How to avoid being outsourced

IT workers need to become more business-savvy, move up the management ladder and keep up with the latest technical skills if they are to avoid being outsourced, according to a new guide.

The Outsourcing Survival Guide by recruitment company ITJobBoard.com warns outsourcing is too significant a trend for anyone who works in the IT industry to ignore and that it should be factored into career progression.

This means keeping abreast of the latest trends and avoiding career cul-de-sacs by specialising in legacy skills such as Cobol, PL/1 and RPG.

The guide says: "Outsourcing is often used as a way of flushing out legacy systems. Avoid being perceived as obsolescent."

Stronger business skills will also make an IT worker less likely to be outsourced, as will having genuine expertise in the company's business processes.

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The guide adds: "Technology skills will not be enough. You will be expected to have business process expertise and be very user-oriented. Hybrid business technologists are the future of IT. Being one will increase your value to your business, and so make it less likely that your role will end up overseas."

The roles most likely to be in demand in the future include technical architect, project manager and system or business analysts. There is also likely to be a growth in commercial managers who are expert at managing relationships with outsourcing and offshore suppliers, according to the guide.

Moving up the management ladder into more senior technical and non-technical roles is also a sure-fire way of avoiding being outsourced.

Ray Duggins, MD of ITJobBoard.com, said in a statement: "If you keep ahead of the market, recognise that there is an increasing need for techies to understand business and use this knowledge to enhance your career, there is no need for a knee-jerk reaction now. It's likely that you are perceived as an asset which makes taking your position outside the organisation less tenable."