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"Skills shortage? You must be joking," say ITBusiness.ca readers
While Canadian hiring managers speak of a "severe IT skills shortage" – many of our readers feel very differently. They say one reason Canadian companies have a difficult time filling IT positions is simply because the bar is set impossibly high for job applicants. And at least two talent-management specialists agree.9/29/2008 5:00:00 AM By: Nestor E. Arellano
Many Canadian companies continue to bemoan what they call the severe shortage of IT talent, and the impact this is having on their business.
This was also a common refrain at the recently concluded Tech Week convention in Toronto, where panelists at the opening event noted how corporations in various sectors are fiercely competing for a dwindling pool of IT professionals.
My article IT talent shortage "hurting" most Canadian companies highlighted the views of four panelists, who all concurred that there is an IT talent crunch and offered various suggestions on how to deal with it.
Reactions from ITBusiness.ca readers to this article were swift and unanimous. And they offered a very different perspective indeed!
Virtually all reader responses challenged the very notion that there is an IT talent crunch.
The unanimous view from readers was that companies are having a difficult time filling IT positions because they set the bar too high for job applicants, and concentrate on a very small sample of candidates.
And at least two talent specialists agree with our readers.
They basically submit that many firms fail to land desired employees by operating under antiquated hiring policies, practices and HR systems that stymie rather than support identification and retention of IT talent.
Our readers' comments, meanwhile, ran the gamut – from brief and ironic, to discursive and instructional, to desperate. Here's a sampling:
"Is this a joke?" asked one reader who signed in as Malone.
"There appears to be a disconnect between articles," said Ron. He noted that our previous stories reported on the slashing of 25,000 positions in Nortel, the possible demise of 3Com, the worsening North American economic condition, and the increasing ability of IT professionals to work from almost anywhere in the world. "How is it that Canada is isolated from this talent?" Ron wanted to know. "The 49th parallel is not an Iron Curtain."
A reader calling himself the Badger urged companies to stop outsourcing IT jobs. This practice, he said, results in less qualified workers being hired by companies that also spend less on employee training to maximize profits.
The skills shortage is being perpetuated by a perception that IT jobs are being outsourced to India, says John. Students, are less likely to make "four-year, $40,000 commitment" to a course if their job prospects are unsure.
"Ironically [IT jobs] will all be outsourced, because of media spin," he said.
"I have thirty years in the business, continuously training and upgrading my skills and knowledge. I managed to finally find employment in a pizza store.
I have SmallTalk, Java, Ruby, Rails, etc. Can it be that we are too expensive? – wonders Steve Messamore
"If talent is so hard to find, why is it that I can't find any of these positions needing people. Someone please tell me where I can send my résumé or contact information," says Jayson.
By the way, he's an IT network specialist with Unix and Cisco experience and is located in eastern Ontario.
Page Navigation 1) Firms operate under antiquated hiring policies. – Page 1
2) "It's time the industry stopped blaming the other guy for its own actions." – Page 2
3) "Why go into a profession where you have to train for four years, starve for two, and work for three." – Page 3
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