63% of techies have less than 5 yrs exp

CyberMedia Dice-TNS survey of IT professionals reveals that 63% of employees have less than five years of work experience. Another interesting data that emerged from the survey is that more than 75% of professionals have been with their current employer for less than two years, indicating that the IT industry has one of the most mobile work force.

This was the second online survey which included 1,886 respondents from amongst 350,000 members enrolled on CyberMedia Dice, a dedicated technology job site. The survey was carried out by custom research agency, TNS.

Closer Look
Talking about the GenNext IT professionals, Pradeep Gupta, chairman and MD of CyberMedia says, "A closer look at the profile indicates that they are restless, very ambitious professionals looking for a fast track career growth.

The challenge for the industry is to meet their ambitions and aspirations." According to Abraham Karimpanal, head of Technology Practice of TNS India, "Nearly a fourth of the job seeking IT professionals are an extremely happy and committed lot with TRI*M index of 70 plus, significantly higher than the Indian industry average of 62."

While employees rate the quality of work place as average, on other key relationship drivers such as overall work culture and organizational climate, job content, a fair and transparent performance management and work life balance, the current employers are rated below average. According to the study, employees demonstrate the highest commitment to their organization in their first year of employment and it drops considerably over the years.

The survey also revealed that IT professionals promoted in the last six months in their company have the highest satisfaction level while those waiting for their promotion for over two years are the least committed to their jobs. The survey also found that professionals at junior to middle level with a gross salary of Rs 5 lakh are more committed than those at the middle or senior level with a salary of Rs 12 lakh. Abraham Mathew, CEO, CyberMedia Dice says, "The specialist job portals are becoming an important tool for hiring by the IT industry. It is visible from the jump in the number of IT professionals registered with three or more job portals from 17% in 2005 to almost 60% in 2006."

Region-wise Salary
The survey found salaries in western and southern India to be higher than the North and East. Salaries in Gurgaon and Bangalore were found to be comparable.

Western India has the highest average annual salary of Rs 4.91 lakh followed by South at Rs 4.79 lakh. The last two spots go to professionals from North and East at Rs 4.58 lakh and Rs 4.14 lakh per annum, respectively. The average annual salary of job seeking IT professionals in Bangalore and Gurgaon, just above Rs 6 lakh mark is the highest in the country.

The average cost-to-company of IT professionals working in Chennai and Hyderabad was Rs 4.5 lakh per annum in 2006. As per the survey, carried out in the last quarter of 2006, the average annual salary for an IT professional in Mumbai is Rs 5.09 lakh with those in Pune drawing only marginally less. The respondents from Delhi have an average annual salary of Rs 4.89 lakh. The survey also found that the salary drawn by those employed in companies with over five thousand employees is double the salary drawn by those working in companies with less than fifty employees. The survey reveals that for 90% of respondents their ideal employer would be a multinational software firm, be it an Indian or a non-Indian MNC.

Profile of the Respondents
Of the 1,886 respondents, two-thirds were between 23 and 31 years and evenly distributed between Indian MNC, non-Indian MNC and Indian companies. Around 60% of respondents had non-technical educational background. One fifth of respondents were engineers. Almost half of respondents had worked with their current employer for less than a year.

However, IT professionals in Delhi and Kolkata beat the trend. Nearly 29% of respondents in these two cities had been with their current employer for more than three years. On an average each respondent IT professional had changed three jobs.

Team DQ
maildqindia@cybermedia.co.in