The survey of 1,300 IT professionals by CWJobs, the IT jobs specialist, reveals
that over half (56 percent) believe that unpaid work experience is considered
the most valuable activity for increasing a graduate’s chance of finding work.
48 percent feel that the tradition of joining industry bodies is still
considered beneficial, and despite the increased use of social networking among
graduates, IT pros say it’s more important to join industry bodies than to use
blogging and social networking sites for jobseeking.

Over half (52 percent) state that Web development is a burgeoning area for job
opportunities and this is also reflected by the skills in demand, with Java and
SQL identified as key for maximising prospects. Finally, reflective of the city
rebound, banking and finance was identified as the top sector for
opportunities, closely followed by telecommunications and software houses.

Although cloud computing has taken the spotlight in recent months, 87 percent
of IT pros feel that security or mobile IT jobs offer superior opportunities,
while application development, although on trend, isn’t considered as attractive.
Linux, Cisco and Oracle are also rated as key skills for graduates to focus on.

Richard Nott, Website Director of CWJobs comments, “Although opportunities
are certainly improving for IT graduates, useful advice and valuable industry
insights still go a long way to helping find suitable employment. While we have
seen opportunities in banking and finance improve rapidly, other sectors such
as telecoms and software are now following suit. It is however undeniably still
a tough market, and so is essential that graduates emerge from university fully
equipped with all the knowledge and guidance possible.”