How is the Job Market for IT Project Managers?
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IT Jobs and Recruitment Insights
Project Management Market - Specialist IT Recruiter’s Overview
As we reach the halfway point of Q1 in our calendar year, budgets have been laid out and project plans are well underway. This is always a busy time of year for a project manager and the workload is only increasing with the additional Covid-19 changes during the past 12 months.
We do however, often see project managers change jobs around this time of year and this can be due to a contract ending or they’re simply seeking a change. Project Managers are always in high demand, there’s usually a wealth of jobs for candidates to apply for.
So how is the market looking now?
Insights & Demand regarding Project Manager Jobs
To start off this calendar year, job opportunities in the project management field have continued to grow but have been a little slower than usual. This could be due to companies being a little uncertain about making additional PM hires in the current climate or ramps-ups haven’t actually started to kick off yet, it all depends.
Based on our research, we noticed that there are only 67 open roles within the IT, internet & telecoms sectors at the minute. Still opportunities out there, but nonetheless a bit scarce.
What has perhaps changed largely is that these companies who have jobs open are struggling to source key talent & many candidates remain hesitant to change jobs in the current climate limiting the talent pool further. Demand for Project Managers remains very high and a lot of this struggle is seen specifically in the contracting market. With contracts ending as normal, the acquiring of new contracts has been somewhat slower for a lot of Project Managers, largely due to there being less jobs and a higher ratio of top tier talent available to companies.
From the perspective of employers in the market, there are a lot of talks around this particular market picking up in Q2.
Hiring Trends & Stats on Project Management in the current IT Market
The IT sector remains one of the top 3 industries of employment for Project Managers in Ireland, along with the construction and financial services sectors. IBM, Bank of Ireland and the HSE were the top 3 employers of Project Managers in Ireland last year and it is interesting to see how many companies like these have grown in this time.
Additional projects and remote work
Facebook saw a 17% increase in Project Manager hiring over the past year and this would make sense as they always had big hiring plans for 2020 (even before the epidemic). The likes of the Facebook, Whatsapp and Instagram applications all saw an increase in usage with everyone being at home for months on end, which contributed to additional workloads and the hiring of Project Managers.
Bank of Ireland also saw a huge growth of 10% in the number of Project Managers they employed last year when compared with the previous, largely due to their huge investments in digital transformation projects in recent times. One reason for this could be the increased number of tap payments that are being used for shopping etc and the additional workloads that come with it.
Project Management Market - Conclusion & Steps to take
With added market competition, it is important now more than ever to pay attention to the finer details while looking for a new Project Manager job .
Start off by ensuring your CV is fully up to date, clear and concise. This will eliminate any bias if compared with a CV that perhaps isn’t laid out so well or has spelling mistakes. You can find more information in our guide on how to create the ideal CV.
When looking for new opportunities, reach out to everyone in your network, be it past colleagues or a well connected recruiter working within this area. There are numerous avenues you can explore when trying to find leads so just make sure you cover all of them. Start by speaking to an IT recruiter that works in this market and try to get a sense of how things are looking.
Ahead of an interview, make sure you do your research on the company and get any ammo you can to ensure you’re prepared well in advance. From the hiring managers perspective, it’s important that you’ve done your ground work and this also shows commitment from your side.
If you are a project manager reading this then don’t hesitate to call Lee on 019 017 826 or email m at lee.garvin@gempool.ie to catch up about anything project management related. You can also browse our IT Project Management jobs on our careers page.
