The tech jobs headhunters just can't fill Recuitment professionals just can't fill some jobs and sometimes it's your fault for wanting too much money. So says Tenille Emmett, Head of Talent2's ICT Practice in Victoria, who told The Register “The jobs that are most challenging to fill at the moment are ones that require niche technical skill sets such as: Oracle Fusion …
They don't see any problem blackmailing prospective employees into accepting ridiculously low wages whenever they can use the supply/demand argument, and yet they whine when it's the other way around.
Oh well, if they don't want to pay that much it surely means they don't need those skills after all...
Me thinks Tenille doesn't understand basic Economics. If everyone with the skills is asking for too much money then it is likely that the end client is just not willing to pay the market rate. If these people aren't unemployed and their rate demand can therefore stay high then chances are you're just looking in the wrong pay bracket. Back to school for you miss.
You want my skills, you pay my price. My price will go down if nobody is willing to pay me. If they are, chances are you're trying to get scarce, valuable skills at a low-ball figure.
Your alternative, and I know this is unheard of in business these days, is to take a current employee with a related skill set and offer them training. Then everyone wins. Of course the problem here is that if you're not paying them market rate then they'll leave afterwards too.
So basically, stop being a cheapskate, or if the money really isn't there to pay for these skills then you're going to have to live without them.
I have been on both sides of the table over the years: as the interviewer and as the applicant. I've also done consulting contract negotiation on both sides of the table.
I believe the party who makes the first bid is at a disadvantage. If you are hiring and you bid first, the applicant will almost always ask for ~5% more. However, if you get them to bid first you may find their number was 25% less than you were prepared to pay. This results in significant savings and gives you budget room for granting future raises to keep the employee happy. Same general principle applies to consulting contract negotiations.
As always, there is a possibility that the parties can't come to terms if expectations don't overlap, but that's ubiquitous in negotiation.
One of the good things about it is that the sheer amount of experience required serves to combat (a little) the tendency towards young graduates with less experience.
It also enables the individual to get off the hamster wheel of non-stop certification courses, since it's only the concepts and fundamentals that are required.
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