Job market today part 2
It seems that the global economy is improving as many companies are beginning to hire people in the past few months. Last year, many students asked me about job opportunities and wondered whether they could find jobs or not. Today they are asking me about which company is better since they all having more than one offer.
My friend who owns a successful small company told me that he had 10 offer rejects in the past 3 months. Some rejections came after the offer was accepted then people change their minds before the start date. He was not happy because someone had made an offer 10% higher than his as the shortage of skilled people begin to show in the software market. He complained: “I do not understand these students, I made them a fair offer, they seemed very happy and ready to accept but they talked to other companies and got better salaries”.
Today the market is changing fast as many companies need software workers and they are desperate. These companies are willing to do whatever it takes to get the skilled people despite the cost as the competition has begun in both the U.S and Europe early this year. According to several industry forecasts, software salary has increase on the average about 7% in the past three months as the shortage continues.
My friend told me: “I need Software Architect and Network Security people for my company. I offered very good salaries but then I discovered that my offers were lower than the market by 5% since the competitive market has shifted in the past few months. It seemed that everybody is looking for these skills”. I told him: “Have you read the newspaper recently? There is an article written in the Wall street Journal that even Google and Microsoft also have difficult in hiring software people. The article title: "Google Expansion Is Being Held Back By Hiring Process" and Google executives said they can not expand as rapidly as they would like because they can not find enough qualified employees or deploy new software fast enough. If large companies like Google and Microsoft can not find enough of the right workers then you should not be upset because you are not alone. With this critical shortage of software people all over the world, do you think you have better chance than others? In the past ten years, most students went to business schools to learn finance, banking and investing so they can make more money resulting in the decline of enrollment in technology areas by more than 40%. Now we are facing a shortage of software people in both the U.S and Europe as the demand exceed supply. Many companies have to outsource their works to India and China but based on what I read in newspaper recently, these two countries are also have shortage of software workers too.
From what I know, there still are some Programmers, Website developers, Testers looking for works but in special areas such as System Architect, Business Analyst, Requirements Engineer, Network Security specialist, there are not enough in the market today. The simple reason, there are only few schools that teach these software skills. Senior executives all over the world are looking for these areas and asking - Where are these skilled workers? Where can I find them?
I told my friend: “As an executive and owner of a successful software company, you should ask yourself - what have you been doing for the past few years? Why haven't you been preparing for this? You understand the needs and the market well but have you prepare to get the right talents to help you growing your company? The shortage of skilled workers is not new, many people have warned about this for years. The declining in enrollment of software students are well known fact but companies are not actively do anything about it. The shortage of talent in market has happened before where company could not find enough people so they increased salary and fighting with each others for workers. Today they are doing the same thing with better salaries and hiring bonus.
My friend acknowledged his mistake: “So what should I do?”.
I told him: “You need to have a strategy to work with university by explain your needs to them. Of course, some universities will ignore you but some will work with you to create courses that teach the skills that you need. You may want to address your needs with students too. You must tell them about the industry needs, what area that you anticipate will grow in near future. You need to understand that recruitment is a competitive process. You are not just providing them with salaries, everybody is doing that, but you are bringing people together as a team to accomplish some exciting works. In the market full of competition, top students have choices so you are competing with other companies. Success recruiting requires strong relationship between company and students. It means you need to work with these students early to convincing them to work for you. Let me give you an example, successful people like Bill Gates came to Carnegie Mellon several times each year to talk to students. He already had few staff members working in school to identify top students so when he came, he had lunch with them. Can you imagine as a student, you had lunch with Bill Gates and he ask you to work him in Microsoft? That is how top companies are so successful in recruiting top talents today. These leaders understand that it is the people that help their companies to grow; it is the people that bring value, innovation to their companies; it is the skills and talent that make the difference and they know how to treat them well.
Sources
- Blogs of Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University
