Don’t we have Qualified Workers…
I recently read a story in the The Globe and Mail saying that in North America companies do not have enough qualified workers, that tech companies want more qualified workers. But with the enormous amount of new grads who are unemployed today, why is the situation occurring?
What do companies ACTUALLY want?
Companies want employees who can perform a skilled worked when asked and who they can pay cheaply to do it. Today, companies are predominantly seeking employees who have the skill to program. This skill is being taught through: Universities, online courses, bootcamps, and textbooks. Yet if a person reads a textbook or take a introductory coding course online, will they be qualified enough to meet the needs of an employer…
No!
What does it take to become a qualified programmer?
To become a qualified worker with the skill of programming to meet the needs of a company. You must be able to have mastery over one coding language (e.g. Java, Python, Javascript), be knowledgeable about data structures and algorithms, be able to display results on a frontend display, access data from a database (e.g. MS SQL); do all this within a limited amount of time.
You can take any method to obtain these skills, however, these are the skills that company’s seem to deem to make an employee a qualified programmer.
What are the next steps?
Once you have become a qualified programmer, will a company hire you?
No!
Then,
- Apply to jobs on Indeed and LinkedIn
- Message recruiters, hiring managers, employees within an organization
- Provide evidence to a company that you can be a qualified programmer with projects
- Go through an interview process that may assess skills that you do not know, e.g. can you generate an algorithm that does X using Y resources?
- Build report, be social, and interactive with interviewer
- Ask the interviewer questions
- Repeat for each job application and interview
What is available in the market
Many qualified employees exist in the job market.
But,
- will the employer be willing to pay a high salary for them.
- will the employer feel comfortable hiring a shy or introverted employee.
- will the employer be willing to invest time and money to train an employee on specific skills the employee may be missing.
What is the solution for organizations to find qualified employees?
- Be willing to pay high salaries for employee
- Be willing to hire shy or introverted employees
- Be willing to invest time and money on training an employee
- Be clear about the specific skills you want an employee to have and the bonus skills that would only add extra value to an employee’s profile.
