Help wanted: Tech companies searching for talent | EnterChange

By Laura Baverman / lbaverman@enquirer.com

Photos By Michael Keating / mkeating@enquirer.com

This post is part of a special report on local talent. Find the rest of the stories in this package here.

Kat Steele gets the calls and emails almost daily.

Steele

Wanted: Web developer, email newsletter designer, coding skills in PHP, .Net, Javascript. Experience with WordPress. Excellent problem-solver.

Steele has her ideal job as a web designer at Gardner Publications in Newtown. The work is rewarding, the pay is good, the benefits excellent. She couldn?t be happier.

But still the recruiters call.

They?re looking for some of America?s most wanted workers ? software developers, IT experts and designers skilled enough to innovate faster than everyone else. Businesses ? multinational to startup ? have an insatiable need for the high-tech creative skills that let them sell more products, be more efficient and excel in a world moving digital at the most rapid pace yet.

Close to home, information technology workers also are the region?s best bets for building a nationally recognized hub of innovation and entrepreneurship that grows high-paying jobs and attracts the brightest young minds, a goal set in 2011 by top CEOs and business associations.

Yet highly skilled workers like Steele are among the toughest to find. Despite our region?s consistently high unemployment rate, hundreds of open tech jobs go unfilled for months or longer ? and the need only grows.

?Mobile technology is not a trend or a fad. It?s the meat, potatoes and vegetables of IT in the business world,? says Doug Arthur, a director of business partnerships for global IT services firm Atos Origin and founder of INTERalliance of Greater Cincinnati, a partnership of the region?s foremost technology officers.

?The need for these skills is a call to action to the universities that they have a long way to go.?

Business leaders fear a shortage of tech workers threatens their ability to compete today and into the future. Those in the startup community worry that a lack of Web and mobile developers will force promising new companies out of town.

?Talent is really becoming the new economic development tool,? says Denyse Ferguson, vice president of economic development of the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber. ?And there are profound talent needs in IT here.?

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Businesses face two problems. They need workers versed in the newest technologies now, and they need a pipeline of workers able to adapt to new technologies as they come.

In the short term, they?re turning to local universities, workforce development organizations and chambers of commerce to create courses and training programs for existing and new workers. And they?re expanding their recruiting efforts nationally and internationally.

To prepare for the long term, they?re wooing middle and high school students with creative tech events, camps and employment opportunities.

?The burden of educating young people about tech careers is really falling on business,? says Jim Scott, Kroger?s former chief technology officer turned chief information officer at KnowledgeWorks Foundation. ?If we weren?t Cincinnati and a natural philanthropic community, I think we?d really be suffering right now.?

The Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky chambers, KnowledgeWorks and Partners for a Competitive Workforce in February launched a regional study to examine the supply and demand of technical talent, both today and in the future.

Talks are already under way for a six-month boot camp for un- or underemployed workers to learn skills to take jobs in programming, managing a helpdesk or systems analysis, says Ross Meyer, executive director of Partners for a Competitive Workforce.

The group also has agreed to work with the national Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) to become one of two cities to pilot a six-month apprenticeship program, in which people earn certification and take on entry level helpdesk and call center jobs. Its goal is to introduce people to the field, expecting they either pursue a technical degree or learn other sought-after skills.

INTERalliance is beefing up its programs targeting high school students. In 2011, it created Super Smart Kids, a consulting practice made up of 30 students who complete web development projects for non-profits and companies. In 2012, INTERalliance will place 120 students in internships at companies like Kroger, GE Aviation and Procter & Gamble.

More than a dozen local high school robotics clubs have formed, getting kids interested in science, engineering and computer programming, says Rich Knudsen, advanced manufacturing department head and robotics advisor at Woodward Career Technical High School.

Gateway Community and Technical College will start the nation?s first associate degree program in instructional design and learning technologies this fall, preparing students for any number of high-paying technology and design careers.

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And a new national effort called Venture for America has chosen Cincinnati as one of five cities to launch in fall 2012. Recent college graduates will be assigned positions at local startup companies for a two-year period. The group?s mission is to grow the pool of talent in burgeoning startup communities and to equip budding entrepreneurs with the skills to start a company.

The challenges facing local companies aren?t unique. An April 2011 report ?America?s Tech Talent Crunch? by Dice.com, a leading tech job search site, reported the unemployment rate for tech workers at 4 percent, half the national average. Bureau of Labor Statistics data predicts a 22 percent increase in available tech jobs nationally by 2020.

So why the lack of workers in such highly sought fields? Average salaries typically range between $60,000 to $110,000, higher than many other occupations.

Perception is among the biggest barriers to luring people into the field, IT leaders say.

A common view of an IT job is handling mundane tasks like installing new software programs, troubleshooting computer problems and making routine tweaks and updates to off-the-shelf software platforms from Microsoft or IBM.

Some still fear a return to the early 2000s when many dotcom companies folded and left thousands of programmers out of work. Others fear IT functions will be outsourced overseas.

?Core is our ability to influence parents, high school teachers, guidance counselors that there are good careers in tech,? says KnowledgeWorks? Scott. ?They need to know that technologists are in board rooms today.?

Kroger, for example, wants to connect with millions of its customers who use iPhone, iPad and Android devices to make everyday decisions on myriad topics ? including what stores to shop. The nation?s largest grocer therefore needs staffers who can develop and design mobile web sites and applications, with content that is secure and personalized to a phone?s owner. Kroger recognizes that technologies facing customers can help generate additional sales and loyalty.

