Tools of success – When the job market finally picks up, experts say, workers highly trained in at least two disciplines will have the edge

Veteran career counselor Cici Mattiuzzi knows instinctively the earmarks of a tight job market. When openings are scarce, job candidates must walk on water.

By Loretta Kalb — Bee Staff Writer

(Many thanks to Dan Ripke Director – Center for Economic Development – California State University, Chico for passing this along.- Russ)

http://www.sacbee.com/content/business/careers/story/8378530p-9308281c.html

And when employers can’t hire fast enough, all a candidate needs is a bachelor’s degree – and a heartbeat.

Right now, she advises job-seekers in the technology industry to prepare for trial by water. Employers are scouting India and other Asian outposts for cheap talent or sending jobs overseas.

Nonetheless, California’s Employment Development Department predicts that technology jobs will return. And when they do, they will grow at a rate that far outpaces all other occupations, EDD analysts report.

As the positions return, they will bear little resemblance to the technology jobs of the 1990s, when candidates commanded high salaries based mainly on their ability to create tech programs and processes.

The transition has already begun. Employers today are seeking tech wizards who can analyze how projects will affect the bottom line, motivate teams to work toward common goals, collaborate with complementary businesses and understand their needs and motivations.

These whizzes could find themselves imbedded with mainstream business units, from banking to insurance to finance and retail.

"IT (information technology) has permeated the entire society," said Nancy Frank, executive director for the Sacramento Council of the technology group AeA. "It’s no longer IT running technology companies. It’s IT running all organizations."

That means college students will want to supplement engineering classes with a variety of business courses. And midcareer technology workers will have to expand upon old skills or watch their jobs disappear.

Stephen Bruce, 51, was laid off by Intel Corp. in September. He helped train three co-workers to take over aspects of his job.

At Intel he earned more than $80,000. Now he’s willing to settle for less. But even that option seems out of reach.

"I’ve been looking since September really hard and haven’t been able to find anything," he said. "I was looking at a job for $65,000, but the employer had multiple candidates and decided even $65,000 was too much."

The El Dorado Hills resident, who has the British equivalent of a bachelor of science degree from Brooklands College in England, has begun looking in other fields. He hopes to be retrained as a delivery driver to help make ends meet.

Bruce is not the only one discouraged.

Politicians, displaced workers, students and their parents wonder what jobs and skills will be in demand when the labor market finally improves.

"People are desperate," Rep. Darlene Hooley, an Oregon Democrat, told Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan when he gave his monetary report to Congress last month. "They can’t find a job. They have said to me over and over again, ‘Look, we want retraining. We just need to know what’s out there in the future.’ "

Greenspan’s answer: Ride out the economic cycle and be prepared when the jobs return. Workers who are "highly schooled, have capabilities in math and sciences …" do well, he observed.

While there will always be room for pure technological brilliance, tech industry experts say, those jobs will increasingly accrue to the brightest of candidates. Software developers with superior ability to sketch out systems that meet architects’ complex job needs will be prized, according to Forrester Research.

Others won’t fare so well. Some researchers and basic programmers, reported Forrester, will still be vulnerable to outsourcing or offshoring.

To preserve their jobs from this fate, technology workers must identify a company’s core needs, assess the financial risks of changes and understand what it takes to bring products to market. Soft skills, too, will set the successful IT workers apart. They will be able to inspire fellow workers, communicate clearly, understand customer service needs, interact across divisions seamlessly and be good at conflict resolution.

In Rancho Cordova, Rajiv Donde of VantageMed Corp. has all the credentials of a technology wonk. But he also brings a master’s degree in business administration to his training.

Ask this chief information officer about a new corporate initiative, and he poses two decidedly nontechnical questions: Will it adequately reward the bottom line? Will it support the company’s strategic goal?

His ability to move through both the technical and the financial worlds with ease might have turned corporate heads 10 years ago. Today, that blend of talent is a must in the executive suite – and a blueprint for success.

Technology, he said, is not a goal. It is a means to enable a company to succeed.

At CPS Human Resource Services in Sacramento, CIO Brian Gegan agrees: "If you want to effectively influence management executives, you have to understand the business cycle of your organization."

Those who can marry an understanding of business with the gift of leading people and integrating technology are increasingly stepping to the highest rung of corporations.

A well-known CIO-cum-CEO is Walgreens’ David Bernauer. Also a former pharmacist, Bernauer spearheaded the drugstore chain’s move toward an automated prescription system. The transition has been crucial in keeping Walgreens at the top of a very competitive business.

VantageMed’s Donde also is using a strong technology background to build a larger base. He started his career as a bank regulator for the Commerce Department in Ohio. By the time he departed a few years later, Donde had developed a statewide computer system that allowed regulators to identify weak financial institutions.

At VantageMed, which provides software for the health care industry, Donde helps the company decide what products to create or improve.

When Donde adds to his 35-member project management team, he looks for a balanced team with complementary talents. "You need different forces on your team," he said. "You cannot have everyone being analytical."

He recommends that technology students should seek degrees in business to broaden their scope. It may be the only thing that can give engineering or computer science majors a lift as the number of recruiters dwindles on college campuses.

At California State University, Sacramento, where as many as 80 companies have signed up in past years for the annual engineering job fair in March, participation this year will number about two dozen, said Mattiuzzi, director of career services for the College of Engineering and Computer Science at CSUS.

Employers also visit the College of Engineering yearly to interview prospective workers. Three years ago, 72 companies signed up for interviews.

"Fast forward to 2004," Mattiuzzi said. "… We have three companies. That’s the lowest number we’ve ever had."

Still, Mattiuzzi sees a thaw in corporate hiring freezes, and students with a master’s degree and some experience finally are in demand.

For those who love technology, the labor forecast appears encouraging. In California, software engineering jobs will jump 105 percent by 2010, according to the EDD. The number of computer-support positions will grow by 107 percent, software engineers by 105 percent, and network administrators by 100 percent.

AeA’s Frank cited predictions that the nation will encounter a shortage of IT workers by then.

"What an interesting juxtaposition," Frank said. "We’re losing jobs, but soon we won’t have people with the right skills."

Future jobs …
The technology industry will see a big rebound by the end of this decade, according to the California Employment Development Department. In fact, EDD projections show that eight high-tech jobs will rank among the 10 fastest-growing occupations.

* Computer support specialists – 107 percent growth

* Computer software engineers – 105 percent

* Network and computer systems administrators – 100 percent

* Computer software engineers, systems software – 94 percent

* Network systems and data communications analysts – 84 percent

* Database administrators – 71 percent

* Social and human service assistants – 69 percent

* Personal and home care aides – 63 percent

* Computer and information systems managers – 59 percent

* Computer systems analysts – 59 percent

Note: Forecast was last revised in April.

Source: California Employment Development Department

About the Writer
—————————

The Bee’s Loretta Kalb can be reached at (916)321-1052 or [email protected].