Opportunities in Trade Compliance IT

Hi

A student at a Masters program in IT contacted me about job opportunities in TC IT. Here's my advise to those who plan to find a job in Trade Compliance IT. TC IT jobs aren't easy to find. With a vast majority of trade compliance work being done manually opportunities for IT specialists opportunities are few as compared to business/operations job. The exception is positions for SAP GTS. A majority of SAP GTS positions I have encountered are consulting positions. When Oracle comes out with it's GTM product next year the opportunities should double :).

Most of the 'best of breed' vendors and ERP companies have product manager, developers, architect and implementation specialist positions . If you are lucky you may find a position with them. I have seen employees move from one vendor to another so you may decent prospects once you get into one. I think there are more best of breed vendors on the east coast as compared to the west coast. Barring consultant positions, the other positions are generally local.

If you want to work for a big company's in house TC IT you will need to specialize in the software they use. Generally growth opportunities are limited. The highest you can aspire to get to is lead or manager. You will have to cover more bases (e.g. logistics, order management etc..) to climb up the ladder to get to a Director level position. Generally, there aren't architect level positions for TC IT with large companies.

I hope this gives you all and general sense of the opportunities. Have you had a different experience? Let me know your thoughts.

Cheers