says. “They need to have a combination
of technical and business knowledge,
understanding how it fits into the business interests of the organization.”
Ostrowski explains that in today’s
tight economic times, many businesses
are looking to squeeze as much value as
they can out of their existing IT infrastructure. “So they need people who can
tell them how to take what they have
today and make it work to its optimum
capacity, so that they can either become
more productive as a business or
reduce costs as a business,” he says.
“If employees don’t understand how
technology fits into the business, then
they’re not much use to their employer
as an IT worker.”
“I think talented IT pros with strong
business knowledge, understanding and
exposure to the business will always be
in high demand,” adds Dan Martineau,
principal at Martineau Recruiting
Technology. “Because you have to
partner with the business, you have to
understand the business perspective to
successfully deploy technology.”
The problem, he explains, is that
many IT workers have not adjusted their
career strategy to fit the needs of their
employers. “Starting in the early 1990s,
many articles said, ‘If you lose your technical skills, you’re toast,’” Martineau
says. “Now, with the advent of offshoring
and outsourcing, it’s gone the other way,
where they say, ‘God forbid you lose your
management skills, because if you’re just
a coder, you’re toast.’”
SOME TECH SKILLS IN HIGH DEMAND
For all the talk of the need for IT candidates to develop their business acumen,
there are also specific technical skills
that headhunters and CIOs say are in
short supply. Security is one example.
A recent Comp TIA survey of 3,500
IT professionals and employers found
that 74 percent of respondents listed
security skills as the top qualifications
needed by their IT departments, but
only 57 percent said their employees
were proficient in security. This 17-point
gap between need and proficiency was
the largest among the 10 categories
listed in the survey, including soft skills,
networking skills and experience with
Web-based technology.
Some wonder how long this skill shortfall will persist, though. As a recruiter, WHY ARE THERE GAPS?
Martineau says he’s seen the critical need As many a veteran IT job searcher will
for security pros cool down in the past tell you, employers frequently have
few years as awareness and training have difficulty finding people with the
improved. “We’re not seeing the need as right talents to suit their job openings
much anymore,” he says. because they approach the search with
Martineau has the hardest time find- unrealistic expectations and insufficient
ing senior developers with solid Java 2 compensation.
Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE) skills “Some employers are unrealistic,”
and Web 2.0 application skills. In most Computer Management’s Miller says.
instances, he believes the need in these “They want too much—sometimes
particular developer competencies comes they’ll ask for Visual Basic, .NET, XML
in conjunction with senior-level experi- and Java programming experience, a
ence or additional management skills. four-year degree, certifications and a
“We have lots of clients stable job history.” For every
who are looking for people skill an employer adds to the
who have hands on Java/J2EE “It seems as if list of requirements, the pool
skills, but who’ve also been there are plenty of qualifiedapplicantsshrinks,
managing people over the of networking people, but she adds. last few years,” he says. “They there aren’t According to Comp TIA’s
need strong management enough Ostrowski, the skills gaps are
skills and strong tactical skills. software partly the fault of employers
A lot of times, those people developers with unwilling to train their staff.
don’t exist.” the right skills,” In many cases, it makes sense
Janet Miller, a headhunter to hire employees without
for the high-tech recruiting all the requisite skills and to
firm Computer Management, has had develop them on the job and through
similar experiences. “It seems as if there employer-sponsored training.
are plenty of networking people, but “The argument we always hear from
there aren’t enough software developers employers is that if I train my employees
with the right skills,” she explains. For on something new, they are going to take
example, she says that service-oriented another job,” he says. “But if you talk to
architecture (SOA) and .NET devel- IT professionals, after you get past the
opers are in high demand, but COBOL salary issue, the thing they are looking
programmers can’t find a job and even for most is support from their employer
C++ developers have seen things dry up. to continue learning new skills and tech-
One of the difficulties and opportu- nologies. They’re not necessarily looking
nities of tech is that it changes fast. New to jump ship at the first opportunity.”
needs for technical proficiency consis- “It’s a lot more economical in the
tently crop up. The trick is to foresee long run to spend some money up front
what the next big need will be and on training than it is to have turnover
train people before it becomes an issue. among your staff every six months,”
Comp TIA predicts that the next large Ostrowski says. “Besides, if you’re inter-gap will likely be in wireless skills. ested in bringing new technology into
BASELINE JUNE 2008
“People who obtain some training or your network, and you don’t train your
skill development in the wireless com- people on how to use it, then what is the
puting and communications areas are point of making that investment in the
going to be in good shape in the not-too- first place?” 17
distant future,” Ostrowski says. “Five
years from now, everybody is going to
want wireless people, and those skills are
going to be very relevant.”
