Looming IT staffing shortage?

Don Browning writes:

You base your article, for the most part, on the declining enrollment of students majoring computer science at major universities. You go on to claim that the decline is due to parents who see the computer industry as "unstable." However, the only people I talk to about IT professions are the prospective students. I have never, in my memory, discussed IT with parents of a prospective student. It is the students themselves who want to know.

I write in particular to tell everyone what I tell those students.

First of all, I tell those students to forget everything they've ever heard about a "shortage" of IT professionals. There has never been a shortage of IT professionals in my memory. (I've been a Software Engineer/Computer Programmer since I graduated with a B.S. in Computer Science in 1979). I tell them the "shortage" is artificially created by HR departments.

Then, I tell them that a career in IT is about four things, none of which involve technical ability. Those four things: 1) Perfect your interview skills 2) Understand the Human Resources Department 3) Know how to lie on your resume and 4) Understand your state's Unemployment program.

I then explain as follows:

Interviewing skills: Job expectancy in the IT fields is, on average, eleven months (and declining). As a result, you must prepare to find a new job at least once a year; and that's only average. Many IT professionals must find far more new jobs. The eleven months has nothing to do with the possibility that you might leave or your technical abilities; its routine at many firms to "lay-off" the entire staff when a project completes, leading to the eleven month average.

In the interview you must be prepared to answer (with a straight face) questions like "Where do you see yourself five years from now?" The correct answer is something like "I see myself as a project manager (or whatever) with this firm." -- remember you're only going to be there eleven months, the question is both irrelevant and laughable. The prospective employer is only concerned to know that you've thought about it, and that you intend to remain with the firm. The fact that the prospective employer does not intend to keep you around for five years is ignored.

You also have to prepare for bizarre questions like "What do you know about Java?" (I never use Java, and I don't list Java on my resume.) The correct answer is "everything." I have no fear of answering "everything" about Java, since if I ever need Java, I can learn it over the weekend (I have learned -- when necessary -- new programming languages in less than a weekend).

Finally, you have to be prepared for so-called technical questions like the current C++ favorite "What is a virtual destructor?" This question comes from a book on hiring "the best" computer programmers, and can be considered proof that a) the hiring manager has no idea what he's talking about and is relying on a book to help him hire competent people, and b) if you know what you're doing and try to reason out the correct answer you will never get to anything the questioner will recognize, and you will, therefore, never be hired. There is a good chance that you will not even be asked any more questions. The hiring manager will also, if pressed, claim he can't locate qualified people (this statement is true -- he is completely unable to recognize qualified people).

By the way, since I read the book, the correct answer to the question is "A virtual destructor is a destructor in a virtual class;" an answer which is literally a restatement of the question in statement form instead of question form.

Understanding Human Resources:

The purpose of the Human Resources Department is to maintain a steady stream of candidates. It has nothing to do with whether or not there is a job opening at all. All HR departments will routinely advertise for personnel that they have no intention of hiring, and have no desire at the company to interview. For example, there is, in the Denver area where I live, a large aerospace firm that routinely advertises how desperate they are for personnel. At least once a month, one of their executives announces in the newspaper that the aerospace firm is planning to hire thousands of people during the coming year. The HR department shows up with huge advertisements at everything resembling a job fair, and the HR department collects resumes from everyone who will give them a resume -- often hundreds to thousands of resumes at a large job fair.

The company maintains, for public consumption, that there is a severe "shortage" of qualified personnel. The HR department actively gathers a constant stream of candidates. Thousands of people applied. So, one would think that many, many people must have been hired.

How many people were hired by this process during the past year? (Disclaimer: I do not work for the company, and I am not party to the actual numbers.) I can safely say "None." The company does not hire anyone through the HR department. If you want to work there and you think the company might actually have a use for you, you contact someone who works there, and have them recommend you (They get paid for the recommendation if you are hired, and everyone who works there can use an extra five thousand dollars. There is no problem to locate such a recommendation). They pass your resume around, and the managers call you directly. By that process, you bypass the HR department until you present HR with a fait-accompli. People I know who work there tell me that they have never hired anyone for their projects that doesn't already work for the company. All of their open positions are filled internally.

Is the HR department misrepresenting the facts? No. The jobs exist. The company does (occasionally) hire new people. The HR department is doing their job -- which is to maintain a steady stream of candidates.

The other function of the HR department is to review resumes and check references. For this, go to your local bookstore and read every book with a title like, "How to Hire [Avoid Hiring] the Best Computer Programmers." (The title is made up, but there are many books on the topic. I recommend you read them all.) This will tell you the standard you have to meet.in your resume. It does not matter that essentially no one with more than two years experience in the field is able to meet that standard. You must meet it, or you will never work. Even if you bypass HR, HR will usually have the power to over-rule for cause, and a common cause would be a mistake on your resume. HR can, and will, prevent you from being hired if you don't meet their standards.

