Computer Industry
High-Tech Head Hunt

With post-Soviet immigration well beyond its peak
and university students flocking to business
and law schools, the computer industry is
hard-pressed to recruit new programmers.

ALLISON KAPLAN SOMMER SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

• N vs ;11-, r •- ■ rv

er el f lk A

err.r.r 1 r ■ rAn

LOW PRICES and QUALITY!

pie jobs before they enter the
wider market."
Convincing the best students
to stay on is not easy, she said,
in a market where each compa-
ny is bidding for talent against
the others.
Ms. Gatt keeps in touch regu-
larly with the applicants during
the entire process, to make sure
she doesn't lose any prospects.
"You have to do this now," she
said, "since there are twice as
many companies looking for peo-
ple than there were just a few
years ago."
This is why she said her com-
pany, like its competitors, must
be far more aggressive in re-
cruitment than in previous years.
Company representatives will at-
tend every student job fair.
In addition to hiring students,
full time, the company also offers
newly recruited talents facilities
in which to conduct their final
projects.
NICE Systems has yet to offer
prospective recruits scholarships
in exchange for a commitment to
later join its ranks, as some com-
panies have, but "we may have
to offer scholarships in 1996,"
Ms. Gatt said.
Many of the larger companies
don't even insist that new re-
cruits come with computer back-
grounds. Formal retraining
courses are offered for those who
have degrees in physics or the
natural sciences, where job op-
portunities are more scarce.
Moreover, to shore up their re-
cruiting power, companies regu-
larly go outside their own
manpower divisions to placement
firms.
Odelia Fathi, of CPNS (Com-
puter People And Software), has
been recruiting for high-tech
companies since 1992.
The most sought-after candi-
dates, she said, are not the stu-
dents fresh out of school, but
those who have three to five
years of experience in the in-
dustry. "People who aren't fresh
from school, but aren't yet quite
ready to be the big shots," she
said.
There is no single formula for
salaries, which depend largely
on the talent each candidate
demonstrates. Starting salaries
out of university, particularly for

mum irciniamItcTrzy

AA

Irwin & Laurie•Groskind, Bloomfield Twp.
Steven & Ruthie Moss, Farmington Hills

Ask
Larry & Rhonda Katz, Farmington Hills •
Robert & Dr. Jill Friedman, West Bloomfield

3250 New rarm Court, Suite 1, Walled Lake, MI 48390 (810) 624-9590

20% OFF

All In-Stock
Merchandise

Located on The Boardwalk
6895 Orchard Lake Road, West Bloomlielcl

610-932-1155

s0itojew

D EC E MB ER

I

t's going to take a long time
for a new phrase to roll off a
Jewish mother's tongue as
easily as "My son, the doctor,"
or "My daughter, the lawyer."
But if the high-tech sector in Is-
rael is to continue to grow as it
has over the past few years, par-
ents had better start bragging
about "My kid, the computer soft-
ware engineer."
To say that software engi-
neering and programming ex-
perts are in demand right now is
to make a vast understatement.
Experts believe Israeli high-tech
companies are currently short of
at least 5,000 computer pro-
grammers and engineers. In-
deed, the general consensus in
the rapidly expanding industry
is that universities are not turn-
ing out enough engineering
graduates to fill the jobs in the
rapidly expanding high-tech in-
dustry.
Experts say that what is
needed are fewer business and
law students and more engi-
neering students. Personnel re-
cruiters for high-tech companies
say they feel the pinch on a dai-
ly basis.
"Compared with demand,
there are simply not enough peo-
ple studying computers or any
other aspect of electronics," said
Tami
Dvir, manager of human re-
sources for Tel Aviv-based Lan-
net.
"For a long time we didn't re-
ally feel it, due to the big immi-
gration from Russia, which
brought multitudes of qualified
people.
"But now that the wave has
abated, and with so many more
start-up companies joining the
industry, the situation has got-
ten worse," she explained.
Every company has its own
head-hunting strategy. At the
rate many companies are grow-
ing, recruitment can no longer be
done haphazardly.
"You have to be creative," said
Aviva Gatt, manager of human
resources at NICE Systems.
"First of all, we recruit a lot of
students who are still in school,
giving them part-time jobs when
they are still students. They get
to know the company, we get to
know them, and we have the op-

PERSONAL DESIGNS
WILL BEAT ANY
PRICE FROM ANY
CONTRACTOR OR
MANUFACTURER

