Over the last 17 years I’ve developed a small group of colleagues that own and manage executive search firms. While we all have slightly different specialties, we all are involved in recruiting technical and executive level talent for software companies and companies in the digital realm.
At Integral our business has been incredibly steady and has even seen some growth over the last three years of The Great Recession. While several colleagues in the technical recruiting and executive search space saw a slow ’08 or no growth in ’09, all of the recruiters I speak with had an excellent 2011. By the end of last year, everyone I spoke with was saying, “things are as good as I have ever seen.” This translates to a glut of positions to fill (opportunities) and a dearth of candidates. Most of us have been through two downturns and boom cycles now and this current “boom” and the struggle to identify talent feels the most genuine.
In my humble opinion, the boom between 1997-2000 was defined in the recruiting business by a falsely created lack of talent. Technology companies, flush with cash from Venture Capitalists, Angel Investors and IPO’s, were hiring as many bodies as they could afford (or not afford as it was later proven). Many of the people hired at that time had poorly defined roles and to this day struggle to describe what it was they were actually tasked to do at that time. When the bubble burst in late 2000, many of these people, unable to find work in technology, left the space. (To do what? – I don’t know – but I believe many were selling mortgages).
Between 2004 and 2008 we saw another boom cycle in technology. That boom in my mind was a result of a “perceived” lack of talent. In most cases the talent existed, but candidates needed to be identified and coaxed into new roles. We saw a lot of consolidation in technology and software over those three years and that helped recruiters spread the talent around.
While there certainly was a downturn in 2008 and we saw a lot of skilled technology executives on the street, the recovery happened quickly for technology. I know many recruiters think that technology only experience a blip on the radar, and that the exceptional talent was either retained or picked up immediately. Look at the growth and hiring at Facebook, Zynga, Google, and the like as an easy example. We’ve also seen incredible growth in tech entrepreneurship with the coming of the App Environment, with many engineers and executives forming small groups looking to cash in on the space.
In my years of recruiting this is the first time I’ve seen what I view as a genuine lack of talent. People with marketable skills that are open to new opportunities are very difficult to find. Those that are open to new roles tend to get snatched up quickly. Most have several opportunities from which they can choose. This leads me to believe that 2012 will be a big year for recruiters in general.
Companies, now more than ever, need experienced professional recruiters to work with them in identifying and successfully hiring their talent.
The Integral Executive 