I am having an issue finding the right IT talent (Non-Bay Area). How have you overcome this problem?
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Truthfully, that’s been one of my biggest issues being in the Midwest. Recruiting IT and Tech talent is still not top priority for businesses here unlike the bigger markets like SF and NYC. That means I have smaller budgets and cannot attract the top percentile of talent.
It took us an average of 3-5 month to fill a new role. It’s not uncommon for talent to leave a couple of months in if they find a higher paying job elsewhere. My team had about enough and decided to hire IT teams outside of the US. Today I have several remote teams, with the biggest being in China. Yes, language can be an issue – but I have also hired manages in China that are the go between for us here in the Midwest and our talent there. To be clear, we’ have not outsourced our IT team, we have just off-shored them and have a bigger and cheaper talent pool to pick from.
This is why i prefer building up talent, and in turn helping out the pool of candidates. Simple supply vs demand, if you continue to have a demand for talent which outstrips the supply then the salaries/wages continue to rise, most IT departments are budget squeezed as it is. But if you can identify top talent with core skills, aptitude and desire to learn you can mold those people to fit the position with proper investment in training and a culture that rewards learning. Yes you may lose them to the market, but rinse and repeat while still gaining the benefits of the position and its skills rather than cry about no talent available.
We are pretty close to Houston and Houston is a hot job market right now. So it's hard to attract talent. We've been great and we have had some excellent people that have joined the team, but to retain them and to keep them on board has not been easy.