Lamenting about the shortage of personable and professional geeks

I have been in the consulting / reselling world three times in my career, and each time I hear the same lament: "We can't find people who are technical AND can talk to people!"  And the truth of the matter is, you're right!  Those people are hard to find.  Here's an excerpt from an article at eWeek:

"We continue to get very good response to ads that we place in various media, but the number of people responding who we could consider for our practice is very small," said Howard Cohen, president and chief operating officer of LAN Associates Network Solutions, in Central Islip, N.Y. "We could be too demanding, but we need a cross-section of professional, personal and technical skills," said Cohen, who added that finding people with all three is difficult.

He also says:

"There is not a shortage of people, but there is certainly a shortage of good people," said Cohen. Sometimes, he added, the skills candidates lack have nothing to do with technology. Candidates often lack the personal or professional skills that a well-rounded IT channel technician needs to put the customer at ease and instill confidence that the job will be done properly. "We reject a lot of people because of this," said Cohen.

And another excerpt:

Many job seekers lack what Samuel Bright, an analyst at Forrester Research, called "the three legs of the stool"­—technical, business and personal skills. These business deficiencies are the hardest to overcome in potential hires, said employers and analysts.
 
"It's more than twisting a tool," HP's Underhill said. "You need business acumen, and we're losing this. Business acumen can't be bought or picked up overnight, and you don't exit an IT college curriculum with it."

This has been known for so long, and this is precisely why I decided to get a degree in business rather than a technology-related degree.  I knew I would need to know how to make business decisions.  I knew I would need to interface with decision-makers and understand their points.  I knew I would need to know how to interface with marketing (even though I feel a little dirty afterwards).
 
But this is not just a matter of education.  The problem is more social that that.  When you have an uber-geek, you often have someone who has spent more time in front of a computer than talking to people.  This is not conducive to social skills (I am not putting those people down at all - just making an observation).
 
So how is this fixed?  Good question (if I do say so myself).  A personality is not something you can just change to fit whatever mold your potential employer needs, so this is not a quick-fix issue.  This is going to take time.
 
But for those of you who have the "three legs of the stool", rest assured that you are in demand.  And "high demand" = "higher salary".

Lamenting about the shortage of personable and professional geeks

I have been in the consulting / reselling world three times in my career, and each time I hear the same lament: "We can't find people who are technical AND can talk to people!"  And the truth of the matter is, you're right!  Those people are hard to find.  Here's an excerpt from an article at eWeek:"We continue to get very good response to ads that we place in various media, but the number of people responding who we could consider for our practice is very small," said Howard Cohen, president and chief operating officer of LAN Associates Network Solutions, in Central Islip, N.Y. "We could be too demanding, but we need a cross-section of professional, personal and technical skills," said Cohen, who added that finding people with all three is difficult.

Lamenting about the shortage of personable and professional geeks

I have been in the consulting / reselling world three times in my career, and each time I hear the same lament: "We can't find people who are technical AND can talk to people!"  And the truth of the matter is, you're right!  Those people are hard to find.  Here's an excerpt from an article at eWeek:"We continue to get very good response to ads that we place in various media, but the number of people responding who we could consider for our practice is very small," said Howard Cohen, president and chief operating officer of LAN Associates Network Solutions, in Central Islip, N.Y. "We could be too demanding, but we need a cross-section of professional, personal and technical skills," said Cohen, who added that finding people with all three is difficult.

Workplace chemical exposure can last a lifetime!

In his blog, Martin MC Brown talks about how laser printers pose a possible health risk. I could not agree more, although today's printers do have better filters. Provided you change them on time, filters help catch some of the unused toner particles which contain all manner of chemicals that can't be good to inhale. Having examined physiology, physics and biology, I'm always fascinated about any health risks posed by pieces of office equipment. As a young man, I worked in an electronic assembly plant building and cleaning electrical components for over half a year.  One piece of equipment that was a health risk was the vapor degreaser we used to strip and clean residual flux off circuit boards.

Workplace chemical exposure can last a lifetime!

In his blog, Martin MC Brown talks about how laser printers pose a possible health risk. I could not agree more, although today's printers do have better filters. Provided you change them on time, filters help catch some of the unused toner particles which contain all manner of chemicals that can't be good to inhale. Having examined physiology, physics and biology, I'm always fascinated about any health risks posed by pieces of office equipment. As a young man, I worked in an electronic assembly plant building and cleaning electrical components for over half a year.  One piece of equipment that was a health risk was the vapor degreaser we used to strip and clean residual flux off circuit boards.

Workplace chemical exposure can last a lifetime!

In his blog, Martin MC Brown talks about how laser printers pose a possible health risk. I could not agree more, although today's printers do have better filters. Provided you change them on time, filters help catch some of the unused toner particles which contain all manner of chemicals that can't be good to inhale. Having examined physiology, physics and biology, I'm always fascinated about any health risks posed by pieces of office equipment. As a young man, I worked in an electronic assembly plant building and cleaning electrical components for over half a year.  One piece of equipment that was a health risk was the vapor degreaser we used to strip and clean residual flux off circuit boards.