Freelancers and umbrella company contractors in the information technology field may soon see more interest from the financial services sector in the future.
Thanks to new investment on the horizon in the industry, especially when it comes to insurance brokers, securities trading firms and investment management companies, there’s more than a fair chance that all of these businesses will have need of skilled and qualified IT contractors to get their new systems integrated and maintained going forward. In fact, the Confederation of British Industry’s latest survey found that the next year will bring major capital investments into information technology to the point where the IT budgets of many firms could be increased by more than 100 per cent.
Digital technologies are definitely all the rage in the financial services sector, especially with so many consumers leading hectic lives that demand instant access to their finances through mobile banking apps and other specialised software programmes. Rolling out functionality to vast numbers of customers and clients is going to be a major bit of work and for the most part the majority of these firms simply lack the staff to implement these new systems, much less maintain them, and that means it could be a veritable feeding frenzy for IT professionals of many stripes, freelancers and permanent employees included.
With demand rising and the supply of IT workers staying roughly the same, it’s probably a safe bet to assume that many of these positions will feature highly attractive pay packets. The skills shortage being what it is, this will only exacerbate things, and there’s likely to be more than a bit of urgency amongst these large firms to get their new IT systems up and running as quickly as possible and to keep them working reliably, so if you’re an IT professional I’m going to go out on a limb and say that you’re going to be in rather good shape as far as the job search goes over the next 12 months.
For what it’s worth, there could be plenty of worse professions to be in at the moment; let’s just hope the lion’s share of these firms don’t end up deciding to not increase their staff and simply overtax their existing IT workers instead in a bid to save money on their new endeavours – or worse yet, outsource the positions! I doubt the latter will happen though, especially since so many of these new systems will need to be implemented on-site. Still, it’s hope for the best and prepare for the worse, am I right?
