By Graham Jones
If there is such a shortage of skilled IT labor why can’t I get a job?
There is no question that there is a shortage of skilled IT labor. Projections may vary depending upon the source but it is very clear that “we” have a “real” problem. It is a global problem and projections are that it will get worse. The consequences for the world economy are very serious. Opinions vary as to why we got here, for example the fallout from the “dot bomb” debacle putting people off from seeing IT as a “safe” and “rewarding” career. The fact is that higher education enrollment simply hasn’t been keeping up with demand. But is it simply an “education” problem. Not really. Getting and keeping a job is much more complex. Can we say that all of the “work ready” people in IT are gainfully employed thus helping to mitigate the shortage? Likely not. If they aren’t, why not? Perfectly competent people lose their jobs for many reasons and it can be particularly difficult to get back into the workforce after a long period of employment. You tend to forget what it takes to get a job. Getting a job becomes your new “job” and it will require all of your skills and determination to succeed.
As someone who helps to run a fairly large User Group I quite often have people contacting me asking if I can help them get work. I point out to them that I can’t get them a job, only they can. The challenges of getting, and keeping, a job are not specific to IT of course. They are generic to any form of employment and all too often I find that the people who approach me are not well versed in how to go about it. If I have any useful advice to offer it is born out of my own, sometimes “hard knocks”, experience. First of all we should accept that getting a job will likely be one of the most challenging things we ever do and often much harder than keeping one. My point here is that if you don’t start from the right place “mentally” you are likely to consistently fail. You may suffer many “rejections” which are not intended to be “personal” but they sure begin to feel that way after a while. “But I have a good previous work record. So what is wrong?” you say to yourself. That could even be correct [although not always – self delusion is common – people haven’t been honest with them] but the challenge is convincing a prospective employer. So getting a job is all about “sales”, selling ourselves. Some people are naturally good at sales but not usually the typical “techie”. We should understand that we are all in “sales” in some capacity in both our personal and professional lives even though we may not think of it that way. For example, we have to “sell” our ideas to get them heard [communication skills are paramount] and persuade people to do our bidding.
The first thing to recognize is that the vast majority of job vacancies are not advertized. So the quality and extent of your people “network” will determine the strength of your starting point. Today’s “explosion” in online social networking is changing the approach to job search. The first obstacle in getting an interview is that in most cases it is very difficult to gain direct access to the hiring manager without getting past the “gate keeper” in HR. As someone who has interviewed many [several hundred] people it was always a challenge to balance how much time you could devote to it versus the quality of the result. Any hiring manager who tells you that they made no hiring mistakes is …insert your own words..! Every hiring decision has serious implications for the business. So a bad choice is usually “very painful”. With so many applicants for a job it is unfortunate that the HR “gatekeeper” has to exist to make life practical for the hiring manager. So the first task is to get past the “gatekeeper” who typically is not particularly subject matter knowledgeable and can only apply broad criteria, hopefully supplied by the hiring manager [regrettably not always – sometimes HR think they know better!]. I can only imagine that HR don’t want to be “bored” going through hundreds of resumes any more than the hiring manager. So help them to help you. Typically they will be looking for certain “key” words which regrettably has led to computer scanning of resumes and an insistence on supplying resumes in a particular electronic format. As much as I recognize the need for “practicality” this can easily lead to “throwing the baby out with the bathwater” or “playing the game” by the applicant and making sure that the “right” words are there. There is no perfect solution.
Latterly in my career, my instructions to HR were very different and this is the advice that I always give people when they ask me for help about their resume. The first half-page should be 2 to 3 clear, concise, concrete statements about specific impactful “achievements” [the What]. The details behind those achievements can be covered in the body of the document [the How – techniques used for example, the Where – which company for example, the When - timing, the Who – in a team or on your own for example]. Unfortunately I have rarely seen this approach advised by supposed “experts” in resume writing. In fact when I have done mentoring work for S.U.C.C.E.S.S., which is an excellent organization by the way, the first thing that I do with the mentee is work with them to rewrite their “traditional” resume. By “traditional” in IT I mean something that often starts with a technical “shopping list” which makes them look superhuman and includes every piece of software that they have opened once! Of course technical knowledge is important; IT is a technical industry. Not only did that improve the chances of getting an interview but it made them “think” about their achievements. In turn that helped them prepare for an interview.
