For educational purposes only Wanted: Experienced Anybody

Fed up with job candidates who fluent skills, but have little to no experience, many IT managers are turning to training and internal hiring for their future skills needs

By Bronwyn Fryer

11/15/99 David Westmoreland's got a big problem with Java. He can't find people who know the language. When he does, he doesn't want to hire them. "Everybody's saying Java's the solution to world hunger, but nobody who knows it has any experience," he says.

Westmoreland's problem is exacerbated by the fact that he runs a huge information technology department in a company with big e-commerce ambitions. As vice president and CIO at $8.5 billion Arrow Electronics Inc., a 10,000-employee company in Melville, N.Y., he's responsible for the daily doings of 375 technology professionals, all of whom are already busy. Like everyone else, Arrow next year will be pushing hard to build up its portfolio of intranet and extranet applications.

Unimpressed with the quality of wet-behind-the-ears Java programmers he's interviewed for jobs, Westmoreland is looking inward, training existing staff to learn the language. "We're sending more and more people to Java training school so that we can begin developing our e-commerce and intranet applications," he says.

Westmoreland's conundrum is widespread. Next year, folks with Web skills will be at the top of the hiring list.

As companies wind up their Y2K projects, they will begin to focus their energies on building Internet- and intranet-based applications. But "most organizations are reluctant to go with start-up people," observes Mike Sheak, vice president of IT resources at Kelly Services Inc. in Troy, Mich.

Training seems to be the answer. According to the 1999 Computerworld Skills Survey, 34% of IT managers plan to pump training dollars into building Java skills, 39% are investing in the Web programming language HTML and 18% are investing in C++ training.

The ongoing Web explosion is placing IT professionals with knowledge of just about anything having to do with e-commerce in high demand. But good folks are hard to find. "We're noticing a very high demand right now for experienced C++ and Java developers," says Jesse Pavony, a technical recruiter at the Toronto office of Pencom Systems Inc. "But companies are really looking for people who understand object-oriented design and analysis as part of a methodology."

Unfortunately, IT managers say, there simply aren't enough people who can put together a Web page, engineer a network, build an Oracle database and speak English, too. "I don't think IT people are particularly savvy communicators," says John Keast, CIO at Pacific Gas & Electric Co. in San Francisco. "Our big problem is finding people who have a business understanding, who can see outside the box and see how to use technology to the organization's advantage."

Like Westmoreland, Keast is looking at training people who are already on staff, but he's eyeing business areas within his company as a possible source of recruits.

"I don't mind hiring a smart businessperson who likes technology enough to know how to put in a new sound card and training them in the IT skills they need," he says.

Indeed, smart business generalists who like to fiddle with technology can become prime movers in an IT organization. Consider the case of Gary Lagarde, a onetime liberal arts major who today works as a senior technologist in the computing services group at Reynolds Metals Co. in Richmond, Va. Prior to working at Reynolds, Lagarde was a sales and marketing representative at St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch Inc.

"I enjoyed working on technology," he says. When he came to Reynolds, he was trained for a position as an expert on the AS/400 platform. Today, he's considered a key member of Reynolds' IT team.

"I want people with good project management and interpersonal communication and business knowledge. We have to broaden our horizons, and we're happy to consider people with a good liberal arts and business background who have a good PC knowledge," says CIO John Rudio. To this end, Rudio has hooked up with the Virginia Federation of Independent Colleges, a consortium of 15 area liberal arts schools, to tap into an unexploited resource of liberal arts students with an interest in technology.

The e-commerce explosion is forcing companies to look high and low for networking professionals. This has been the biggest challenge for Ron Porter, vice president of information systems at USA Federal Credit Union in Troy, Mich. "Good, experienced network designers are really hard to find," says Porter.

"Schools are churning out (Microsoft Certified Software Engineers) like rabbits, but they have no experience. And as soon as you hire someone who is, they quit because they find better jobs."

As was the case this year, anyone with network development skills next year could well see a big raise.

