There are more than 223,000 unfilled coding jobs in the U.S. More than 91 percent of them are outside Silicon Valley. Most IT businesses find it difficult to hire skilled engineers. Finding the right fit often gives sleepless nights to the founders. An unproductive unit will fail to meet the growing demand of the business.

This is one of the reasons you need to hire the best engineers for software development work. Despite academic institutions churning out so many engineers, why are you not finding quality engineers?

Let me highlight  some of the reasons that could be impacting your business performance.

Industry-Academic Gap

New age businesses  have high expectations from seasoned or new employees. Companies expect the candidates to have the attitude of “know it all”.

Experts say there is a huge gap in what is taught in the university and the real world. Graduates are unaware of the current demand. Industry wide apprenticeships are missing.

In Germany, it takes about 143 days to fill a job in software development. Now the country is adopting a skilled-worker strategy, including more skilled immigration, better childcare to help women re-enter the labor force.

Recent developments in Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Robotics are making it important for the youth and the experienced to keep abreast with needs.

Your firm may not have the time in grooming the  engineers. As you may need workers who can contribute to the revenue from the onset.

Lack of IT Apprenticeship Programs

Awareness among parents about apprenticeships programs is limited. Building a solid education system with qualified faculty needs time and attention. Governments worldwide have started taking notice of the deep problem looming on their economy- creating skilled workforce.

If you inculcate such programs in your organization, it will do more good to the bridge the deficit. Paid IT apprenticeships will help the youth learn on the job, before being hired.

As per Tim Hebert, Chief Client Officer at Carousel Industries “We spend about $54,000, including salary, for each of the apprentices in its year-long program. Finding good talent today is really hard, especially at entry levels,” where searching can take months.

We feel that the amount of money we’re saving in the recruiting process helps offset some of the expense that we have, but it also gives us better-quality candidates”, Hebert said

Our Software industry can learn from professions such as law, manufacturing  and banking that promote internships and apprenticeships and teach the skills needed on the ground.

Giant technology companies like IBM and Microsoft have started offering IT Apprenticeship Programs that pays while learning.

New hires can improve their problem solving skills and develop a superior knowledge on the subject over a short term training program. Most importantly apprenticeships promote a learning culture and creates a healthy and helping attitude among the peers.

Broken Hiring Process

As a tech cofounder you may be busy with running the business, hiring is left to the HR or an office manager. They route to old processes – approaching recruiters. These agencies feed same old data and approach at their disposal.

Even after shortlisting, the technical and interview discussions are not industry standard. For a company who is looking to hire a senior full stack engineer, a set of online test is compiled to save the day. Such tests are not relevant to the core requirement.

Although well intentioned, but execution is poor.  If you are not spending enough time in filling with key positions of your business, the results will mar the performance.

You can test the skills on a small project over a weekend to gauge the competency. It can take you a week to a month to hire a skilled engineer.

You must emphasize on hiring a great resource manager who can understand your business and the job requirement.

The process of onboarding is messed up and often engineers are clueless from where to begin. Your focus should be on creating a structured interview processes that are aligned to your work culture.

Typically a hiring process involves – channel source, interviewing, shortlisting, selection, negotiations, paperwork and onboarding. The urgency will you help you figure out the bottlenecks and remove them.

Building a diverse team often leads to higher business performance. Diversity along with expertise creates a culture of raising the standards higher. Putting female participants in management role during early business stage does reap rewards.

Modern Technology Stacks are Complex

Modern technology stacks are very complex. From AI, machine learning, NLP or reactive experience are not taught in most global schools or universities.

New age businesses are breaking boundaries every year.  Universities should tie up with companies to create a customized learning tracks suited for the industry.

Even for an experienced skilled engineer, the challenges are plenty. Learning from one technology to another, spending long hours  and managing work-life is daunting.

Interest towards pursuing STEM profession is not increasing in US. In the report below, you will find that China has four times the population of US, but generates 9 times the STEM graduates.

The problem is not the quantity, but the quality to comprehend and deliver complex tasks. Expectations from employers, disjointed formal education system, not so easy web development/computing tracks and problem solving skills are areas that needs serious attention to get on the track.

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I have tried to cover the problems of finding skilled technical experts. If you are looking for a team that values discipline, innovation, accountability and delivery, your choice is clear – Invimatic Solutions. Invimatic offers IT outsourcing and product development services to suit your needs. Our senior product consultants understand the domain and devise a plan to bring your idea or MVP to the market- very fast.