Investing in IT Skills Development - A MUST for "A" Talent

There is a shift happening in modern Database Management and Business Intelligence —  and it’s happening faster than you think.

Organizations are eyeing Cloud Infrastructures as economical alternatives to traditional on premise solutions. IT is getting bombarded with reporting requests from the business, and are seeking out self-service solutions to arm their business users. Executives are now less interested in past trends, and are more in favor of analytics solutions that can predict the future.

And while these trends are still evolving, Database Management and BI Professionals need to adapt to this shift and continue to evolve their own skill sets. Those that do not, risk being left out in the cold in this ultra-competitive landscape. 

According to Computerworld’s article, “10 Hottest Tech Skills for 2017”, Scott Zulpo, VP of IT for BCU says, “The challenge is twofold -- first finding talent, and then determining if that talent has the skills, experience and personality to thrive in the position.” Scott also added, he’s mindful that "the cost and impact of not hiring an 'A' player is huge." The article goes on to say, “He's hiring at a time when few IT professionals are out of work, so competition for tech talent is fierce. The unemployment rate for tech workers is about 2%, per reports on recent data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.”

Here at Pragmatic Works, we understand how critical it is to find, train, and retain top talent. When the need arises to add consulting resources to our team, we’ve instituted a multi-step process to ensure our potential hires meet strict criteria and our clients are ultimately provided with only “A” players. 

Should we interview a candidate for a role who may be weak in a particular skill set, we often provide the candidate access to our On-Demand Training platform and assign content. If the candidate completes all assigned courses and passes course assessments, the candidate will be interviewed again and retested on the new-found skill set. If all checks out, the candidate is then added to our approved list of vetted candidates and can be deployed to a client site with confidence.

Rather than cast away candidates, we choose to train and develop. Some of our top Sr. BI Architects have started from a Jr. level position, growing their careers steadily as they’ve sharpened their skills and demonstrated their ability to deploy these skills in real-world applications.

I advise organizations who are serious about their data-driven practices to invest wholly in ongoing skill development for your personnel. Remember, key corporate decisions are being made based on the data management, reporting, and analytics these teams provide. The results of not doing so could be remarkably costly.

Likewise, Database Management and BI Professionals need to dedicate time to skill development to keep pace with the competition. Having access to an eLearning Platform, like our On Demand Training, allows you to consume training anytime, anywhere, and at your own pace without interfering with your daily workload.

 Pragmatic Works On-Demand Training can help you stay ahead of the curve, and in front of the competition.