Consider: 24% of skills survey respondents said they expect to hire people with experience in network protocols, particularly TCP/IP. And to rev up their Windows NT networks, 31% of survey respondents said they expect to spend money on NT Server training.

Worth his or her weight in gold is the network architect who can understand the big picture. Companies in well-to-do cities like Boston are luring this person for all they're worth. "The Boston marketplace is very, very hot right now," says Kristi Hummel, a recruiting manager at Pencom's Boston office.

The need for network designers and developers, she says, is "growing exponentially," with top candidates receiving signing bonuses, stock options, retention bonuses and flexible work schedules, on top of an average salary.

The e-commerce craze is also pressing companies to pay more for those with a background in database skills, particularly Oracle. About 28% of managers are looking to hire Oracle professionals, either for database or client/ server applications, next year. "We're having trouble hiring solid (database administrators) that can work on teams," says Westmoreland, emphasizing that "people who can look at the bigger business picture" are critical. "We've filled the gap by hiring consultants," he says.

Almost universally, companies predict a diminishing need for Cobol cowboys. While 17% of companies say they will hire Cobol programmers to baby-sit their mainframes, almost no training dollars are being put into this area.

Certainly, mainframe systems won't go away; after all, they're fantastic e-commerce transaction processors. "Our mainframe scales like no other platform, and I'm very happy with it," says Westmoreland. Nevertheless, Cobol programmers had better not sit on their hands if they want to keep working. "With the Y2K problem area resolved, many Cobol programmers are going to see their high-priced contracts and projects cut with virtually no companies willing to pick them up," says Hummel.

What's a Cobol speaker to do? "Retraining in newer technologies is going to be very important for this group," says Hummel. But others who've toiled to quash Y2K may be sitting pretty, as 14% of managers will be offering training in the big picture: project management.

External consultants who specialize in project management will continue to do well, too. "We have a perpetual need for consultants who understand project life cycles in the development realm but who can also communicate effectively to all levels of management," says Pavony. "People with those hard-to-find skills can pretty much write their own check."

Beyond 2000, companies will still need to beat the bushes for people with networking, database and Web-building skills, but they'll also be on the hunt for those with telephony skills such as voice-over-IP, says Marc Salvati, a recruiting director in Pencom's Toronto office.

In the meantime, IT managers should begin to think outside the box, as Keast says, in their search for people who can make a real difference in the organization. And the only way to do that, it seems, is to keep training.

As Harry Singh, director of customer services, support and training at Xerox Corp. in Palo Alto, Calif., puts it: "Training is becoming more important than most corporations care to believe." After all, says Singh, "better-trained people produce code better and faster."

Fryer is a freelance writer in Santa Cruz, Calif.

-- Cherri (sams@brigadoon.com), November 17, 1999

Answers

Get what you pay for

-- Mr. Green (greenturd@gas.com), November 17, 1999.

snip - Beyond 2000, companies will still need to beat the bushes for people -end snip

True but it won't be for for the usual reasons. [g]

-- Michael (mikeymac@uswest.net), November 17, 1999.

And this has what to do with fighting off cannibalistic teenagers and feral dogs in Y2K?

-- Ocotillo (peeling@out.===), November 17, 1999.

One little problem with JAVA. Remote mischief is quite possible. I have Javascript and Java options disabled on my browser. Only if I really really really want to visit a site with those do I enable them, and for that site only. As far as I'm concerned, Java is another one of those "cool" trendy but generally useless computer/software piecacraps we are subjected too -- AND DANGEROUS TO YOUR HARDRIVE. JUST SAY NO TO JAVA.

-- A (A@AisA.com), November 17, 1999.

Maybe the complaining companies could keep people if they paid them the going rate. If a company trains people, and then the people leave, that's because the training company is obviously trying to continue to pay them trainee wages AFTER they've become trained. Idiots.

Companies are quite willing to cut pay rates or postpone raises when there is a "glut" of workers (whatever specialty), then they bitch about lack of "loyalty" when their people go somewhere else for more money when there is a "shortage."

-- A (A@AisA.com), November 17, 1999.