?In the past, we used the technologies vendors pushed out,? says Kirk Ball, Kroger?s vice president of enterprise architecture and technology engineering. ?Now, we?re seeing the consumerization of technology. Customers want to interact with us using their devices, so the hot skills are mobile development and data security.?

Interpersonal skills also have become a key requirement. Tech workers must be able to understand the vision of a company and communicate back the steps required to design and build a technology to match it. That?s a skill frequently lacking among even the most experienced technical workers, says Dave Hatter, president of Libertas Technologies, a small IT consultancy downtown.

Also challenging is finding workers creative and flexible enough to find a fix for any business problem, in any circumstance.

?This is not a career for everyone. It changes increasingly fast,? Hatter says. ?For you to be successful at it long term and not find yourself unemployed at 45, it?s about being committed to lifelong learning.?

The lack of local talent has been magnified as CincyTech grew its portfolio of startups to 30 in recent years. About half of the dollars it invests in those firms goes toward technology development, says Rahul Bawa, director of digital and software investments at CincyTech, a public and private entity that provides funding and mentors to startups.

To meet that need, CincyTech created its own group of IT developers called The Source to complete projects for its portfolio companies.

Half of the 12 developers and designers working at the Corryville office so far recently graduated from Carnegie Mellon University or left jobs in Boston, Chicago and San Francisco.

CincyTech doesn?t plan for The Source to make a profit, so it can charge startups a lower fee and still offer benefits and pay developers competitive salaries. As portfolio companies need full-time staff, employees of The Source can leave to fill those positions.

?Working for a startup has risks, like ?Am I going to get a paycheck??? Bawa says. ?We hire people full-time, deploy them across various startups so the risk of being with one goes away.?

Other local firms have taken the issue into their own hands, too.

Paycor, with a staff of about 80 technical workers, hires outside firms to teach its people mobile app development and technologies that allow for cloud computing.

In the meantime, the firm has contractors and off-shore operations to handle day-to-day work. It?s an expensive undertaking, says Vinay Mehta, the payroll processing firm?s chief information officer. But it offers a way to preserve the staff?s industry knowledge, while readying the company to implement the newest technologies.

Ascendum Solutions in Blue Ash, a global IT consulting firm with 250 local workers, employs full-time recruiters to constantly make hires. A new partnership with the University of Cincinnati will bring 14 master?s co-op students to the firm this summer, helping to fuel the pipeline.

Josh Fendley, founder of Ample Design, has hired staffers from the East and West coasts to handle growing demand for a coding language called Ruby on Rails. It?s the platform on which Twitter and Hulu were built, ideal for social media sites that require frequent updates and can?t spare any downtime.

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Because the language hasn?t been adopted on a wide scale by large businesses, especially those locally, few Ruby on Rails developers exist in this region, Fendley says. He expects demand to continue to grow, and that he?ll continue grabbing talent from elsewhere.

Universities are starting to recognize their role in providing more qualified talent to local businesses.

Leading the way in better training workers for technology jobs upon graduation is Northern Kentucky University, which created one of the first Informatics programs in the nation in 2005. It trains students in careers in business, healthcare or media, but arms them also with knowledge of the technologies they?ll use on the jobs.

?If I can get somebody that knows what HIPAA means, that understands insurance and Medicare and can combine that with technology, I?m in a good spot to support a pharmacy system we have in 2,000 of our stores,? says Nick Kaufman, vice president of Kroger?s software development and support group.

The University of Cincinnati is offering new courses in cybersecurity to better equip students in law enforcement and biomedical informatics with computer skills needed in hospitals, doctors offices or research labs. Courses are forming in the College of Business to prepare students for business intelligence and data analysis careers.

?We?re trying to force them to acquire the skills to make them employable at the time of graduation,? says Hazem Said, UC?s information technology department head.

The Gateway program, funded with a $4.9 million federal grant, will partner with TIER1 Performance Solutions of Covington, a quick growing company that provides digital learning and training programs for major national companies.

Students will learn web programming, graphic design, technical writing and training skills, preparing them to work for a company like TIER1 or to pursue a variety of tech-oriented careers.

?For any curriculum you develop and deliver, you hope it means something to industry. But when you get industry involved, you know you?re meeting the need they have,? says Patricia Goodman, Gateway?s dean of institutional research, planning and effectiveness.

High school and college students who?ve anticipated the demand for tech talent can take their pick among great jobs, says Rick Browne, director of the career services center at Xavier University. Two-thirds of businesses that call his office have a need for computer science or information systems majors despite the college?s small class size.

?It?s a seller?s market,? Browne says. ?The students tend to be shopping around for the type of programming they?d like to do.?

Suzie Nieman, a sophomore computer science major at UC, has helped fund her college courses by building and designing websites for local companies, charging up to $30 an hour.

When Nathan Mendel graduates from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology this May, he?ll join the Cincinnati office of the global IT firm Sogeti as a consultant. But that wasn?t before considering local opportunities at a major manufacturer of military equipment, a consumer insights firm and the venture capital-funded SparkPeople.

?I knew the job market would be pretty good,? he says. ?There?s demand for any skill you want to learn.?

Read more stories in this package.

Source: http://enterchange.cincinnati.com/2012/03/11/talent-main/

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