A conversation about opportunity
While the daily news are full of global economic problems and unemployment stories, there is an area that have more opportunities, more jobs but less applicants: The technology area. Last month, a friend in San Jose told me: “I have advertised software job openings for more than five weeks but no one apply.” I told him: “I am not surprised, since you have to compete with Facebook and Google.” Then another friend from Shanghai complained that he had over fifty software jobs openings but only two people applied. Since Shanghai is a fast growing city with thousands of technology companies, I am not surprised. Then came a discussion with a friend in Hyderabad and he is experiencing difficulty in hiring software workers.
Last week, I went to see Ryan Kelly, a senior researcher at U.S Bureau of Labor and Statistics to ask about the global job market. He explained: “It is very difficult to hire technology workers today because there are so few of them. This is not a problem in the U.S but everywhere. The reason is technology changes quickly, companies must update their systems to keep up and they need workers who know about new technology. In the past ten years, a majority of college students wanted to study finance, business, and stock market trading until the recession in 2008. That is why today we have so many unemployed graduates in business area but not enough in technology area. That is why so many young people are angry and demand more jobs by occupy Wall Street. Most universities did not know how to predict the trends. Professors only teach what they know and their views are limited to technical area, not global market. People who have jobs are busy with their works, they rarely spend time to learn new things. That is why the demand of new technology is high but the supply is low and the shortage spread everywhere. Few years ago, U.S students did not want to study technology because they thought most of these jobs would be outsourced to India and China. They were wrong. With new technology, there are more jobs than ever. Even today, both India and China do not have enough skilled workers.”
I asked: “So what will happen next? What is the solution to this shortage problem?
He explained: “The U.S government is encouraging people who have bachelor degree in other areas to take additional classes in technology so they can work in this area. Many companies are willing to hire people with technology skills even they do not have degree in this field. The government is also working on an immigration policy to allow more technology workers to come and work in the U.S. They also working on special status for foreign students who are educated in U.S and have technology degrees to stay and work here. Even with more outsourcing, the demand is still high so this problem will not be solved for many years to come.”
I asked: “What are the skills that most companies are looking for?”
Ryan said: “They need every technology workers that they can get. From entry level programmer to more advanced levels such as project manager and even Chief Information Officer (CIO). The industry consider Java and C++ are main programming languages for entry level programmer job. A knowledge in C programming is in high demand in the embedded software area. If applicants have additional languages like Ruby, Python, and Ajax then it is definitely much better. Most companies need people who understand development life cycle, know how to design and managing risks. They need people who can analyze business needs, understand requirements of customers and write software requirements specification. They need people who can manage IT services, cloud computing, software as a services. They need people who can integrate system components. Basically, they need all knowledge workers. The fact is other countries also have similar demand so competition is tough. I know as a fact that U.K, France, Denmark, Japan, S. Korea, Singapore, India and China all have shortage. I estimates that the world need several million knowledge workers today.”
I asked: “Do you think there will surplus in the near future. Is it possible that few years from now we may not need that many technical people?”
Ryan shook his head: “I have been a market research specialist for over thirty years. My job is to predict market trends and employments for the government. I never see something like this. Globalization has changed everything. The need to compete in this new market has opened many opportunities that never happened before in history. What you see today is only a small piece of many bigger things to come in the near future. Today, people recognize that technology drives the entire global economy. Everything people do in the future will depend on information technology. I do not see a slowdown in technology hiring or technology innovation. If you look back five years ago, nobody would believe that smart phone like iPhone could change the entire telecommunication industry. Nobody could predict a tablet like iPads could change the PC market. Today mobile application market is worth several billion dollars and creates hundred thousand jobs for mobile app developers. With the advancement of technology, more things will happen soon. They will change many things that people do not even dream of. I do not see the demand for technology worker changes at all. At least in the next fifty years.”
I asked: “Why do you think that way? Do you have any suggestion for college students?
He laughed: “Technology can bring efficiency and effectiveness to the way company operates. It means technology can increase the profits of company at least ten to twenty times. That is why all companies, large and small, are moving quickly to apply technology to their business. Governments are following that trends too, you can see that with e-government, things are changing quickly in some countries already. Business is also changing too, few years ago not many people do business over the internet. Today a third of the business in the world is conducted over the internet, e-business is doing very well. If you look at all the richest people on earth, 75% of them came from the technology area. Not long ago, many billionaire and millionaire were from the U.S and Europe, and few from oil producing countries in the Middle East. Today, India and China have thousands of billionaires and millionaires and most of them started in the technology area. As technology continues to dominate everything, the job opportunities are endless.”
