Torbjorn's Blog

Do we have a skill shortage in Canada In IT or is it an illusion caused by our hiring processes that streamline candidates so that they drop off the list before reaching a hiring manager?

In a recent editorial published in the Computing Canada magazine, the editorial contends that the reason for the alleged skill shortage is that companies are looking for IT professionals that also have sales and business skills and experience and that this is an unrealistic demand. I don't think even this explains Canadian employer's excessively cautious approach to hiring.

 When I came to Canada 12 years ago, there was a demand for skilled IT people. I had no "Canadian experience", and am foreign educated, but I was still able to find a job in a short time. During my years in Canada I became a "jack of all trades"; I came from a programmer background, and evolved with the opportunities presented to me by my first employer. I advanced to a senior management role within the company as it grew, and help them evolve to an international player in their chosen software field.

I was later approached by a start up to join them, to work on some of the latest technology to bring a new mobile payment service to the market. Unfortunately before we reached our goal, the company was sold and all of us were laid off.

I found that the hiring climate had changed in Canada in a few years. What has happened?

Here is were my problem finding a job started, despite being a technically skilled person with experience in solving business problems and marketing, I had a difficult time to find employment. I used all the tools available to me to find a new job, I worked with a recruiting agencies, networked with former clients, colleagues and acquaintances, with no success. Most of the responses from recruiters and HR told me I was over-qualified for the positions available. Meanwhile, I started an online newsletter focused on my particular industry to broaden my network of potential employers. It took me 21 months to find a position with a progressive small company, they appreciated my full spectrum skills and I got involved in both the business and the technical side, the main purpose for them to hire me was to manage the development of a new service through the development of a new software solution. I utilized offshore developers to build the applications for the company, when the new service was introduced I became responsible for the maintenance of the application and that the service was running trouble free.

Unfortunately the new service was slow to gain users and the cost benefits of outsourcing the maintenance offshore v.s me, resulted in my job being outsourced and I again ended up unemployed. So far I have used job boards, accessing my network of contacts, set up meetings to discuss career opportunities with insiders in the industry, contacted my contacts at recruiting agencies and used online networking tools to market myself to the industry.

So far I have not had one interview, only a few good leads which have not lead to anything, the only bright spot was that I got one enquiry from a company in the Middle East to see if I was interested in joining them as they were looking for a candidates with my skills. Is it not a bit bizarre that in Jordan they have a skill shortage for the type of experience that make me overqualified here? You might ask how did they found me, I use an online network called LinkedIN in which I have my profile publicly available and searchable over the internet. http://www.linkedin.com/in/torbjornz. Is that what I have to do, leave the country to find a job when we have a skill shortage according to technology companies in the industry? Perhaps they should go to Jordan to find a candidate there that fits their requirements.

I like Canada and I want to work here, but I am still suffering financially from the previous period of unemployment. I fear that I might have to completely get out of the IT industry (as a couple of my former colleagues have done), or go to Jordan to be able to survive and support my family. Perhaps that is what happens to our graduates from our IT programs at universities and colleges.

They cannot find jobs, they go to the US to get a job, they become skilled IT professionals there, and we complain about IT skills shortage and brain drain. We need to tackle this issue with an industry wide effort and face the fact that the alleged skills shortage is one of its own making. Having been involved in hiring people in a previous position, I see several issues that needs to be addressed to make companies and workers come together and solve our so called skill shortage.

I think it starts at the university level, were people enrolled in HR classes are thought a process on how to find and manage candidates. I feel that we have created HR professionals that are blinkered to a process and do not look outside the box, they are no more creative in their methods than if you were to program your computer with software that searches for specific key words in a resume.

The whole process of finding a job starts with the candidate, they write a resume that reflects their past experience, if they work with a recruiter they are given specific guidelines on how to highlight the most desirable skills, and use keywords to emphasis specifics.

When the resume reaches the potential employer it has been streamlined based on information the recruiter has received from the company hiring. But many individual recruiters can work on the same application, so key information can be lost or are communicated later to the recruiters.

Either through HR software or junior HR staff, the resumes are screened, and two stacks of resumes are created - the declined and the candidates. Only the approved candidates are sent to the hiring manager, the hiring managers will sort the resumes into his own two stacks, the candidate stack is then processed by setting up interviews.

The problem with this process is that good candidates that might not have had the correct keywords in the resume or do not have a sponsor within the company are lost to the hiring manager.

A job seeker needs to be good at networking with peers, to find a sponsor within the a company were the job seeker wants to apply for a job, to get a sponsor he can get his resume past the HR to the hiring manager directly, increasing his chances to get an interview.

But not all IT people have the business skills of networking and finding contacts within an organization and selling themselves to a company, at the outset. They also do not have the skills to researching a company, building up a chart of company of where they want to work and creating an organisational chart to find out who the hiring manager are, and than call on the company to find a sponsor or a hiring manager.

I think there are several things that have to be changed to allow for our skilled IT workforce to connect with employers.

Firstly we need to develop an industry online networking tool, were individuals can register to set-up a profile of themselves get endorsement from colleagues, partners, customers from past jobs. Give them tools to improve their skills in marketing and selling their skill sets to employers.

Secondly, allow employers to post openings or search the database for candidates, also the companies should look over their process on how they store and screen the resumes they receive. They should have an internal portal in which hiring manager have a tool searching out candidates and shortlist from it.

Thirdly, companies need to create apprenticeship programs, that run for a two year period, with reviews and salary increases every six months. This fosters the development of professionals and provides the incentives for them to become the "jacks of all trades", if that is indeed what is needed. Internship or co-op programs are good development tools, companies use to fill the shortages they have, but they do not provide the incentives and sense of belonging that a good apprenticeship program would.

To conclude, we need to take care of the brain power educated in our universities so they do not feel they need to go to another country, and we need to develop the skilled workers that are invited to immigrate to Canada. The IT industry association should make this a priority and get the government involved. As for me, if nothing happens in the next few weeks, I may have to spend the winter in Jordan.