I'll talk more about resumes under "How to lie on your resume."

The book "How to Hire [Avoid Hiring] the Best Computer Programmers" will also tell you the answers to the current "technical" questions. Remember that you must know the answers to those questions off the top of your head, and if you try to reason out the answers from your knowledge, the manager won't be able to tell whether or not you know what you're talking about. Despite many years of work with C++ , and many destructors written, including virtual destructors, I would never have known what a "virtual destructor" was without reading the book.

On the issue of references, don't even think about it. I once had a single reference called 18 times in one month by exactly three people who were all from the same company. Other than that, only a handful of references have ever been called. I have even been hired when I obtained references by taking names and phone numbers at random out of the phone book -- I refused the job, not because of references, but because I couldn't remember who they were, or ever interviewing with them, other than their request for references. A perceived but non-existent shortage can produce bizarre situations, but even I object to HR laxness when it comes to references.

How to lie on your resume:

In the IT field, one works, on average, no more than 9 months per year (eleven months per job). The rest of the time, one is unemployed. If you put unemployment on your resume, you will never work -- There are no exceptions, HR will prevent employment for any unemployed person.

So, you have a choice, you can lie or you can starve. I should also note that if you make the mistake of working at McDonalds instead of being unemployed, HR will consider you a McDonalds worker, and not an IT person -- that's worse because you are now talking an offer of a 20% pay increase over your last job; roughly six dollars an hour to do IT work instead of five dollars an hour at McDonalds. HR will never approve 700% pay increases even though you would still be making a below average income in the IT field.

I recommend you continue employment (on your resume) with your last job until you get your next job. After all, you didn't work anywhere else, and you did work at the job. Remember in the interview that you still work there, and you can't leave your last job without giving at least two weeks notice -- more HR nonsense.

An aside here due to the fact that I'm sending this to a magazine: Do not lie about technical aspects of the job. HR doesn't care, and you really don't want a job where you spend all night every night catching up on material you claimed to already know. The lie is to meet impossible and unreasonable expectations by the HR department, not to get a job for which you are not qualified.

Remember the book "How to Hire [Avoid Hiring] the Best Computer Programmers?" It will tell you the standard you have to meet in your resume. You won't work if you don't meet the standard. You can also find the same standard in just about any book on hiring the best people...those books are written by HR people and contain all of the same silliness regarding resumes.

Understand your State's Unemployment Program:

Remember, essentially all IT people spend major time unemployed. You should, therefore, treat unemployment compensation as what it is: additional pay for your last job. I've known several IT people who refused unemployment as some type of sin, and it cost them a lot of money over the years.

One of the big things you need to know is how to maximize unemployment payments. In some states, you can have a year of unemployment, but at a very low rate, or you can have three-six months of unemployment at a considerably higher rate. I recommend the higher rate.

Here in Colorado, one can sometimes get significantly more money by waiting for the start of the next quarter before applying. This is due to a quirk in the recording of unemployment taxes from employers.

Whatever you do, do not think of unemployment as vacation. Look for the next job, and spend your time retraining so that you have more employable skills.

Also, remember to live like a pauper when you are employed. That big income is to cover your expenses when you are unemployed.

As I said at the beginning, there is not now, nor has there ever been, a shortage of IT personnel. The perceived shortage is created by HR departments, which are staffed by people who have everything to gain by creating the appearance of shortage, but have only "don't hire" capability in the hiring process.

What you see here is more or less what I tell any teenager who expresses an interest in computer science or other IT professions. If they are in love with computers, I tell them to either plan on pursuing PhD's and teaching, or to pursue an alternate field and minor in Computer Science. Recommended alternatives are, depending on temperament: Business Administration, Engineering, Physics, Music. They will be able to get the same jobs with all of those degrees, and they will have somewhere else to go when they get tired of interviewing.

Finally, my resume is posted on all major IT websites, sometimes more than once, I am competent in all aspects of Software Engineering, I am (by definition) looking for work, I must give (by definition) two weeks notice before leaving my current job, and I know both what a "virtual destructor" is, and what it does differently from a non-virtual destructor at execution time.

Sincerely yours,

Don Browning
IT professional/Software Engineer

grarick (via feedback form):

It's business and industry's own fault. 1. Working in IT sucks (by which I mean there's no respect from the business side for the IT side.). IT workers have been de-valued. It used to be a career, but now it's just a job, like working at Burger King or McDonalds. 2. Train Me! Companies have stopped investing in training for their workers. They want someone else to do it. Don't worry, someone will, and their name is China.