We currently have 95% Very Satisfied customers here at Entelligence IT. Most people in our business would be deliriously happy with that, but we are not. Our goals is to have every single company we work with (and, by extension, every single person) give us a 5 (Very Satisfied) on our 1-5 satisfaction scale. We want 100% ‘Very Satisfied’, and we won’t stop working on it until we’re there.

But, I acknowledge that 95% is remarkable, so let’s talk about how I think we achieve that number:

• First, we hire only the best people. We carefully select just the right person for the job. In a business that is scrambling to find enough qualified people, it is sometimes difficult to pass over a candidate who we desperately need to wait for the RIGHT candidate. But we do just that, and we reap the benefits of being patient and selective.
• We continuously train and re-train our people so that they stay current. They are always prepared and up-to-date on the latest trends and technology. Their tool box is replenished as often as necessary.
• We as a company support our experts in the field with a ‘team behind every tech’. They never have to go it alone. Answers and help are at their fingertips every minute of every day.
• We’ve built a great workplace that’s friendly and efficient. It’s collaborative, fast-moving, and fun.

Because of that, we have exceedingly low turnover. In a business where more than half of IT workers are looking for greener pastures, our turnover is less than 10%. That means our techs get to know their clients, and they go deep with them, understanding in detail their issues, their people, and their industries.

So, if you want to join an organization like ours and help us on our quest to hit 100% Very Satisfied, click here and check out our NetApp jobs, CommVault jobs, and others.

A new survey published by InfoWorld and conducted by Randstad Technologies and Technisource, reveals that over half of all IT workers are willing to condsider moving to a new company if the money and working conditions were right. In fact IT workers are more likely to consider leaving their current jobs than employees in any other industry.

That there are a growing number of opportunities speaks to the overall health of the high tech business. In data storage, for example, the demand is expected to grow by a factor of 50 over the next few years, but the number of qualified people to handle that demand is predicted to grow only by a factor of 1.5.

So, the greener pastures continue to grow. Here at Entelligence IT, we are always looking for qualified people for high-paying NetApp jobs, CommVault jobs, Citrix jobs, HDS jobs, and others.

To read the entire article on the survey results, click here.

The news for 2012 college grads is not encouraging. Less than half of recent college graduates from the classes of 2009 to 2011 found full time work within a year of finishing school. Many in today’s tough job market are going to work as interns in their chosen field, often without pay.

A story in yesterday’s New York Times describes the employment landscape and makes these 4 observations:

• The job market is still far from booming
• The class of 2012 faces tougher competition due to “the recession hangover”,
• 2012 graduates will be saddled with a big debt burden
• Starting salaries for those who DO find work will be lower than those for their counterparts who graduated a decade earlier, and they may never catch up.

Grim observations to be sure, overall. But, there are exceptions. High tech and engineering grads should do just fine. The data storage field, for example, is expected to grow by a factor of 50 in the next few years, while the number of qualified people to fill those jobs will grow by only a factor of 1.5. We here at Entelligence IT are always looking for new and well-qualified team members for NetApp jobs, CommVault jobs, Citrix jobs, EMC jobs, and other high paying jobs. Check out the opportunities at: http://www.entelligence.com/careers/current-openings/

To read the full New York Times article, click here

We’d like to congratulate our friends at NetApp. Recently,  they received the designation of “Leader’ In Gartner’s Magic Quadrant. Gartner Research has developed this tool to help deliver techonology insights and information necessary to make the right decisions. To be named a  “Leader”, an organization has to execute well against their current vision, and be well positioned for tomorrow, according to Gartner’s proprietary research.

We at Entelligence IT are not surprised at all by this designation. We’ve been a strategic partner with NetApp for some time, and we’ve seen firsthand how The NetApp OnCommand product portfolio of management software improves storage and service efficiency and helps customers control, automate, and analyze their shared storage infrastructure. 

So, how does an organization consistently execute against their vision? That kind of excellence starts at the top with those who lead setting the proper agenda and effectively communicating it . But, it also requires the right people in the right places doing what they do best every day. They have to fully understand the mission and the part they play in accomplishing it.

NetApp is certainly doing all the right things, and their market and the demand for their products is sure to grow in the coming months and years.

We’re doing everything we can to keep pace, and we’re always looking for qualified individuals to join our NetApp team here at Entelligence IT. To check out NetAppjobs, click here.

 

Our partners at NetApp recently celebrated 20 years in business. From small beginnings, NetApp has become a force to be reckoned with, a vital and cutting edge organization with six billion dollars in revenue and over 12,000 employees. In a note on their website, NetApp CEO Tom Georgens reminds us that, like many ideas, NetApp started out as just an idea sketched out on a placemat. An humble beginning, but a vitally important one. Today, NetApp serves over a billion different clients around the globe with its data storage products.

