THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY

by Peg Bogema

Queue the all too-familiar spaghetti western music. Picture a lone software slinger walking across the unemployment desert—sand, rocks and gravel crunching underneath his boots.

Yes, it’s a trite image. But if you judge the current state of IT employment exclusively by media reports, that just might be what comes to mind.

Factually, the current situation is not anything like the media portrayals. By rolling up the numbers—perhaps in an attempt to summarize the scene—they oversimplify matters to the point of losing the real story.

It actually is a case of the good, the bad and the ugly.

THE GOOD

There is a lot of hiring and contracting going on right now. Pent up demand has finally burst the dam. Companies are adding staff and contractors to handle backlogged projects and new development. Roles that went unfilled for one or two years are once again being funded.

Let’s face it: companies can only go so long without upgrading existing systems or creating new products. Failure to stay current or innovate spells doom. Many companies have weathered the storm and are making money again—so they can afford to undertake new development. Even without their fortunes changing, other companies have no options but to re-prioritize, re-budget and embark upon new development. One thing you can be sure of is that the automakers never stopped designing and engineering new cars—even in their darkest moments. And so it goes in IT businesses.

As a result, there is a surge in hiring and contracting. Much of it is on mainline development. If you are a .NET or JEE programmer with good skills, you can find work. But more and more we are seeing Project Managers and Quality Assurance personnel going to back to work.

THE BAD

Unfortunately, many companies and hiring managers have not accurately assessed the state of the IT employment scene.

Because unemployment numbers remain high, many people assume that it is still a buyers’ market in all industries. BZZZTTT! Sorry, that’s incorrect.

If you think that it’s a buyers’ market, you think that you can offer low salaries. People who are desperate for work will consider a 20% cut from their last salaries, right? I mean 80% of something is better than 100% of nothing.

Another concept you might have is that there is so much unemployment that there are superstars out there twiddling their thumbs. Hmmm… Wouldn’t it be great to find a quality programmer who is also a great manager and who also has great front-end design skills? That way we can hire just one person to handle the work that used to be done by three.

And, of course, there is the notion that hiring managers have all the time in the world to recruit. After all, how many candidates are going to have multiple interviews or competing offers?

These ideas are still commonplace, but they are oh so 2009. The current situation has changed markedly.

If you lowball salary, you will not attract good candidates. They are aware of what they are worth and what a competitive salary is. MORAL: research competitive salaries. Your applicants are.

If you create a job that articulates unrealistic requirements, you’ll never get any responses—at all. MORAL: write a job description that expresses realistic requirements. You can have as many preferences as you would like. Get many, many resume submissions and then evaluate to see which ones have the richest mix of skills to suit your needs.

If you go slowly, your candidates will get other offers. No matter how interested they are in your company, a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. MORAL: Dedicate time to the process—or don’t start it at all. Once you put up your ad, you need to review resumes rapidly to narrow down to the top candidates, get those candidates interviewed and present the offer within a matter of a few weeks. Candidates are actively interviewing. Keep that in mind.

THE UGLY

From what we hear, candidates are frustrated by the slow pace being taken by companies. They are frustrated by job descriptions that couldn’t be filled by Bill Gates or Steve Jobs. They are frustrated by finally reaching the end of the process only to have a lowball salary offer.

Companies, on the other hand, are finding it incredibly difficult to attract candidates. When they do finally attract them, candidates often fall in Category 1 (accept an offer from another firm) or Category 2 (get to the end of the line and chicken out, deciding to stay in their current situation).

THE REAL STORY

IT employment will straighten around when the perception of stability returns. Candidates will feel more comfortable about taking a new job that provides career growth—because they will be more willing to gamble on a new company. That will put more people in the labor pool.

Realistically, those days are here. Time for perception to catch up with reality.