Ephox has a long history of association with graduates (we were founded by a graduate) and so a significant number of our engineers have been graduates. It has only been recently that we have hired experienced engineers (mostly at the senior level) and found it very difficult to get good candidates. As the engineering manager I'm of course interested in how we build up our resources and this is a troubling development as I try to grow the team.
Damien recently posted a comment on the state of IT in his article "Is Australia in an IT Drought?" In it he comments on the potential future lack of IT graduates in Australia and poses the question:
As an industry we should be asking ourselves how we can make this industry more attractive to young people seeking a career.
While I agree with his calling for the industry to do a better job of promoting the opportunities in IT outside of pure engineering, I think the biggest thing we can do is hire graduates.
A recent discussion with a recruiter indicated that there are plenty of positions out there despite the perception by students that there is no work when they graduate. The problem appears to be, as an industry, we want to hire experienced people, and not graduates. So students are right, there are no jobs for them when they graduate.
So consider hiring a graduate. They are the future "experienced" people and without them, we will find it harder and harder to find good people.
