A June 2016 survey compiled by Tech Collective, Rhode Island's information technology and bioscience industry association, found that 51 percent of local information technology professionals work "core" tech sectors, such as IT services, software and network communications, while the remaining 49 percent work in IT-related positions in finance, health care, education and professional industries.
The report said median annual salaries for high-tech industries was $79,226 with entry-levels ranging from $45,000 to $60,000 – but is the pay and opportunity enough to recruit tech talent for local jobs, thousands of miles from the Silicon Valley tech epicenter?
MojoTech Chief Technology Officer Chris A. Shoemaker knows from experience it's not an easy task filling local jobs.
Hiring for both the Providence and Boulder, Colo., offices, Shoemaker said the biggest disparity is the difference in experience between Boulder and Providence applicants.
"The average level of experience of an applicant at our Boulder office is three to five years more" than that of Providence MojoTech applicants, he said.
Shoemaker said MojoTech looks to hire "engineers who are driven to build the best software they can" but said it is a "rarer resource" in the Ocean State's applicant pool, even though he hires for the same positions, seeking the same qualifications, in both offices.
One of the reasons for this incongruity, said Shoemaker, is because the Rhode Island office has existed longer – the company was formed in 2008 and opened a Warren office the following year.
"We've saturated the [Providence] market," everyone who wants to apply has, and there are more-experienced applicants applying to Boulder because "we're much less well-known [there]," he said.
Yet applicant pools differ because the cities appeal to different talent, said Shoemaker. Boulder has a "more vibrant" startup community, he said, which leads to higher turnover and "more elasticity" in the market.
Rhode Island tech professionals, he added, are usually hired by larger employers and stay in those positions longer.
Shoemaker thinks one Providence draw is that applicants know, because of the office's tenure, they can learn more from staff. The Providence office has 33 employees.
"Professional development is what's attracting people," he said.
In 2015 then-President Barack Obama included Rhode Island in his TechHire initiative – a multiindustry undertaking to empower and educate U.S. residents for the technology-reliant jobs of the 21st-century economy.
Gov. Gina M. Raimondo, in a statement following the announcement by Obama, said the national recognition highlighted Rhode Island's role in "cultivating talented, skilled workers and sparking a comeback."
As part of the initiative, a local branch of TechHire was established and – with 180 employer partners, including CVS Health Corp., Citizens Bank and Fidelity Investments – began to identify employment opportunities for in-state tech talent and help companies locate and hire the staff they needed to succeed.
TechHire did not immediately return calls seeking information on the impact of the effort.
According to the R.I. Department of Labor and Training, there were 8,300 workers in the state's information industry in December 2016. There were more than 10 times that (88,400) in Massachusetts that month, as measured by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.
But while MojoTech struggles to find experienced candidates locally, it's a different story for 2-year-old INSPIRE Environmental, a Newport marine-technology research firm that employs 15 locally.
Once also located in Seattle, the company is still hiring core staff and has encountered few hurdles while recruiting employees they vet to fit the culture of the small, but eager to grow, endeavor.
"Making sure we preserve that culture, value and teamwork as we grow meant that we relied mostly on word-of-mouth and recommendations from colleagues," said Drew Carey, a founding partner.
The hiring team has been particularly choosy when it came to senior-level positions. Carey said they assess candidates through personal networks and he would be "surprised" if they advertised a senior-level position online.
"While in the classic high-tech industry it's difficult [to hire people for Rhode Island-based jobs], people are very happy to move [here] to work with a marine-technology company," he said.
While Carey offers relocation expenses to new hires moving to Newport, he said he has yet to pay more than the standard industry salary or offer a signing bonus to incentivize prospective hires.
There is an abundance of marine-technology professionals on both coasts, he said, noting particular success hiring recent graduates from Rhode Island universities.
One of the reasons for the ease in their hiring and recruitment process, said Daniel Doolittle, principal scientist, is the state's claim as home to the first wind farm in North America.
Renewable energy is a real draw, he said, as "tech-savvy" workers from the oil-rich Houston area "are starting to express interest in New England."
Moving forward, Carey said increased investment in Aquidneck Island's fiber-optics infrastructure would be "critically important to maintain [the industry's] growth and presence" in Rhode Island. •