Cherri: How experienced is your body? If you don't mind me asking....

-- King of Spain (madrid@aol.cum), November 17, 1999.

A-

As far as I'm concerned, Java is another one of those "cool" trendy but generally useless computer/software piecacraps we are subjected too -- AND DANGEROUS TO YOUR HARDRIVE. JUST SAY NO TO JAVA.

I've been working with Java since 1996 and it is NOT dangerous to your harddrive. The Java security model is quite rich and getting access to your hard-drive is next to impossible for applets downloaded from the web. It's far and away better than the security model of Microsoft's Active-X.

Oh! It might be trendy but it's definitely not useless. My clients have been able to do some really incredible stuff with Java in a fraction of the time it would have taken using a traditional programming language. And personally, I love it. It's a pleasure to develop with.

-TECH32-

-- TECH32 (TECH32@NOMAIL.COM), November 17, 1999.

>"Schools are churning out (Microsoft Certified Software Engineers) >>like rabbits, but they have no experience. And as soon as you hire >someone who is, they quit because they find better jobs."

Yeah, I guess when the pay is bad and the environment horrid people sure will "find better jobs."

What is this guy? A retard set loose?

-- Paula (chowbabe@pacbell.net), November 17, 1999.

Queenie

Do you sit at your PC and whack off all day?????

Jesus Christ dude, go buy a whore to satisfy your perverted needs.

You need some professional help freak.

Deano

-- Deano (deano@luvthebeach.com), November 17, 1999.

Deano---

whack off, --whore,--jesus Christ---!!!!

who is Perverted!!

Mud wrestle?

-- d.b. (dciinc@aol.com), November 17, 1999.

db

So you're saying it's OK to have .CUM in your handle??? It's OK to solicit anything that appears to have tits and an ass on the net???

Do you find this 'cute' and 'amusing'???

If you're advocating his behavior you're in need too my friend.....

They actually throw scum in jail for what he's doing.......

OH YEAH!!!!! I forgot - he's part of the 'in crowd' here.......

Must be OK then, huh......

Tell me, is this more of a hive?? A nest?? Or a cult???

Deano

-- Deano (deano@luvthebeach.com), November 17, 1999.

Tech32 -- we'll see after 2000-01-01, after the virus storm. Better than Microsucks isn't saying much. But, I might have to "bite the bullet" regardless of my misgivings, and learn it. What do you think of its applicability to non-networked, non-internet, personal standalone apps? (Database and charting/reporting on data?)

-- A (A@AisA.com), November 17, 1999.

BWAAAHAAAAAAHAAAAAHHAAAAAAA!!!!

And you can't stop me, Deano! FEAR THE MUD!!!!

BWAAAHAAAAAAHAAAAAHHAAAAAAA!!!!

-- King of Spain (madrid@aol.cum), November 17, 1999.

A,

What do you think of its applicability to non-networked, non-internet, personal standalone apps? (Database and charting/reporting on data?)

That all depends on the third party class libs you use. As a language, Java is great. It was definitely designed with the programmer in mind. I've done a bunch of standalone apps with it but all were network-centric. They basically crawl the web, send/recieve emails, talk to SQL-Server databases and Access databases, etc. I'm not too impressed with the available IDE's, but then again I never really liked working with IDE's to begin with. Take a look, you won't be disappointed. -TECH32-

-- TECH32 (TECH32@NOMAIL.COM), November 18, 1999.

A,

What do you think of its applicability to non-networked, non-internet, personal standalone apps? (Database and charting/reporting on data?)

That all depends on the third party class libs you use. As a language, Java is great. It was definitely designed with the programmer in mind. I've done a bunch of standalone apps with it but all were network-centric. They basically crawl the web, send/recieve emails, talk to SQL-Server databases and Access databases, etc. I'm not too impressed with the available IDE's, but then again I never really liked working with IDE's to begin with. Take a look, you won't be disappointed.

-TECH32-

-- TECH32 (TECH32@NOMAIL.COM), November 18, 1999.