It’s career realignment time… again. As Jason Hiner writes in TechRepublic, “Most IT departments are a shadow of their former selves.” They’ll get even more shadowy as new technologies reshape the roles of everyone who’s still left in the data center. So, Hiner wonders, where will the IT jobs of the future be? He sees them being in just three categories: Consultants

We’re going to see most of traditional IT administration and support functions outsourced to third-party consultants. This includes a wide range from huge multinational consultancies to the one person consultancy who serves as the rented IT department for local SMBs. Many of the IT administrators and support professionals who currently work directly for corporations will transition to working for big vendors or consultancies in the future.

Project Managers

Most of the IT workers that survive and remain as employees in traditional companies will be project managers. They will not be part of a centralized IT department, but will be spread out in the various business units and departments. These project managers will also serve as the company’s point of contact with technology vendors and consultants. If you look closely, you can already see a lot of current IT managers morphing in this direction.

Developers

By far, the area where the largest number of IT jobs is going to move is into developer, programmer, and coder jobs. While IT used to be about managing and deploying hardware and software, it’s going to increasingly be about Web-based applications that will be expected to work smoothly, be self-evident, and require very little training or intervention from tech support.

Do you agree, and do you already fall into one of these three categories? If so, you may have a head start as the rest of us scramble to climb aboard one of these lifeboats. Source: TechRepublic