The article I found on Fortune’s tech website describes the current talent shortage hitting the silicon valley right now. The article describes the relationship between investors, entrepreneurs, technologist, and large corporations. The article also makes correlations to the dot com bust of the early 2000’s but says that the current issue is not nearly as dangerous or high risk as the dot com bust. The article gives evidence that there is a talent shortage because large corporations are paying big money for successful startups primarily for the talent the startup possesses. Startups with good talent are attracting lots of investment in the very early stages of product development because there is an excess of capital and a shortage of talent.
Reading through this article was very encouraging for me. I am a senior in Computer Science with a focus on web software engineering. This article specifically calls out people with my training and says that there will be a shortage of workers in this industry for many years. This means that demand for my skill set will be high and as such, pay will be high. This is a great turnaround from what the industry looked like two years ago.
After reading this article I am giving more consideration to a startup focused job hunt. Several examples are provided of large corporations buying startups and giving huge payouts to employees of the startup to keep them onboard after the buyout. While joining a startup can be risky the risk can be substantially lower when large companies are constantly buying startups. Instead of a startup having to make it big on their own they now only have to show a promising product and decent start and they are eligible for a large buyout or a significant investment. While the recent industry trends may change in the future they will likely stay the same for the beginning of my career and the talent shortage will not be going away anytime soon.
The article did mention that the talent shortage can be remedied by two factors. One would be an increased enrollment rate in related fields of study at universities. With a shortage of workers the pay rates will go up which will increase the interest of students graduating high school and considering different options in college. Another factor that could affect the talent shortage is bringing over talent from other countries. Outsourcing jobs was common in the 2000’s but now companies have a desire to keep the talent closer to home. Companies are looking to bring over tech talent and help them get visas or citizenship. The article does not provide any information about current enrolment rates in related fields of study at universities. The article also does not provide information about how many workers are coming from overseas. It would be interesting to see the number of students graduating each year in related fields over the past 20 years. After the dot com bust I read numerous articles that enrolment in computer science and software engineering programs at universities across the US took a steep nosedive when the industry collapsed. It would be interesting to see if enrolment rates have begun to turn around or if they are still really low in this field.
How do current university enrolment rates in tech related programs compare over the last 20 years? Do changes in the enrolment rates show that this talent shortage may be a long term issue or one that appears to be fixing itself now?
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