Some 2012 College Grads Face Tough Job Market
May 8th, 2012 by dennis
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
Training Buddies and Apprenticeships-How Germany is Fixing the Skills Gap
April 4th, 2012 by dennis
The employment statistics for most of Europe are dismal. In Spain and Greece, almost half of all individuals under the age of 25 are unemployed. Yet, Germany has the highest rate of youth employment in all of Europe. So, what are they doing differently?
A story on NPR today may give us a clue. It tells the story of a young man who has always been interested in airplanes and flying. He couldn’t be a pilot, so he chose to do the next best thing and become a mechanic. He is currently being trained by Lufthansa, and he is being paid about a third of the going rate for jet engine mechanics while he learns. He isn’t PAYING to be trained, he is being PAID. He loves going to school every day and working on real engines that fly real airplanes. He’s on a deadline every day and learns from a “Training Buddy”, an experienced jet engine mechanic.
This apprenticeship system, with its roots in the middle ages, seems to be working. In fact 60% of German students choose vocational training over academic training after graduating high school. And even with this kind of success and enthusiasm, they are still having trouble finding enough qualified people to to meet the demands of their growing economy.
Here in the U.S. we also face a critical shortage of qualified workers to fill all the positions available in several industries. Could a systemic change like apprenticeships help us close the skills gap in the U.S.?
Something certainly needs to be done. We at Entelligence IT understand the issue and see it firsthand every day. We are always looking for qualified people to take high paying jobs. We currently have openings for Hitachi jobs, CommVault jobs, Citrix jobs, NetApp jobs, EMC jobs, and others.
To read more or to hear a podcast of the NPR story, click here….
$1000 STEM Scholarships: Like Trying to Empty the Ocean With A Teaspoon – by Steve Satterwhite
March 29th, 2012 by dennis
So, I’m reading a story today that ran in this week’s Seattle Times about how students interested in science and mathematics can win a STEM scholarship for $1000. While I’m all for incentivizing people, I think it helps if you first understand what you’re trying to do, and what you want the outcome to be.
Offering students $1000 to make them care about science and mathematics to fill in the Skills Gap is like trying to empty the ocean with a teaspoon. It’s going to take a while and I’m probably not going to live long enough see the results.
Let’s take a minute and stack the 1000 bucks up against some other numbers that matter. Seventeen million Americans have finished college and are currently doing jobs that do not require a degree. That means your local Barrista with a Bachelor of Arts in English lit is likely making your espresso right next to someone with only a high school education.
For the first time in history we owe more on college loans than we owe on credit card debt. We owe 828 BILLION dollars in student loan debt. A thousand dollars isn’t going to go far there, is it?
There are 3-4 million jobs in the high tech business that are not being filled. My industry is growing by a factor of 50 while the number of people with the skills to do those jobs grows by a factor of only 1.5.
There’s an elephant in the room that I think has to be addressed before we can really get down to business and solve the problem: College is not for everyone, and if higher education was the cure, we’d have more people prepared for the new world we live in.
Instead, the skills gap continues to grow. The number of high school kids bored and dropping out is on the rise. And, our answer is to give them $1000 scholarship toward an education that will likely cost them 100 times that much, if not more.
I see it firsthand every day. We at Entelligence IT have jobs that pay very well available with or without a college degree. We are looking to hire people every week for NetApp jobs, CommVault jobs, Citrix jobs, and others that pay from $70,000-$170,000 a year. And yet we have a tough time filling those positions for the simple reason that there just aren’t enough people qualified to do the work.
The good news? There are new ideas being developed for education that will allow people to follow their passions and learn skills that they can use NOW to make a living and change the world a bit. Sites like Skillshare.com, Udemy.com, Treehouse.com , CodeAcademy.org, and others have figured out how to dispense and share information that matters in a cost effective and timely way.
I wish them all the best, because frankly I think we’re going to need a major overhaul and it’s probably going come from out-of-the-box thinkers who see the breadth and depth of the problem and are willing to try new methods to find one or more that work.
War for Talent Begins Again
March 23rd, 2012 by dennis
Dr. John Sullivan, a leading Silicon Valley recruiter says the war for talent is heating up again, and not just in the U.S.
Sullivan, who Fast Company magazine dubbed “The Michael Jordan of Hiring”, says that this battle will be fought in several different industries, but primarily in the high tech fields. Some companies are taking drastic measures to find the people they need, including $20,000 referal fees, free beer for life, and a free genome sequence for their employee. One company even drove a van continuously around their competitor’s building with a “We Are Hiring” banner.
While we haven’t resorted to any of those particular strategies, we here at Entelligence IT understand the problem. We run ads every week for CommVault jobs, NetApp jobs, Citrix jobs, and others. We’re hoping that a great workplace and a chance to grow will be incentive enough.
To read more of Dr. Sullivan’s article, please click here.
Lots of Jobs, Not Enough People to Do Them
March 21st, 2012 by dennis
Every day the drumbeat gets a little louder. There are 3 million available jobs in the high tech sector alone and there are simply not enough qualified applicants to do them all. How is that possible, given all of the unemployment numbers? “We run ads every week,” says Entelligence CEO Steve Satterwhite, “for NetApp jobs, Hitachi Data System jobs, Citrix jobs….you name it. And we struggle to find qualified people to fill these vital roles in our company.”
Robert Moritz, Chairman and Senior Partner at Price Waterhouse Coopers has written a terrific article in today’s Harvard Business Review about the subject. He says that most often the blame for our stagnant economy is laid at the feet of the usual suspects-erratic capital markets, systemic risk, tax policy, and regulatory uncertainty. But, he says that the real culprit, and the one that is not being fixed at a fast enough rate is the skills gap, especially here in the West.
To read the entire article, click here