IT Workers Worry That Lack Of Business Skills Hold Them BackIT Workers Worry That Lack Of Business Skills Hold Them Back

Tech professionals may want to climb the corporate ladder, but many worry they don't have the business skills they need to advance.

The latest report from Dice, an online career site for technology professionals, shows that in a poll of high-tech professionals, 35% say their weakest career skill is budget management. Another 28% say they're concerned that they're simply not business savvy.

Since working with customers is a key part of a manager's job, most techies polled were in luck in that area. Only 15% said working with customers is their weakest skill.

The Dice report also shows that the New York/New Jersey area remains a hotbed of high-tech activity.

Last month, Dice reported that there were 12,377 IT positions available in an area that encompasses New York City, Long Island, and northern New Jersey. By comparison, there were 9,393 jobs advertised in the Silicon Valley area, including San Francisco, San Jose, and Oakland.

This month, the New York/New Jersey area didn't produce as many jobs (10,941) but it still came out on top of the list. The Washington D.C. area followed closely behind with 8,240 jobs. Silicon Valley, which covers San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose, came in third with 6,478. After that, it was Los Angeles with 4,667; Chicago with 4,277; Boston with 4,217; Philadelphia with 3,114; Dallas with 2,990; Atlanta with 2,896, and Seattle with 2,244.

So which skills are in demand?

When it comes to operating systems, most of the ads on Dice were looking for professionals with experience in Windows (16,445 ads) and Unix (14,822). For programmers, 13,608 ads were looking for Java developers and 12,184 were looking for people with C and C++ skills. When it comes to databases, 17,405 ads wanted Oracle skills and 14,843 wanted SQL skills.

The report also showed that demand for full-time tech professionals outpaced the demand for contract or part-time workers. Job postings requesting full-time technology workers increased 12.7% since the beginning of the year to 67,398, while demand for contact workers only gained 8.5% during the same period.