It's getting tougher to hire seasoned software staff
The long, cold post-dot.com winter for jobs in computer and software engineering has finally thawed. Companies face a "tight" market to find the skilled workers they need to grow. In fact, some company officials predict, before long, these workers – what’s left of them in Massachusetts –will begin to see some of the enticements of the good old dot.com craze days.
Clint Berge, vice president of human resources at Applix Inc. in Westboro, says his company recently hired a contract recruiter for the first time since 2000 to help it fill eight software engineering posts. Applix, which provides business performance management and business intelligence applications, has also seen some turnover among its software engineering staff over the last six months after having virtually none in recent years.Berge says the market for these workers has heated up in the past nine months or so. Particularly challenging, he says, is finding workers with the needed specialized skills, as opposed to less advanced engineers not long out of college. His company needs eight "players," or what he calls "software athletes" who can do a lot of different things and know databases inside out. Over the last few years, the company hadn’t been adding to its software staff.
With a current growth rate of 20 percent a year, Berge says Applix, with 150 employees worldwide and 85 in Westboro, will be increasing its workforce by 20 percent over the next year.
Marlboro-based benefits and workforce management company Workscape Inc. is also growing rapidly, with a 20 percent hike last year, and is finding it tougher to fill the 30+ computer-related openings it now has in its staff of 275, according to Ed Hurley-Wales, senior vice president for human resources. He agrees that it is most difficult to find mid-tier technical people, such as database developers. There are more entry level computer personnel available, he says, particularly since Workscape has been cultivating relationships with colleges to attract graduates. It’s important, Hurley-Wales says, to "begin that feeder group of young talent."
Workscape, he says, has had to "get creative" as the number of applicants for software jobs has dropped. It is promoting that it offers "the latest and the greatest" technology for its employees to work with.
Hurley-Wales expects recruiting skilled computer science employees to become an increasing challenge. Such workers continue to migrate out of state to places that offer a lower cost of living, he says. And fewer students are going into the field because, in part, they don’t consider it a strong career in light of offshore outsourcing by companies, he says. More stringent immigration rules are also shrinking the worker pool.
Retiring baby boomers who are dropping out of the skilled labor pool or moving to warmer climes, are adding to the tightening supply, says Mark Dane, founder and CEO of Brass Ring LLC, a talent management solutions company in Waltham which tracks and processes job applicants for clients.
Still, he says, the market hasn’t even hinted at the eccentricities of the dot.com boom. Back then, he says, if you had any qualifications and you walked in the door, you got hired.
Dane says he has seen the posting for software engineers and related skills increase as well as openings for other skilled workers. Software jobs are more difficult to fill, he says, because they have more skill requirements than other segments. Systems engineers, he says, are in great demand. Dane does expect the dot.com competitive market to return as the labor shortage deepens. "The labor market will get a lot tougher," he says.
In the meantime, if Applix can’t fill the posts it has open over the next few months, it could impact its ability to ship product, Berge admits.
Micky Baca can be reached at mbaca@wbjournal.com
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