We congratulate our friends at NetApp, and we look forward to many more years of successful work together. We here at Entelligence IT will keep looking for top flight NetApp experts to handle what promises to be a time of continued growth for both organizations.

To read Tom Georgen’s note in its entirety, click here.

This morning’s Wall Street Journal had a terrific article about the decreasing number of kids who are coming out of college these days with a degree, and the cynicism of many graduates who can’t find work in their fields.

The article says that “there is also growing skepticism among some Americans about whether a college degree actually translates into a well-paying job. Particularly during the recession, there have been gluts of college graduates in some industries and shortages in others.”

We at Entelligence IT know all too well about that disparity. We are constantly searching for qualified people with skills in NetApp, HDS, CommVault, VMware, and more. We need people with the right technical background and great customer service skills. And, we are not alone. The technical field generally, and the data storage area specifically, are booming and will need more capable team members than are currently available for the foreseeable future.

While I don’t see many colleges or universities adequately preparing today’s students for the jobs we have available, I am optimistic about the future. The conversations are heating up about how to fundamentally change the way we prepare young people for the realities of the world of work.

For us it can’t happen soon enough….

The latest government data tells a disturbing story about the plight of college grads after they’re done with school and have started their ‘careers’. Over half of them are either underemployed or unemployed, the worst numbers since 2000. Broken down by occupation, young college graduates were heavily represented in jobs that required a high school education or less.

Not surprisingly, the prospects are better for those who earn degrees in Science, Computers, Education, and Health Care. For those with Liberal Arts degrees, the prospects are dim that they will find employment in their chosen field anytime soon.

We at Entelligence IT fully understand the problem and we have taken steps to continuously educate our team members and keep them current. We are always looking for “A” players. We have many current openings for high paying jobs, and would love to find qualified people to join our team.

To read the entire article about the current job situation for new graduates, click here.

Just received an email from Ryan Carson, CEO of Treehouse about the new investment from Chamath and Greylock.

I met Ryan a couple of months ago and wrote about him and Team Treehouse for this CNBC.com article.  Treehouse creates and delivers Web development and Web programming courses online.  So far, thousands have been through his program and, from the vote of confidence from this investment, looks like thousands more will be joining the Treehouse program.

Ryan and his team are one shining example of how to close the Skills Gap.

Today, there are millions of Americans out of work.  Millions more are underemployed.  And yet, here in the IT world, there are millions of unfilled jobs at companies like Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and, well, just about everywhere.

Why?  Because we simply don’t have enough skilled workers with the technical training they need to be successful in the current job market.

Ryan and Treehouse are out to change that.  Congratulations!

And you can read more about this here on TechCrunch.

The accolades just keep on coming for our partner, NetApp.

Crain’s Chicago Business has just announced that NetApp is the #4 company on the Chicago area “Best Places to Work” list. This continues a trend for the company around the world. NetApp, and its culture of innovation is building great workplaces in every corner of the globe and winning awards for their efforts. They were also recently chosen as the #6 company on Fortune’s “100 Best Companies to Work For” list. Around the world, they are consistently in the top 5.

Great organizations like NetApp know the value of a great workplace and an engaged workforce. All the evidence says that the efforts expended on building engaged teams who are constantly growing and learning contributes directly to the bottom line and:

• cuts turnover
•  increases productivity
•  makes for a safer  workplace overall
• and is a factor in increasing stock price and the value of the company

Here at Entelligence IT we are hard at work building our own engaged and world-class team. If you’d like to join us, please check out the available opportunities by clicking here.

A story in yesterday’s New York Times says that federal funds to train people are drying up. Frankly, if we’re only depending on the federal government to solve the problem we’re all in big trouble. Training workers to bridge the skills gap is going to take a joint effort between government investment and business and, to some degree, higher education.

Hopefully that kind of co-operative effort can happen soon. But the programs in place today don’t solve the problem because they often go to the wrong places for the wrong people for the wrong reasons.

On the other hand, companies like Entelligence IT offer training and development today. For example, we offer free NetApp training, free HDS (Hitachi) training, free Citrix training and free CommVault training to those who qualify. Even so, it’s not enough. This training can often cost small companies like ours $50,000 per employee in the first 3 months. And, there’s no guarantee that the employee will be ready to work right away.

The old model is outdated and broken. Hardware and software companies need people to support their products. And companies like ours are dependent on our partners to provide that training. However, the cost model is prohibitive to make any meaningful dent in hiring and training people who are experts in their technology.

I’m working hard to convince these companies to change their thinking – to give away their training for free or, at least make it affordable now. I believe that hardware and software companies who open up their training to the masses will create a wellspring of passionate evangelists for their products. And this in turn will generate even more sales of both products and services.

In the meantime, we continue to offer NetApp jobs, Citrix jobs, Hitachi Data System jobs, CommVault jobs, and others every week. High paying prestigious jobs that we hope to fill soon with qualified and capable team members.