{"id":834,"date":"2012-01-12T10:43:55","date_gmt":"2012-01-12T15:43:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/s3529.at2.pressdns.com\/?p=834"},"modified":"2012-01-12T10:43:55","modified_gmt":"2012-01-12T15:43:55","slug":"skills-gap-leaves-high-tech-jobs-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.cedsolutions.com\/834\/skills-gap-leaves-high-tech-jobs-open\/","title":{"rendered":"“Skills Gap” Leaves High-Tech Jobs Open"},"content":{"rendered":"

Metro Atlanta positions unfilled due to shortage of qualified workers.<\/strong><\/h1>\n

By David Markiewicz dmarkiewicz@ajc.com \u2009<\/strong><\/p>\n

\""Skills<\/a>

Pardot co-founder Adam Blitzer (center) gathers his employees for a \u201clunch-in.\u201d Blitzer hopes to hire 60 new employees this year if qualified workers are available. Bob Andres bandres@ajc.com<\/p><\/div>\n

Eric Vintimilla used to be puzzled, too.<\/p>\n

Looking at the bountiful help wanted listings at high-technology companies, he wondered, \u201cWhy are so many people unemployed out there when there are all these jobs open.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then the 31-year-old embarked on his own ultimately successful job search and found out first-hand: Many applicants didn\u2019t have the combination of experience and training that picky employers want.<\/p>\n

Those candidates suffer from the so-called \u201cskills gap,\u201d and it\u2019s being blamed for some of the persistent joblessness nationwide.<\/p>\n

CED Solutions<\/a>\u00a0provides the training to cover the “skills gap” needed to obtain High-Tech jobs. CED Solutions is the #1 location for Microsoft Certifications in North America and has its headquarters in Atlanta. \u00a0CED Solutions provides training and certifications for Microsoft\u00a0SharePoint<\/a>, Exchange<\/a>,\u00a0Windows 2008 R2 Server<\/a>,\u00a0Windows 7<\/a>,\u00a0OfficeSuite2010<\/a>,\u00a0.NET\u00a0Programming<\/a>,\u00a0Business Intelligence<\/a>,\u00a0System Center Manager<\/a>,\u00a0SQL 2008 R2<\/a>;\u00a0Cisco CCNA<\/a>,\u00a0CCNP<\/a>,\u00a0CCNP Security<\/a>,\u00a0CCNP Voice<\/a>;\u00a0CompTIA A+<\/a>,\u00a0Network+<\/a>,Security+<\/a>,\u00a0CASP<\/a>;\u00a0CISSP<\/a>;\u00a0Certified Ethical Hacking (CEH)<\/a>,\u00a0Computer Forensics (CHFI)<\/a>,\u00a0Security Analyst (ESCA)<\/a>\u00a0and many more.<\/p>\n

While it has improved of late, the unemployment rate in Georgia stands at 9.9 percent. Across the United States, it\u2019s 8.5 percent. Meanwhile, job listings in some industries abound, particularly in high tech, with the more highly skilled openings such as software and design positions generally the toughest to fill.<\/p>\n

Other sectors have a hard time filling openings, including the medical profession and the skilled trades. But the high-tech sector is regarded as particularly important to the future economic development of metro areas like Atlanta.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a big issue,\u201d said Tino Mantella, president and CEO of the Technology Association of Georgia.<\/p>\n

Mantella said there are near ly 4,400 technology industry job openings in Georgia, with almost all in metro Atlanta \u2014 a striking number \u201cin what\u2019s been a tough economy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Most in demand: IT architects and consultants; systems engineers; software developers; and IT managers.<\/p>\n

Those jobs can easily pay $75,000 a year, or more, he added.<\/p>\n

In a recent national survey of human resources professionals, 71 percent of high-tech companies reported having a difficult time hiring for certain jobs.<\/p>\n

Mark Schmit, vice president for research at the Society for Human Resource Management, which conducted the survey, terms the situation a \u201cparadox\u201d for businesses: \u201chigh unemployment and the inability to fill key jobs in their organizations.\u201d<\/p>\n

The issue is not only a problem for the unemployed and for companies that must spend more time and money finding candidates, he said. It can also stymie growth at a time when it\u2019s sorely needed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf key jobs cannot be filled in organizations, then other less critical jobs requiring less skill cannot be created either because the organization\u2019s growth potential is stunted,\u201d he said. \u201cThus, the cycle of low or no job growth continues.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vintimilla landed a job as a software engineer in November with Atlanta-based software company Pardot.<\/p>\n

But Pardot co-founder Adam Blitzer said finding the right people isn\u2019t easy.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast year we hired 40 people. We would have preferred to have hired 50 to 55,\u201d said Blitzer, who\u2019s aiming to bring aboard 60 more new employees in 2012.<\/p>\n

Pardot has offered a $10,001 bonus to people who refer software engineers to the company who are hired.<\/p>\n

Blitzer agrees that the difficulty in hiring stunts a company\u2019s growth.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you know you can afford to have 55 people but you can only find 40, then you just can\u2019t take advantage of growth opportunities the same way,\u201d he said. \u201cIt absolutely inhibits growth. If you have cash in the bank you want to put it in play.\u201d<\/p>\n

Employers offered several reasons for the problem.<\/p>\n

Nikki Millis-Stumpf, human resources director at Corfire, an Alpharetta mobile commerce firm, said many of the technologies that new hires are expected to use were only recently developed. So the typical applicant doesn\u2019t have the desired on-the-job experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people have the aptitude,\u201d she said, \u201cbut not necessarily the proven, demonstrable experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another reason is that there simply aren\u2019t enough qualified applicants to go around, especially with Silicon Valley companies luring prospects to California.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had in the last year, in particular, an increase in competition for graduating students and a lot of that is in high-tech areas like computer science,\u201d said Ralph Mob-ley, director of career services at Georgia Tech. \u201cWe\u2019re recruited nationally and internationally, not just locally. There is a lot of competition for those skills and I hear it from some local employers. They\u2019re competing against companies from all over.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mobley said companies sometimes make the hiring process harder by focusing on very specific experience or skills rather than finding a critical thinker who can adapt as technology evolves.<\/p>\n

Improving the flow of qualified candidates is possible, however, said Cedric Stallworth, assistant dean in the College of Computing at Georgia Tech.<\/p>\n

Students need to start learning computer problem-solving skills earlier, he said. More internships would help, too, with students learning on the job before graduation. So would training people in multiple areas so they can work in a world that demands multiple skills in an employee.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a tall barrier that applicants for high-tech positions have to hurdle, yet some, like Vintimilla, manage to clear it. He came upon the opening at Pardot while doing software development for a Philadelphia hospital. After two days of intense interviews, he got an offer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI literally fit all the needs they had,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Metro Atlanta positions unfilled due to shortage of qualified workers. By David Markiewicz dmarkiewicz@ajc.com \u2009 Eric Vintimilla used to be puzzled, too. Looking at the bountiful help wanted listings at high-technology companies, he wondered, \u201cWhy are so many people unemployed out there when there are all these jobs open.\u201d Then the 31-year-old embarked on his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":835,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","wds_primary_category":0},"categories":[5,6,8],"tags":[17,27,32],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedsolutions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/834"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedsolutions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedsolutions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedsolutions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedsolutions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedsolutions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/834\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedsolutions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedsolutions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedsolutions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedsolutions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}