evidence suggests that business analysis is now a job responsibility diffused across a wide variety of roles. It is vital that the IS community understand more about the diffusion of responsibility for business analysis across a variety of organizational roles. This research seeks to provide such an understanding by analyzing job postings referencing business analysis responsibilities. Over 231,000 unique job postings were analyzed to identify the most common job titles associated with business analysis, the hard and soft skills associated with them, and how the job titles compared in terms of skill requirements. The study provides insights to support both academia and industry in understanding business analysis as it relates to IT job titles and roles.

Leveraging deep learning and big data to enhance computing curriculum for industry-relevant skills: A Norwegian case study

Computer science graduates face a massive gap between industry-relevant skills and those learned at school. Industry practitioners often counter a huge challenge when moving from academics to industry, requiring a completely different set of skills and knowledge. It is essential to fill the gap between the industry's required skills and those taught at varsities. In this study, we leverage deep learning and big data to propose a framework that maps the required skills with those acquired by computing graduates. Based on the mapping, we recommend enhancing the computing curriculum to match the industry-relevant skills. Our proposed framework consists of four layers: data, embedding, mapping, and a curriculum enhancement layer. Based on the recommendations from the mapping module, we made revisions and modifications to the computing curricula. Finally, we perform a case study of the Norwegian IT jobs market, where we make recommendations for data science and software engineering-related jobs. We argue that by using our proposed methodology and analysis, a significant enhancement in the computing curriculum is possible to help increase employability, student satisfaction, and smart decision-making.

IT skills, occupation specificity and job separations

This paper examines how workers' earnings change after involuntary job separations depending on the workers' acquired IT skills and the specificity of their occupational training. We categorize workers' occupational skill bundles along two independent dimensions. First, we distinguish between skill bundles that are more specific or less specific compared to the skill bundles needed in the overall labor market. Second, as digitalization becomes ever more important, we distinguish between skill bundles that contain two different types of IT skills, generic- or expert ones. We expect that after involuntary separations, these IT skills can have opposing effects, either reducing or amplifying earnings losses of workers with specific skill bundles. We find clearly opposing results for these two types of IT skills for workers in specific - but not in general - occupations: Having more generic IT skills is positively correlated with earnings after involuntary separations, whereas more expert IT skills are negatively correlated.

Website for IT Job Seekers in Oman: A Study on Bridging the Qualification Gap between Academe and Industry

Website for IT Job Seekers in Oman: A Study on Bridging the Qualification Gap between Academe and Industry

Three Perspectives on the Value of Bridgers Within IT: A Longitudinal Study of Eight Years of Job Placement of IT Graduates

Job placement data is important for understanding where graduates get jobs. We present an empirical study of eight years of undergraduate and graduate IT placement data to explore IT jobs obtained within IT functions. Niederman, Ferratt, and Trauth (2016) propose clustering IT jobs into four macro-level categories based on the knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) required for these jobs: IT bridgers, technical specialists, application domain specialists, and IT managers. They argue an increased need for and value placed on “bridgers” who can fill bridging jobs within IT. Bridgers within IT possess both technical and “soft skills” like communications/managerial and change/project management and work within the IT function but can liaise between IT and business units. Using a longitudinal sample of 1,980 IT graduates from one Information School, the data supports that IT bridgers are hired within IT, are hired earlier, and are largely hired in consulting, technology, and finance industry sectors. Contributions include exploring the utility of the macro-level categorization of NFT IT job categories to analyze job placement, the importance of tracking IT job placement in employer sectors, and the overall value of IT placement data for IT educators and administrators.

Construction of an Ontology-based Document Collection for the IT Job Offer in Morocco

Construction of an Ontology-based Document Collection for the IT Job Offer in Morocco

JUSTIFICATION OF THE SYSTEM OF PRINCIPLES OF REGULATION OF ECONOMIC POLICY OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE IT SPHERE IN UKRAINE SHOULD BE BASED

