http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06043/654254.stm
Looks like tech jobs might be back on the upswing, with emergin markets in SE Asia and the ME I can see an increased need in tech work.
Hi-tech jobs picture brighter
But it's still less a surge than a trickle
Sunday, February 12, 2006
By Corilyn Shropshire, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
On the cusp of earning his doctorate in computer science, John Hainsworth doesn't have a job -- just yet. But the recent transplant from Kansas isn't worried, either.
That's because optimism and hiring are on the upswing in Pittsburgh's technology sector, ending a nearly 4-year-old cold spell that left some workers scrambling for jobs and others grasping theirs tightly.
In recent months, a slew of local firms have confirmed they are adding workers and are prowling for talent, from entry-level positions to high-end researchers.
The most prominent name, of course, is search engine giant and new high-tech star Google Inc., which late last year said it will open a local engineering and research office on or near Carnegie Mellon University's campus that insiders say will employ 100 to 200.
But smaller tech companies ranging from veteran Indianola-based medical products firm Medrad Inc. to newer entrants such as Wilkins-based voice recognition systems maker Vocollect, South Side software firm and General Dynamics' unit Viz and Squirrel Hill-based search engine Vivisimo also are in a hiring mode. Their needs range from "fresh-outs" -- newly minted graduates armed with master's degrees or Ph.D.s -- to seasoned workers with industry experience to top-level managers.
It's the best hiring climate on the local tech scene since the Internet boom, though not yet even close to that almost rabid period, industry observers say. Back then, "you'd walk around Downtown and a hiring manager would jump out and grab you," said Christina Schulman, who co-founded the tech social networking group Pittsburgh Geek Night at the pinnacle of the industry's heyday late that decade.
Indeed, the local tech job uptick is less a surge than a trickle. Most firms are still in their early stages and are hiring handfuls of employees at a time.
While some firms have said they expect to fill up to 40 new jobs this year, no one appears to be adding much more than that.
Most companies doing the hiring simply aren't that big, with the exception of Medrad, which already employs more than 1,500 and plans to add about 170 new jobs this year.
"What you're seeing is pent-up demand," said Pete DeComo, chief executive officer of Renal Solutions, the Marshall-based medical device maker, He believes demand will "bust through" when young companies get past the development stage and begin selling products.
"In general, the life sciences sector is hiring in onesies and twosies,'' Mr. DeComo said. "You'll continue to see that over the next 12 to 36 months."
A couple of new hires may seem insignificant in the scope of a regional work force that tops 1 million. "When you put that in the context of a 10-person company, it's not a yawn," said Frank Demmler, director of entrepreneurial services at state-supported tech development group Innovation Works.
Still, the hiring pickup signifies growth in a sector that just a year ago was braced for layoffs. It also serves as an indicator that the region's tech sector is turning a corner.
The local tech industry, which typically trails the nation, appears to have bottomed out in 2003, well after slumps elsewhere, said Jerry Paytas, the director of the Center for Economic Development at Carnegie Mellon University who tracks tech jobs and companies in the area. "It's steadily crawling back," he said.
Preliminary projections from the Pittsburgh Technology Council, which tracks progress in the local tech industry, suggest it will report a slight decline in the numbers of local tech firms and jobs for 2004 when it releases its State of the Industry report later this month. Its annual compilation runs a year behind because of the difficulty in gathering accurate information.
But a more recent report on the local information technology industry produced by the Technology Collaborative indicates that the region's tech scene began to rebound last year.
The group's 43 member firms say they created a net 304 local jobs in the fiscal year that ended last June, mostly from start-up firms. That's up from just 77 new jobs in the prior 12 months and 439 jobs that were lost in fiscal 2003, when the sting of the dot.com bust was still being felt.
There are hurdles to overcome. Take what Ms. Schulman, founder of Geek Night, points out as the lack of local technology anchors -- big, established firms that churn out seasoned veterans who, flush with cash from a sale or public offering, plant the seeds for their own tech start-ups.
About the closest thing to that in the region was the former Fore Systems, a computer networking firm that was acquired in the late 1990s and whose founders went on to help several other firms start up, most of which failed during the dot.com shakeout.
Such anchor firms create the sort of buzz that attracts talent from elsewhere in the country while creating the sort of entry level jobs that can keep local tech graduates here. "There should be somewhere to go when you come out of CMU with a computer science degree," said Ms. Schulman.
There are signs that the region's tech allure is capturing more national attention. Insiders point to local start-ups that have been able to lure top talent from bigger, more established industry players both in Pittsburgh and from out-of-town.
Take O'Hara-based nanotechnology start-up Plextronics, which nabbed its new chief financial officer Shaun Rollman from an executive position at Ariba Inc.'s Downtown offices, the former home to local tech star FreeMarkets that Ariba acquired.
Some previously displaced local tech workers are even looking to return to the area, even if it means a pay cut, said Gretchen Starcher, human resources manager for Strip District-based educational software firm Carnegie Learning Inc. She said she frequently receives resumes from executive-level former Pittsburghers who are hoping to return to the region and work in the industry.
There are even signs that some of the area's most heralded technology firms are starting to spawn second- and third-generation offspring from well-compensated former employees hungry to return to the start-up world. A handful of Fore Systems and FreeMarkets veterans, for example, are busy drumming up new start-ups.
The future seems bright enough for Mr. Hainsworth, the Ph.D. recently moved from Kansas, to feel good about his chances. He moved here with his wife Deirdre, a Ph.D. with a faculty position at the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, and is confident that, come spring when he finishes defending his dissertation at Princeton, he'll have choices.
He is mulling jobs in the start-up world, at big firms such as Google and already has been eyed by a Vivisimo executive, Anne McCafferty. "I'd love to get my hands on his resume," she said.
Looks like tech jobs might be back on the upswing, with emergin markets in SE Asia and the ME I can see an increased need in tech work.
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