Employers still looking for more IT workers

MAKING A CONNECTION: A summit put on by Tech Collective with support from Bridge Technical Talent identified not just the need for more IT workers but for higher education to prepare computer science majors for the workplace more directly. / PHOTO COURTESY TECH COLLECTIVE
MAKING A CONNECTION: A summit put on by Tech Collective with support from Bridge Technical Talent identified not just the need for more IT workers but for higher education to prepare computer science majors for the workplace more directly. / PHOTO COURTESY TECH COLLECTIVE

William Ebeling has seen firsthand how difficult it can be to hire information technology workers of all skill levels.

Ebeling is the manager of software development, production, at InsureMyTrip in Warwick, a website that compares and sells travel insurance.

He’s been trying since May to hire two web applications developers, one with experience and another at entry level.

That’s one of the reasons he was interested in attending the Enter IT RI Summit at Tech Collective’s offices in Providence last month.

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“We’re always looking to hire local talent, and it’s not always easy to do so, partly because people right out of college want to work in some place like Providence because it’s more urbanized than Warwick is, or they leave to go to Boston for the sort of pay they can get up there,” Ebeling said recently. “But the main problem in hiring is how few people are looking for jobs as opposed to how many jobs are available.”

Ebeling said the difficulty with filling positions comes up whenever he runs into others that work in the IT industry.

The focus of the summit was to discuss the report, “Enter IT RI,” the result of a survey of 73 businesses from Tech Collective, Rhode Island’s industry association for bioscience and information technology, and Bridge Technical Talent, a North Kingstown IT staffing firm.

Businesses were surveyed last fall and winter to analyze the hiring market for information technology graduates, and to find out the kind of personality traits and workforce readiness skills they want to see in employees.

The summit brought together nearly 100 business representatives, state officials and academic leaders to discuss the need for entry-level IT workers and strategies going forward, as well as how to improve workforce skills that employers desire, according to Giselle Mahoney, Tech Collective’s director of industry and advocacy. She noted IT employers are expecting more growth over the next five years.

The survey revealed entry-level IT employees are in demand, as 64.8 percent of Rhode Island firms said they hire these types of workers. However, more than half of the firms surveyed – 51.2 percent – said they are having difficulty finding and hiring entry-level IT employees.

It also found that 89 percent of Rhode Island businesses are looking for entry-level IT employees with problem solving/critical-thinking skills.

As for Rhode Island companies who do not look to hire entry-level IT employees, more than half again – 52 percent – said it is because their IT positions require previous experience.

Mahoney said she wasn’t surprised by the survey results but said it helped reinforce that communication between education and industry must remain open.

Recommendations outlined in the report include:

n Supporting and increasing engagement in state IT education initiatives.

n Incorporating in-demand technologies into K-16 education curricula, as well as workforce readiness skills.

n Establishing computer science minors at Rhode Island colleges and universities.

n Creating training opportunities for non-college bound students or transitioning workers.

n Establishing a statewide academic advisory panel.

Mahoney noted that this is the first time Tech Collective specifically focused on the entry-level IT worker.

“I think this is the perfect time to focus on it,” Mahoney said about the need for entry-level IT workers. “The administration is gung-ho about it, and GE is a great example of an employer looking to invest in Rhode Island.”

General Electric announced last month plans to bring approximately 100 jobs to Providence to staff its new GE Digital information technology center.

As chairwoman of computer science and statistics for the University of Rhode Island, Joan Peckham said she sees an “outpouring of requests” for interns and employees.

Peckham, one of the panelists at the summit, said computer science has become a popular course of study, thanks to press about job opportunities in the sector, and good-paying salaries, but there still is a gap between the number of people trained for the jobs and the number of jobs available.

Anthony Costantino, manager of database administration at United Natural Foods Inc. in Providence, helped create the survey. He said in 2014, only 311 students graduated from a Rhode Island college or university with a bachelor’s degree in computer science and that many of the students left the state upon graduation, leaving hundreds of jobs without qualified candidates.

Meanwhile, Ebeling said he is considering offering an intern the entry-level position, which pays in the mid- to high-$50,000s. An entry-level staffer would bring the latest and perhaps more modern approaches learned in college, he explained.

Ebeling said he felt the summit was worthwhile in that “academia and industry have a platform to work together that’s much larger than alumni going back to professors they had once known.”

“I felt like one of the messages Bridge had was for academia to be more sensitive to the needs of industry and make sure college graduates are actually prepared to get to work, rather than equipped to learn how to work,” Ebeling said. •

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3 COMMENTS

  1. There seems to be a disconnect between this story and real world actions. I have a son who graduated with degree in Computer Science from URI this year. he is off to Chicago because there were very few opportunities in RI. I have another son who has a degree in analytics, once again at entry level very little interest. Companies want experienced workers and either do not want to invest or don’t have the resources to mentor these young workers. I just reviewed Bridge Technical Talent site, 3 jobs all out of RI. I am confused, just saying …

  2. Part time coding gigs can pay from 10 to 25 K for a part-time work at home job. If you’re experienced and there’s no non-compete agreement, who would want to work for a company? If you need experience and are a recently graduated coder, you are usually mobile and will go to tech hubs.

    Internships and OJT options that pay according to worth may be the key.

  3. As Keith stated, the info in this article seems patently untrue. If there are entry level IT jobs in RI I’d sure like to know where. I’ve literally sent out hundreds of resumes, including one to IMT quite some time ago. It’s rare that I hear back from anyone, and I did very well in school. From where I sit this industry seems to have a hundred foot brick wall around it.