The interviewer now has specific material to work from without “digging” it out [make it easy for the interviewer] and the interviewee is “prepped” to give meaningful and relevant answers. I would often be faced with “but I don’t have any work experience, so I don’t have any concrete achievements”. Who says that they have to be work related? Everybody has some achievements if they think hard enough. What about volunteer work, sports, hobbies, etc.. Use your imagination! The interviewer should be interested in finding out about “you” because ultimately that is what matters the most when it comes to a good hiring decision. In one of my jobs I had to interview candidates for process worker positions on a chemical plant. These are people who are often quite intelligent but not typically resume savvy. A couple of cases might illustrate what people forget about themselves. In one case I discovered during the interview that the person was an Olympic canoeist but it wasn’t on his resume. I asked him why and he said “that’s not work related”. I told him that tells me everything about you I need to know. In the other case I asked if there was anything he was particularly proud of and he opened his wallet and showed me a photo of some absolutely beautiful furniture that he had made. I hired them both and both were excellent employees. Neither had any process worker experience; the first was a car mechanic and the second a coal miner. Who we are is far more important than what we might know!
All too often people say to me “I have lots of experience in X and appropriate certifications” but I still can’t get a job. What they are missing is “what makes a good employee” and it is much more than technical competence. I always viewed a “good employee” as 80% attitude and 20% aptitude. Find someone with the “right” attitude and “an ability and willingness to learn” and eventually you will have a “good, low maintenance” employee. Do I mean someone who is “compliant”? Absolutely not. You want to hear their ideas and insights. It is how they deliver them that matters. If I were to compare the engineering and IT industries my observation would be that technical opinion is often so “religiously” held in IT as to be obstructive and not in the interest of progress. There is some “value” in all communication if you are willing to be “open minded” and look for it. Nothing is ever absolutely “black” or “white”. Recently, I was following an email thread which involved a technical discussion between 2 people. As it went on the rhetoric escalated to the point that the thread moderator asked them to desist. That was completely ignored and the moderator had to ask twice more. They showed absolutely no regard for the many other people on the list. There is no way that I would hire either of these people however knowledgeable they thought that they were. Interestingly one of them consistently complained about not being provided certain information by a vendor when other “non-combatants” kept saying “I knew, so I can’t understand why you didn’t”. Clearly this person would be a “high maintenance” employee, what I call a “90:10” employee; you put in 90% effort for 10% return!
One thing is for sure the “dartboard” approach [with any luck something will stick] to job applications, where you send out a resume to everybody you can think of, very rarely if ever works. So I did a good job on the my resume and cover letter [also an important document that should be tailored to a specific job application as should the resume to some degree] and I have been getting interviews but I still can’t get a job! Not everybody is good at interviews. That is one of the reasons that getting a job is harder than keeping one. Don’t ever be afraid to ask the hiring manager why you weren’t selected. You might be surprised on two counts; the manager might be quite willing to help and the reasons that you didn’t get the job don’t have to leave you feeling “rejected”. The other thing to help of course is practice and yet more practice. Get a friend or colleague to help. An experienced hiring manager will always cut you some slack if you are nervous about being interviewed but will never give you room to be unprepared. If you have the misfortune to meet the “interviewer from hell” don’t go and work there even if you get a job offer, however desperate you might feel. It rarely if ever works out. These people are “bad” employees but rarely does the hiring company recognize that.
Ultimately the difference between two employees or prospective employees with similar experience and education is a positive “attitude”. Today much is made of “soft skills” [attitude] versus “hard skills” [experience and education]. It is almost as if this was suddenly recently discovered if you listen to some people. The fact is that both have always been needed from the “beginning of time”. There are a multitude of examples from history that illustrate this through great leaders even if some of them were conquerors, For me “soft skills” means adaptable, amenable, good inter-personal skills, team player, versatile. If you are convinced that your “hard skills” are sound then start working on your “soft skills” if getting a job isn’t working out.
