In case you don't read eWeek magazine (www.eweek.com), I thought I would share a few interesting quotes:
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The biggest challenge facing Microsoft today is making sure that it has enough qualified, capable, talented people who can continue to scale with the company.
But the Redmond, Wash., software maker is facing competition for those resources from an unexpected source: the hedge fund industry.
"You have about a third of the number of people entering the IT field than you did during the dot-com era," Microsoft's Chief Operating Officer Kevin Turner told eWEEK. "Also, one of the stiffest competitors we face today are the hedge funds, for staff to support all the major systems and analysis and decision support-type activity they do and which is pretty intensive.
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Microsoft is pulling out all the stops to try to correct the growing shortage of IT graduates and the shrinking number of people entering the technology field by doing things like lobbying in Washington for relief.
"It's unfortunate that we can educate people here, but they then have to go home. Also, [Microsoft Chairman] Bill [Gates], [CEO] Steve [Ballmer], myself and others are all speaking at universities to get students excited about getting into the technology field," he said.
The shortage of qualified candidates in the IT space is a concern to the entire industry and the one thing that Turner said he thinks about every day, from the time he gets up in the morning until he goes to bed at night.
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Jim Foley, a professor in the College of Computing at Georgia Institute of Technology and former chairman of the Computing Research Association, agrees with Turner that the numbers for college students heading into IT are not looking that good.
CRA research found that entering freshmen who indicated they would major in computer science fell by half from the high of 16,000 in 2000, which was just before the dot-com crash, to some 8,000 by fall 2006. "But the good news is that the decline seems to be leveling off; at Georgia Tech we have a slight uptick," Foley told eWEEK in an interview.
The number of U.S. students graduating with Bachelor of Science degrees peaked at 14,000 in the 2003-2004 academic year, dropping to 10,000 for 2005-2006, he said, noting that interest in computer science and computer engineering as a major has also dropped from about 3.7 percent of entering students in 1999 and 2000 to about 1.1 percent in 2006.
"Again, this does not include all of IT, but in large part these are the students whom Microsoft would like to hire, and there are not enough of them. There will be another lag until entering students realize that computing and IT are good fields with good jobs. That's what Microsoft and lots of other companies are experiencing right now and are worried about," said Foley, in Atlanta.
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While the results of that survey, released in May, found that the number of Ph.D. degrees awarded continues to set records, the number of master's and bachelor's degrees awarded has dropped significantly.
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While the results of that survey, released in May, found that the number of Ph.D. degrees awarded continues to set records, the number of master's and bachelor's degrees awarded has dropped significantly.
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The number of master's degrees awarded, however, was down 13 percent, to 8,074, in the year ending June 2006. The June 2005 number was 9,286, which was "reasonably consistent with the 17 percent drop in new master's students reported two years ago," Zweben said.
Enrollment in master's programs by new students was about the same as last year, while total enrollment was down by more than 10 percent—all attributable to declines in computer science master's programs, he said.
More than half of new master's students came from outside North America, rising to 56.7 percent from 46.5 percent last year.
On the bachelor's degree front, issuance was down more than 15 percent, following the 13 percent decrease reported last year. "From this year's estimates, it would appear that another 16 percent decline is looming. If this holds true, it would represent a drop of more than 40 percent over a three-year period," Zweben said.
But there is some positive news. "When looking at new bachelor's degree students, for the first time in four years the number of new undergraduate majors is slightly higher than the corresponding number last year. This holds true when looking at only the more robust computer science numbers," he said.
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What is one way that Microsoft is coping with the talent shortage? They opened a center in Vancouver 159 miles from Redmund.
In the seven weeks since Microsoft announced that it intended to open a software development center in Vancouver, British Columbia, which it hoped would "be home to software developers from around the world," it may have gotten more than it bargained for.
In short, wrote Jenna Adorno, technical recruiter for MSN, on Microsoft's JobsBlog on Aug. 22, "Vancouver has worn me out."
Since Adorno first announced the facility July 9, she wrote, she has been "swallowed up by the endless offers and questions around employment at the Microsoft Vancouver Development Centre," which was built to address international workers affected by an inability to obtain a U.S. H-1B visa that would have enabled them to work out of the company's Redmond, Wash., headquarters.
Vancouver was chosen not only for its proximity to Redmond (less than 150 miles) and Canada's significantly fewer hurdles than the United States when it comes to hiring skilled foreign workers.
On July 12, Adorno implored international workers who had accepted a Microsoft offer but had not received an H-1B visa to contact her directly about a potential relocation to Vancouver, should the involved managers be okay with such an arrangement. The Vancouver location was expected to be made up of different employees on different teams that all had counterparts in Redmond. Microsoft assured rejected H-1Bs that there would be space for all of them in Canada, rolling out "new," comparable offers in late July and early August with start dates between September and November.
However, Microsoft hit a classic "remote work" wrinkle--that some roles function more favorably remotely than others. Software designers and developers would be more than welcome in Vancouver while project managers, media specialists and other roles would not.
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Labor shortages won't be eliminated in the forseeable future, particularly if there is a recession. What creative ways can you create to prepare for even harder times finding talent?
Jeff Altman
The Big Game Hunter
Concepts in Staffing
thebiggamehunter@cisny.com
© 2007 all rights reserved.
Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, is Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, He has successfully assisted many corporations identify management leaders and staff in many disciplines since 1971. He is a retired certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues, and a practicing psychotherapist.
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