Written by
G. Chambers Williams III
While thousands of high-paying jobs in manufacturing have evaporated in recent years — a loss made worse by the recession — there actually is a boom in hiring for information technology positions, many of which remain unfilled.
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Students listen to a lecture Wednesday in Mike Leih's business information technology class at Trevecca Nazarene University. "There are opportunities where you look" in information technology, Leih said. |
"Yes, there are jobs, and they're paying about 53 percent higher than the average job in the region," Fetherling said. "There is a high demand for programmers in the health-care industry, for instance. The whole area of health information technology is just exploding."
There are IT jobs in many other industries as well, including Nashville's music business."Technology is booming, and there's a technology element in virtually every business and industry out there," said Mike Leih, assistant professor of information technology at Trevecca Nazarene University.
"Health care is a big one, but the service industries are looking for qualified IT workers," he said. "There are technology jobs in small mom-and-pop businesses, doctors' offices, attorneys' offices, even mechanics' shops. There are opportunities wherever you look."
There's a catch, though. These jobs aren't for everyone; many require specialized education and experience, especially for the positions that pay the most. Breaking into the technology field in almost any industry can be difficult for even the best students fresh out of colleges and technical schools.
"Some specialized training is available, but we still need a lot more," Fetherling said. "We're working with Metro and Williamson County high schools and the 17 colleges and universities in the area to help prepare students for technology careers, and we have 63 businesses actively engaged in this effort."
About 400 college graduates are coming out of technology programs in the region each year, he said, but there will remain shortages of experienced local candidates for the open positions.
"These needs are pretty specific, and a lot of those people would have to be recruited from outside," said David Penn, an economics professor at Middle Tennessee State University who follows employment trends. "But that could change if these employers are willing to rethink how they hire people in technology and are more open to bringing in entry-level people and raising their skills."
Hiring is a challenge
While many companies would prefer to hire only experienced personnel, that's not always possible, said Tom Stephenson, president and CEO of Nashville-based Healthcare Management Systems Inc., which provides information technology systems to community hospitals nationwide.
"As the government is pushing hospitals and physician providers toward electronic medical records, there is a need for technical resources — developers, programmers and interface specialists, as well as more customer-facing types of workers," Stephenson said. "And we're all fighting for talent. We're anticipating significant growth in our employee base this year just like we had last year."
But, he added, "There is a skill set we're looking for."
His company seeks candidates with medical backgrounds, such as nursing, who can learn the technology side, Stephenson said. "This makes it a very challenging market on the hiring side."
While experience is always a big plus, some companies are willing to hire entry-level candidates with basic skills and then give those new employees on-the-job training. Stephenson's company is among them, he said.
"I do think there is a lot of talent coming out of the schools," he said. "You just have to have a blend (of experienced and inexperienced recruits) and have a commitment to investing six or eight months of training to get a person up to a level of productivity. But in the end, you potentially develop very loyal people."Colleges are doing their best to provide at least some hands-on experience to students by arranging internships, said Glenn Acree, a professor of math and computer science at Belmont University.
"I think internships are huge," he said. "The key is to have partnerships between the tech sector and the colleges, and networking is important. But the tech sector is going to have to take on some of the responsibility of training beyond college."
Another way to gain experience is for students to take part-time, entry-level jobs in the technology industry while still in school, Acree said.
"Any of our students who want to work are working today," he said. "They are not waiting until they are finished with school. What they're doing may not be what they plan for their careers, but they are finding jobs, even if they are entry-level positions."
'There's a future'
While many students enter college technology programs right out of high school, others are older, displaced workers seeking new careers, especially in growing industries such as health care.
Many once had good manufacturing jobs but have come to realize that they'll probably never find that kind of work again.
Among them is Brent Schultz, 41, of Spring Hill, who most recently was laid off from a job with Bridgestone.
He went back to school and earned a degree in business information technology from Columbia State Community College, and then took an unpaid internship with the college just to get some experience, he said.
Those efforts have paid off. In November, he was hired for a systems analyst position with Franklin-based Take Care Health Clinics, which decided to take a chance on him even though he wasn't very experienced.
"It's exactly what I was looking for, and even though the pay is at the low end now because I'm brand new, the job eventually will pay more than I was making at Bridgestone," Schultz said.
"The exciting thing is that there's a future in what I'm doing, especially in the next 10 to 20 years, because of all the baby boomers now coming into retirement age."
Although he found the job on the Internet, he used his own networking to get a foot in the door, he said. "It turned out that I knew a couple of people who had worked there, and that helped me get an interview."
Some new graduates haven't been so fortunate. Alicia Jones, 37, of Columbia was laid off from a manufacturing job with a General Motors supplier in 2009 and has since completed a training program in medical billing and coding technology. She's still looking for a job in her new field.
"Everywhere I go, they say they want someone with more experience," she said. "I'm looking at taking some advanced classes that might help."
On-the-job training
Some new tech workers with good jobs, such as Tim Pounders, 40, of Columbia, have found ways to move into the field from other positions in the companies where they were already working.
In December, Pounders took a new job as an IT analyst at Maury County Regional Medical Center, after getting the training and experience he needed at his former employer. There, he was hired to work in the finance department, but he saw an opportunity in IT and was able to move into that position after a while.
"I have a business administration degree, and I took some programming and computer-networking courses in college," he said. "But the rest I did on the job. Nothing replaces on-the-job training.
"To be successful, giving yourself exposure to as many different IT areas as possible is very important," he said. "I did that within the company; I made myself available for work outside my job description, but it ended up giving me the experience I needed to move full time into IT."
The lack of experience that many job seekers face is an age-old problem, said Ann Wallbrech, senior corporate recruiter for Emdeon, a Nashville-based provider of payment- and revenue-management systems for health-care providers.
"It can be difficult to break in, especially when you're coming out of the economic situation the country has been in," she said. "Companies are being extremely selective in their hiring. They are doing more with less, and it's often easier to hire one experienced person who can hit the ground running, where in the past you might have hired two less-experienced people who would have needed more training."
Still, Wallbrech said, some entry-level applicants are hired, and they get the necessary additional training on the job.
"Coming out of college, we're not expecting you to have all of the knowledge you need for our business," she said. "But we do need to see opportunity in you, what you have attained through education, internships and school projects. Transferability is what we're looking for — how well the things you have learned will transfer to the job we have."
