2022 IT Pro Day Survey Examines State of the Tech Job Market Amid Labor Shortages and Hiring Challenges

SolarWinds survey: Two-thirds of IT pros say they’re confident in their tech career despite a potential economic slowdown, but only half say their company has been adequately staffed amid the “great resignation”

Annual IT Pro Day Award winners also announced, recognizing the critical—but often unseen—work tech pros do to keep our businesses and network environments running smoothly

SolarWinds (NYSE:SWI), a leading provider of simple, powerful, and secure IT management software, today unveils the results of its new survey examining the state of the technology job market amid industry-wide labor shortages and hiring challenges. Released to coincide with the eighth-annual IT Pro Day holiday, the survey found despite a potential economic downturn, more than two-thirds of tech and IT professionals surveyed said they’re completely confident in their career choices. But with the “great resignation” resulting in tens of millions of employees leaving the workforce or changing jobs, only half of survey respondents felt their companies have been adequately staffed in recent years.

To combat these staffing issues and recruit during a historically tight labor market, 59% of respondents said their company has added more flexibility in hours and work location, while a third (33%) said their employer has increased pay. Meanwhile, when asked what’s most important to them in their careers, IT pros ranked salary and work-life balance highest.

Key IT Pro Day survey findings:

• More than two-thirds (67%) of IT pros surveyed say they’re completely confident about their career choice, even in the face of a potential economic downturn. However, a third (33%) did say they’re at least a little worried about their job futures.
• 22% started a new job within the last year, and a full 51% percent said they’d at least considered doing so.
• But less than a third (34%) of those who changed positions said they loved their new job. 15% said their new position is worse than their previous one, while 54% said their new role is about the same.
• When asked to rank what’s most important to them in their careers, pay and work-life balance were the top two responses chosen by IT pros.
• However, nearly a third (31%) of respondents say they don’t feel fairly compensated in their role, and only 4% believe they’re overpaid.
• Respondents were split on whether their companies had been staffed appropriately over the last two years, with half (50%) saying they feel like they’re doing two jobs and the other half (50%) replying their company is staffed adequately.
• But for those respondents who feel their company is understaffed, relief may not be coming right away—46% of respondents say their company has now either slowed or frozen hiring amid a potential economic slowdown.

“The new SolarWinds survey makes clear IT and technology sectors haven’t been immune to the staffing challenges posed by the ‘great resignation’ and pandemic,” said SolarWinds Head Geek^™ Thomas LaRock. “This is particularly challenging for IT teams because they’re not only feeling understaffed but also are expected to do more with less as network environments become increasingly complicated. Remote work and hybrid and multi-cloud environments have made it extremely difficult to keep networks—and businesses—running smoothly but these IT pros show up every day to get the job done.”

In addition to the new survey results, SolarWinds is also announcing the winners of this year’s IT Pro Day Awards, now in its third year of recognizing IT pros. Though the work of IT professionals is vital to the success and continued operation of each and every organization, their efforts can often be taken for granted. Each of the honorees has demonstrated commitment to their role and excellence in their profession despite increased workloads, the challenges posed by remote work, and the rapid implementation of new tools and technologies like AI.

SolarWinds 2022 IT Pro Day Award Winners:

Rookie of the Year: Sebastian Gonzalez (United States) — Sebastian works at Rock Energy Systems in Wisconsin. He’s graduating this year with a Bachelor’s Degree in Data Analytics and Data Management from Western Governors University. Though he has only been with Rock Energy for nine months, Sebastian has had the opportunity to make an immediate impact on the team. He’s managed to quickly develop his technical and professional skills while gaining extensive hands-on experience in the field. Sebastian is excited to apply his growing knowledge to new scenarios and use cases as he continues to further his career in IT.

Rockstar of the Year: Tim Techathuvanan (United States) — Tim has been programming professionally since he was a teenager. He took a few years off to earn a Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Wisconsin before returning to programming as a quantitative analyst for a hedge fund. After a few years at the SEC and another stint in finance, he decided to retire from that career and start a new one automating IT administration. He is currently enjoying his work automating virtual server management for the National Institutes of Health and learning new things every day.

IT Mentor of the Year: Zia Ur Rehman (Pakistan) — Zia Ur Rehman, a tech enthusiast and an entrepreneur with multiple startups, is on the road to becoming a tech industry veteran. He started this journey with Cleodora - a tech startup. Having mentored multiple ventures on the way, he made his mark as the CEO of 'CodesOrbit' and is currently vested in transforming the world with Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning as the Co-Founder of "RevolveAI" - a trailblazing firm specializing in core AI and machine learning technologies. Having pooled a decade of experience in “ideapreneurship” with an unquenchable desire to bring innovation, Zia passionately engages with young minds and mentors them toward leadership.

Trailblazer Award: Damstra Insights team (Australia, India, and the Philippines) — The Damstra Insights team is a customer-focused engineering team that knows the transformative power that comes to a business when its vast stores of data are unlocked, and actionable insights are revealed. The team consists of data engineers, BI analysts, product managers, and QA experts. Nothing delights us more than to know our work has the real potential to reduce risk in heavy industries, which in turn ensures workers around the world go safely back home to their families each day.

IT Pro Day was established by SolarWinds to recognize the essential, and often unseen, work these IT pros achieve around the world on a daily basis. To read more, visit www.itproday.org.

Additional Resources

• IT Pro Day
• Keeping IT Together IT Pro Day Video: Campfire
• Keeping IT Together IT Pro Day Video: Zombies
• Keeping IT Together IT Pro Day Video: Letter Home

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About SolarWinds

SolarWinds (NYSE:SWI) is a leading provider of simple, powerful, and secure IT management software built to enable customers to accelerate their digital transformation. Our solutions provide organizations worldwide—regardless of type, size, or complexity—with a comprehensive and unified view of today’s modern, distributed, and hybrid network environments. We continuously engage with technology professionals—IT service and operations professionals, DevOps and SecOps professionals, and database administrators (DBAs)—to understand the challenges they face in maintaining high-performing and highly available IT infrastructures, applications, and environments. The insights we gain from them, in places like our THWACK community, allow us to address customers’ needs now and in the future. Our focus on the user and our commitment to excellence in end-to-end hybrid IT management have established SolarWinds as a worldwide leader in solutions for observability, IT service management, application performance, and database management. Learn more today at www.solarwinds.com.

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