“My suggestion to college students is no matter what you study, you must know information technology. You can study anything but without knowledge of technology you will not do well. In the near future, everything people do will depends on technology so the best way is to study technology. It is simple and logic. If every offices, every manufactures, every factories, every governments, every business are using information technology then what do you think they will need? You can look around to see how many people have mobile phones, laptops, access to internet and wireless devices etc. All of these are an indication that technology drives everything. If you do not study technology, you will miss a big opportunity.”
“Today, people begin to realize the advantage of technology but not everybody will change. Many are reluctant, many are afraid, many do not want to change, and many want to wait. That is why most of them will miss this opportunity. With globalization, students will have to compete with students from another countries for jobs. Today workers will have to compete with workers from all over the world. Today a country will have to compete with other countries for the piece of the global market. Big country do not have advantage over small country. Rich country do not have advantage over the poor country. Developed country do not have advantage over developing countries. It is a phenomenon that few people understand because the rule has changed. The global market is based on a new rule, the rule of speed where the fast will beat the slow. The key factor is who dominate first and capture a big piece of the market will win. This is not the time to wait or be complacent because everything happens very fast. If you missed an opportunity, it is gone and never come back. There is no second chance. Adjusting to technology change depends on the knowledge and the skills of the leaders to set direction. It depends on the vision, the skills, and the benefits that technology will bring to a country or a company. From a college students' perspective, technology skills are essential to survive in this fast changing world. In addition, if students also have foreign language skills, the opportunity is far wider because they can go to work in many places. With the internet, everything is connected so jobs will go to where skilled workers live, many people can work from home as virtual workers. With micro-sourcing or crowd-sourcing, knowledge workers do not have to work for a company but anyone who need their skills in the virtual world. There are so many changes coming in the near future as technology is changing fast and many things people may not even imagine will happen soon. My questions are: Do you have the skills that the global market needs? Do you know what the market need? Do you want to learn technology now or wait until a majority do that then you just follow them? Do you want to be the first or the last? Do you want to lead or to follow? Do you want company to come to you and offer you job or do you want to stand in line and apply job, knowing that they may not want you? These are serious questions that college students must ask themselves.”
I argued: “I agree with you but not everybody could study technology, some may find it difficult.”
He smile and explained: “Fifty years ago, there were less than five thousand people in the world know how to program a computer. During the World War 2, the U.S had only three thousand computer scientists. Today there are several hundred million people in the world know how to program. What is the difference between then and now? Nothing, programming is the same, only languages change. Back then, computer is new, nobody know about it so only few scientists learned computer. Today computer is everywhere and so popular even children can program their mobile phone and download music. If you want to be the first. If you want to study something new. If you have knowledge that only a few have then you can get high paying job. It may be difficult now because technology is still new but it will change soon. However, you should not wait. This is where you seize the opportunity. In this fast changing time, knowing the opportunity and capture it is everything. If you do not capture it, somebody will. Let's us look at Apple and why this company grow so fast and so big? Apple always has products that nobody have, it has something everybody want because it always be the first. Of course, there are many followers who copy Apple's products but they never catch up with Apple. This is the market advantage of being the first. Sooner or later, technology will penetrate everything and by that time, it is so common and nobody will ever mention about it and it is too late to get into this field. My suggestion to college students is knowing what is needed now, what will be needed in the near future and study it to seize the opportunity. You only invest four years of hard work but the reward is tremendous. Do not be content with current situation. Do not be content with current job market as long as you have a potential to do more. Visualize yourself five years to ten years from now and ask yourself. What do you want to do? What could you do and what will happen if you do not seize this opportunity?
He explained further: “Last week, I saw a person demonstrated in Wall Street with a sign: “College educated but no job” I asked him: “Do you think by going to college, you are guaranteed a job? You have invested a lot of time, money and efforts in your education but maybe you selected areas that nobody need, so you get a degree but no job? If you open the newspapers and look at the jobs opening section, you will find thousands of job opening but not enough applicants. Why don't you return to school and learn something that the industry needs. It seems that the opportunity in the area that you have studied is gone but today there is opportunity in other area. You cannot stand here and complain because you are wasting your precious time. You are responsible for your own future so you must look at the future and ask what would be best for you and make plan to do just that.”
Sources
- Blogs of Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University