A modern high-quality human life is impossible without the latest IT achievements, which make it possible to increase the level of comfort and saturation of the life of an ordinary citizen. For Ukraine, which has a high potential, but an underdeveloped IT sphere, any direction in the development of the IT sphere is important. Therefore, there is a need to highlight the principles on the basis of which economic policy of regulating the development of the IT sphere should be based. This will allow to restore the country's economy in the post-war period. The purpose of the article is to substantiate the system of principles on which economic policy of regulating the development of the IT sphere in Ukraine should be based. It has been established that in order to ensure the effectiveness of the process of forming an economic policy for regulating the development of the IT sphere in Ukraine, the authorities must adhere to nine basic principles. The principle of scientificity dictates the need to lay the latest achievements in the IT sphere as the basis of economic policy toolkit. On this basis, an effective toolkit for minimizing risks should be formed to ensure stable trends in socio-economic development of the country's economy. The principle of justice is aimed at developing a system of effective tools for the development of the IT sphere. This will help to achieve sustainable development goals, minimize corruption and improve social standards of life. The principle of comprehensiveness consists in carrying out activities for the career guidance of young people, providing them with high-quality IT education and jobs, and specialists – with high-performance computer equipment. The principle of priority marks the focus of IT projects on those areas of activity that are of the highest priority for the development of the Ukrainian economy. In the post-war period, the restoration of the defense, medical, construction, food, mining and processing industries and agriculture in Ukraine should be considered a priority. The principle of strategic orientation should direct economic policy towards the achievement of strategic goals. It is important that the creation of new jobs based on the latest IT will increase the average level of wages and gradually approach the solution of the strategic goal – the return of Ukrainians to peacetime. The principle of adaptability orients the development of the IT sphere towards new technologies and information products. At the same time, current and strategic needs of regional and national economy of Ukraine should be taken into account. The principle of synergy determines the need to ensure the scale of the processes of digitalization of the country. The principle of inclusiveness directs the authorities to focus on the reintegration of Ukrainians who have received the status of persons with disabilities during the war. This project can be implemented by training such persons free of charge in a specific IT profession and providing powerful samples of computer equipment for successful online work in the IT sphere. The principle of European integration is based on the development of the country's IT sphere. This will make it possible to introduce changes in all spheres of the life of society and increase their efficiency by accelerating the pace of digitalization of managerial and technological processes.

C3-IoC: A Career Guidance System for Assessing Student Skills using Machine Learning and Network Visualisation

Artificial Intelligence in Education (AIED) has witnessed significant growth over the last twenty-five years, providing a wide range of technologies to support academic, institutional, and administrative services. More recently, AIED applications have been developed to prepare students for the workforce, providing career guidance services for higher education. However, this remains challenging, especially concerning the rapidly changing labour market in the IT sector. In this paper, we introduce an AI-based solution named C3-IoC (https://c3-ioc.co.uk), which intends to help students explore career paths in IT according to their level of education, skills and prior experience. The C3-IoC presents a novel similarity metric method for relating existing job roles to a range of technical and non-technical skills. This also allows the visualisation of a job role network, placing the student within communities of job roles. Using a unique knowledge base, user skill profiling, job role matching, and visualisation modules, the C3-IoC supports students in self-evaluating their skills and understanding how they relate to emerging IT jobs.

Exploring the Utility of Social Content for Understanding Future In-Demand Skills

Rapid technological innovations, especially in the information technology space, demand the workforce to be vigilant by acquiring new skills to remain relevant and employable. The workforce needs to be engaged in a continuous lifelong learning process by educating themselves about skills that will be in demand in the future. To do so, it is essential for students, job seekers, and even recruiters to know which skills will be in demand in the future and to invest time and resources in developing these skills. On this basis, the main objective of this paper is to investigate whether social content can offer insight into potential future in-demand skills in the IT job market. Based on the analysis of social content from Reddit and job posting data from Dice and Monster websites, we find that social content related to job skills is a strong indicator for future in-demand skills. We further find that specific social content associated with recruitment-related topics are stronger indicators of future skills. Our findings encourage learners and job seekers to pay close attention to online social content to strategically plan new skills and maximize their employability.

Impact of Employer Value Proposition and Social Media Use on the Intention to Apply for a Job in the IT Industry of Vietnam

Research Aims: Human resources are critical for success in the digital economy. However, IT human resources are predicted to be scarce and attracting IT talent is difficult for many enterprises. Currently, employer branding and social media advertising are possible solutions to these problems. This research aims to evaluate the influence of EVP and social media use on the intention to apply for an IT job. Design/Methodology/Approach: The quantitative research method is used to verify the research model. The sample includes 240 valid respondents from HCMC, Vietnam. The research model includes six independent variables (5 values of EVP and social media use) affecting the intention to apply for a job through organisational reputation. Some analysis methods used include Descriptive Statistics, Cronbach’s Alpha, EFA, Multiple Regression, and Bootstrap Analysis. Research Findings: The results show that 4/5 of the values (except management value) and social media use have positive impacts on reputation and, in turn, on the intention to apply for a job. Theoretical Contribution/Originality: This research clarifies the role of employer branding and social media use in attracting talent to the Vietnamese IT industry. The mediating role of organisational reputation is also confirmed using the bootstrapping method. Managerial Implication in the South East Asian Context: Based on the results, some recommendations have been made to improve the attractiveness of the IT industry in Vietnam and the ASEAN context. Research Limitations & Implications: Limitations of the study include the small sample size and lack of other aspects of employer branding. So, increasing the sample size and adding some other factors could be implications for future research directions.