Ninety-five percent of respondents to the Dice Tech Appeal Index report that they are somewhat or very satisfied in their current job, and 93 percent said they intend to stay in the IT field for at least the next six months.

The Dice Tech Appeal Index surveys professionals inside and outside the technology industry to gauge their interest in working in the IT field as compared to other industries.

Tech Professionals Recommend IT as a Career

The Technology professionals also continue to recommend IT as a career over any other industry, with 83 percent likely to recommend technology to others, as compared to just 63 percent for healthcare and 47 percent for financial services.

Comparatively, 62 percent of non-tech adults would recommend a career in technology, 66 percent would recommend healthcare, and 43 percent would recommend financial services.

The survey also finds that the great majority of tech professionals cite the ability to keep their skills up-to-date as a strong area of concern (82 percent). Further, when asked to assess their employers’ encouragement and support of skills development, one-third of tech professionals say it is just “fair” or “poor.” Only 26 percent rated their employers’ performance in this area as “excellent,” with 40 percent of respondents rating it as “good.”

Employer Support for Employees’ Professional Development

When employers do support their tech employees’ skills development, they most often provide in-house training (37 percent), followed by tuition reimbursement for college courses (32 percent) and reimbursement for professional courses (28 percent). Only 26 percent of employers offer time off to attend courses and just 18 percent offer monetary rewards or promotions to employees that obtain new skills or update existing ones.

The survey suggests that employer-sponsored training and professional development programs are excellent ways to build the overall technical capability of an organization while addressing a key career issue among tech professionals. “If team members are able to stay current and grow within an organization, they have less reason to look elsewhere,” the survey concludes.

While a large majority of technology professionals are concerned about keeping their skills up-to-date, only 37 percent are worried about their job being outsourced to a foreign country. Notably, non-tech professionals are more likely to be concerned about the issue, with 43 percent reporting that they were very or somewhat concerned about their job being outsourced.

Nicole Hardin is Managing Director, Recruitment Services of HireStrategy. HireStrategy provides consulting services and executive search solutions in the technology, sales, human resources and accounting professions. HireStrategy, an Inc. 500 company, is ranked by The Washington Business Journal as the #1 staffing firm in the Greater Washington area, and recognized by Washingtonian magazine, as one of Washington's "Great Places to Work."