Filling up important technical job positions in Information Technology sector is quite a challenging task. The current trends in IT off late are to find people in the field of data analytics, which is creating a huge demand for people or candidates capable of extracting knowledge from the data. The rapid growth of big data and analytics for use within businesses is creating this demand. The McKinsey Global Institute has predicted that by 2018, the United States would face a shortage between 140,000 to 190,000 people with deep analytical skills in addition to 1.5 million managers and analysts who know how to use the analysis of big data to make effective decisions.
The rise of big data projects has necessitated the need for candidates or people having the skills of gathering and interpreting data. Some of the top positions in demand in IT sector include business intelligence analysts, data architects, data warehouse analysts, and data scientists. The ongoing shortage of candidates for these positions has resulted in IT staffing firms looking for other alternatives to satisfy the needs of their clients who are clamoring for big data skills when the existing colleges and universities in the United States are unable churn out enough graduates to meet the demand for this latest hot IT skill.
To face the challenges of finding the right people and retaining those in the field of data analytics that their client companies need, IT staffing firms are looking at the existing pool of IT workers who are already inside those client companies. For instance, there exists very senior IT professionals who have lots of experience that include learning the big data skills (especially on the analytics) and client companies (employers) willing to hire them, albeit after an intensive and innovative training being provided by the IT staffing firms. Some of the IT staffing firms identify the current employees of their client companies who have some background/skills where they can be transformed into big data developers, architects, and analysts by providing them with innovation lab and a center of excellence that offers online training in these emerging technologies.
These IT staffing firms give access to their private cloud with the tools and frameworks that they (candidates/employees) need and through conferences and webinars thereby helping with closing the gap. IT staffing firms have also started internships for not only college students but also for senior IT professionals who want to move laterally from their existing IT positions in the field of data analytics/data scientists.