Slowing economy? Weakening job growth? You wouldn't know it from talking to Nanci Porter, president of the San Diego-based IT staffing service, Eastridge Infotech.

According to Porter, IT - or information technology - continues to be a wide-open field offering growth opportunity and rewarding compensation.

Despite the slowing economy that has hampered employment prospects in other sectors, San Diego continues to offer job opportunities at leading companies, according to Porter, who recruits top talent to fill IT positions from West Coast locations in San Diego, Carlsbad, San Francisco, Walnut Creek and Las Vegas. Locally, job seekers can expect to earn $35,000 for entry level jobs and up to $150,000 for high-level managerial positions, directing a company's IT operations and mapping out IT strategy.

How do you get your foot in the door?

For starters, you'll need the right college-level courses. If you're already in the work force, investigate part-time options at one of the many colleges here in San Diego. If you are still in school, enroll in introductory courses in computer science and/or information technology. You'll find them in the business school, engineering school or computer science department. These classes will help you become familiar with current technology and opportunities before you graduate and enter the job market.

How do you actually land an entry level job in this exploding sector once you've got some technical training behind you? Porter gives job seekers three common paths to break into the field.

Three Paths to IT Jobs

Path No. 1: Break and Fix. The first pathway is commonly referred to as "break and fix." In the break and fix pathway, you'll start out by fixing PCs through trouble-shooting and concentrating on the technical side. You work on ghosting machines (duplicating system configurations) and present yourself as a PC hardware tech. From a technical standpoint, you must be able to set up computers, run cable and troubleshoot hardware problems.

Frequently, job applicants who enter this field attend technical schools and graduate with certifications such as A+ Certification. Prospects are excellent within this niche because computer usage is growing and the industry will continue to need people to fix them. Starting salaries in the break and fix genre range from $15 per hour to $20 per hour.

Path No. 2: Help Desk Trouble Shooter. The second pathway, Porter suggests, is working at a help desk providing application support. In this role, you'll become familiar with common applications such as Word, Outlook, Excel or Power Point. This can be a fast-paced environment where you'll become a masterful problem solver, working over the phone, delivering top customer service, troubleshooting, and assisting users in fixing their own PC software-related glitches.

Typically, the employment agency or employer will administer a test to measure your knowledge before hiring you. Starting salaries in the help desk/support arena are $15 per hour, with workers making $25 per hour after five years.

Path No. 3: Become a Subject Expert. The third way to break into the IT field is by serving as a business analyst. Business or user analysts help bridge the divide between the hard-core technical folks and the users. The best way to enter the IT field through this route is by becoming a subject expert in a specific industry or business unit that depends on business applications and processes to run operations. Accounting and finance, human resources, sales and marketing, insurance, financial services, biotech and healthcare are all possibilities.

Once you have specific industry experience and have shown the ability in your current role to understand how applications work, seek employment as an analyst who will help enhance the usability of these applications. Business analysts will typically help users articulate their needs and will write user requirements for programmers who work behind the scenes, concentrating on programming these enhancements into existing applications.

Porter encourages would-be tech workers to look for opportunities to volunteer at their current companies, serving in roles such as business analyst on a task force, helping to evaluate new work-related software. For example, if you are working in insurance claims and wanted to transition into a business analyst role, you could volunteer to be a subject-matter expert or liaison to the IT department and participate in meetings that define and map the workflow in the department. In other words, be on the look out for any work opportunities that involve using business applications to improve workplace efficiencies and, if given the chance, join the effort.

Porter offers an example of an HR generalist who volunteered to be on the software roll-out team, helping to select the best software to support HR's needs and defining the workflow documentation. This person understood operations and best practices, and applied them to the process to make the user experience positive and productive.

Starting salaries for business analysts are $50,000, with workers making $85,000 after five years.

Want to Launch a Career as a Programmer?

Not surprisingly, there aren't any real "entry level" programming jobs. However, if this is your area of interest, you should acquire basic programming skills in Web languages such as HTML to land a job updating Web sites. According to Porter, the programming languages you should master to help gain entry and capture a position in the exploding IT marketplace include:

C# (C sharp); .NET (dot net); Java or JavaScript; Oracle; SQL; HTML; ASP.NET; PHP and MySQL. (PHP and MySQL are open source coding languages that are very hot right now.)

The demand for keeping Web content fresh is robust, which means there are many jobs available refreshing and updating Web sites. These jobs are best suited to people who can relate to the visual experience of the screen and can improve the user experience.

Data Collection and Database Management

E-commerce has spawned a growing need for people with experience in business intelligence and search engine optimization. Data collection or data capture, the amassing and storage of e-mail addresses, and patterns of behavior surrounding the Web has emerged as a major growth area. Plus, the mining of this data for cross-selling, merchandising and developing new business opportunities offers unlimited potential for companies and individuals specializing in this area.

You're Only as Good as Your Skill Set.

For professionals working in the IT field, Porter recommends a book that offers tips on how to manage your career in the 21st century: Free Agent Nation by Daniel H. Pink. The book challenges workers, heralding "You're Only As Good As Your Skill Set!" Savvy workers will become lifelong learners, continuing to acquire new skills to increase their attractiveness to potential employers throughout their careers.

Where are the job opportunities today in San Diego?

Today, Porter has more than 50 job openings with starting salaries between $50,000 and $180,000.

The first category of openings is for database administrators (DBAs). According to Porter, there is strong demand for DBAs with expertise in Oracle and SQL. Additionally, there are 15-20 jobs at all levels available in software quality assurance (QA). In QA, you'll test the functionality of software that's been created by developers, looking into the code and the integrity of the data to discover issues before the software is released to the end user.

Porter has another 20 openings for software developer positions with knowledge of .Net, Java and PHP. However, due to the shortage of talent for both QA and software developer positions, Porter often provides people on H-1B visas, searching globally for talent anywhere she can find it.

Join User Groups and Network

How will you network and learn about opportunities in these areas? Porter encourages applicants to spend time with the people who are actually doing the jobs you want. Join user and industry groups, many of which are highly specialized. For example, visit the Oracle, Java or .NET user groups. Another good networking group is HDI (formerly Help Desk Institute), which has a San Diego chapter that holds monthly meetings and events.

Finally, find a good recruiter. Find one who will meet you in person and get to know you. A good gauge of whether recruiters are strong in their field is finding out if they have a high frequency of job opportunities in your niche. Select the person that will truly listen to you and best represent you-a good recruiter will invest time to understand you and your goals.

After all, says Porter, even in the IT field it's still all about people connecting with people.

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