Talent war escalating in technology

HOMEWARD BOUND: BatchBlue Software Chief Technology Officer Ray Anderson spent 15 years commuting up to 150 miles daily before finding a job at BatchBlue Software in Providence. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL PERSSON
HOMEWARD BOUND: BatchBlue Software Chief Technology Officer Ray Anderson spent 15 years commuting up to 150 miles daily before finding a job at BatchBlue Software in Providence. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL PERSSON

Expanding technology opportunities in Rhode Island finally intersected with the pull of family and hometown roots for BatchBlue Software Chief Technology Officer Ray Anderson.
Until he began his current job about a year ago at BatchBlue in Providence, Anderson spent six years commuting 75 miles each way from his home in Dartmouth to his job at IDG Enterprise in Framingham, Mass. Before that he worked in Marlborough and Needham, Mass., adding up to 15 years of commuting 65-75 miles each way, five days a week. Some days the one-way trip could be as long as two hours.
“My work was extremely interesting and fun, so I stayed in a place for a long time,” said Anderson, who’s found a good match working with BatchBlue and its Batchbook, a cloud application that helps small businesses manage customer relationships.
As the technology sector expands in Providence, Anderson exemplifies a combination of advanced skills and a preference to work in Rhode Island that’s a win for the state, as competition for skilled workers in the tech industry sizzles across the U.S.
“What’s really happened is that there’s been this upsurge of new Web companies in Providence, several coming out of Betaspring, and others,” said Anderson, who works in the heart of the emerging tech ecosystem on Chestnut Street in Providence.
“I didn’t take this job just to get out of the long commute. I could have done that sooner if I wanted to work in something I didn’t like. But I wouldn’t have been happy,” he said. “I’m basically in the Internet business and I found very interesting work in an industry that is emerging in Providence,” said Anderson. “I didn’t have to sacrifice on my compensation package and it afforded me the lifestyle change I was looking for.”
Raised in Mattapoisett, Anderson and his wife were determined to raise their two children, now 11 and 13, among both of their extended families. His job in Providence gives him time mornings and evenings with his children, and time to spend time in community activities. His drive to work now, from Dartmouth to Providence, is about 20 minutes, and traffic is hardly noticeable, he said. “It’s 1999 all over again. It’s a talent war. It’s insane,” said James Wright, a partner in East Greenwich-based Bridge Technical Talent, which recruited Anderson for the BatchBlue job.
The competition is showing up in companies such as HubSpot, an inbound marketing software company based in Cambridge, Mass., and Dublin, Ireland, which is offering a $30,000 incentive to individuals who refer developers and designers, and who get hired, according to its website.
Wright has seen the cycles.
“Two years ago there were more candidates than jobs. Now we have more jobs than we have candidates,” he said.
Before working in Rhode Island, he worked in San Francisco and Silicon Valley for 13 years.
“It’s so dynamic with tech companies like Facebook out there. They started having a WiFi-enabled bus pick employees up in San Francisco and they give them everything you can imagine – food, dry cleaning, yoga,” said Wright. Candidates expect that when they’re being recruited by regional tech icons like Facebook, Oracle and Google.
While Rhode Island’s expanding tech sector helps boost the economy and create jobs, many of those jobs sit open, while the state struggles to inch its way out of a stubbornly high unemployment rate, currently at 8.8 percent.
The competition for technology talent is a huge challenge in Rhode Island, as it struggles to upgrade its educational system and provide a skilled workforce to attract new business.
Year after year, many Rhode Island-educated graduates leave for higher pay and better opportunities in Massachusetts, Connecticut and other parts of the country.
In Rhode Island, as in many places across the country, the pool of developers for specific software is especially slim.
“For .NET, Java, PHP and Ruby, all those are in great demand right now,” said Wright. “And there are six or eight companies in Rhode Island that use ColdFusion and it’s hard to find ColdFusion people – there are only so many,” said Wright. Complicating the challenge to attract tech talent is the lineup of new languages continually on the horizon, he said.
When it comes to recruiting sought-after technical talent to Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts, Wright focuses on the strengths of the region.
“Rhode Island has so much going for it,” said Wright. “A lot of people move here for quality of life – the affordability, the pace. You can buy a house and have a good school system. You’re near beaches and skiing. It’s a nice location between Boston and New York.”
While attracting tech talent to the state is a must for companies who are growing quickly, the Tech Collective, the technology-industry association of Rhode Island, is working with its 80 member companies and the Governor’s Workforce Board to encourage and grow IT talent.
“A new trend is the Governor’s Workforce Board fellowships that place recent IT and bioscience graduates in a company for 12 weeks,” said Tech Collective spokeswoman Giselle Mahoney. “They get paid $700 a week – $500 paid by the state and $200 paid by the company. The goal is, at the end of the 12 weeks, they get hired by the company.”
Tech Collective serves a pivotal role in the program, working with the companies to find out what jobs need to be filled, then prescreening and recommending applicants. “In IT there are very specific niches of technology challenges,” said Mahoney. “In general, when students study IT in school, it’s a foundation.
“Companies often hire entry-level people and train them. We offer a lot of training programs in both technical and soft skills,” said Mahoney.
“We found the companies need people who can translate IT so they speak with colleagues and project managers,” said Mahoney. “People who can do the coding might get the job, but they won’t move up in the company.”
Tech Collective member companies are always hiring, she said.
“All through the recession, they’ve been hiring. We’re in the middle of an IT skills gap,” said Mahoney. “I’d say the available technology jobs in Rhode Island are in the hundreds.” •

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