The Tech Talent Struggle

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By Chris Miller, Founder – Tech Brigades

The title says it all. If you’re reading this, your company is probably impacted by a shortage of talent. This post contains my musings about :

– The current state of our talent pool
– The impact of big tech
– One possible solution

During my 14 years running a professional services company in Santa Cruz, finding talent here was never “easy”. In 2008 we had little choice but to curate talent, mentoring potential employees through internships and more recently structured tech apprenticeships.

The 4 Year Solution

Recently I served as a mentor at the CruzHacks2020 hack-a-thon at UCSC. What I found particularly impressive was the resourcefulness and drive of the students, as well as awareness of best practices, and industry norms in software development.

You might be thinking – “why is this surprising, they attend a four year college with a computer science program?”. It’s not surprising TODAY, but it’s a fairly recent evolution. Through many student interviews over the years, historically I found holes in practical tech knowledge.

On Campus Recruitment

This speaks to changes in the programs and curriculum at UCSC, and likely eight years of hacking at CruzHacks. Great news right? I also witnessed a presence from Amazon, Google and Microsoft, including staff who traveled from out of state to attend. I suspect this was part of a recruitment agenda.

One student I connected with has over 1000 connections on LinkedIn. 400 of those connections are in HR, mostly recruiters. Barely old enough to buy beer, and better connected than a Boomer at a job fair. Way to work your network young trailblazer!

This is absolutely fabulous news for our students and a testament to UCSC and the supporting community. It’s also a problem for a lot of smaller companies. There’s simply no way for most companies to compete with the salaries and opportunities offered by big tech, companies which derive their income from recurring revenue such as ads, subscriptions, and licenses.