Women, Trades and Vets, Careers in the Data Center – New Podcast series!

We are thrilled to be launching our new podcast series covering careers in the data center industry for the trades, women, and vets. The data center sector is a vast industry that has suffered from a critical skills shortage for some time. The talent shortage is expected to grow as an aging segment of the current talent pool retires. Further attrition for women in tech is around 67% which is a deplorable number. Vets returning to the workforce have viable skills to contribute to our industry. This series has an amazing guest list and covers everything from construction to marketing and lots of career paths in between.  We are focussing on the trades, women and vets as the talent represented within these three segments are both needed and underrepresented.  Increasing job opportunities brings not only diversity, but also some much needed talent to our industry.  While we are geared towards the data center industry, these topics will relate to most IT jobs, too.  

Thoughts on Degrees

We are not saying that degrees are not worth considering for positions in your organization. We also realize that some jobs require degrees. We are merely bringing a potential solution to the talent dilemma. Degrees are one way to ascertain that an applicant has the potential to learn. A degree in a non-relevant occupation may or may not be worth considering as a factor to discover if someone has the appropriate skills to master a position. Likewise, a relevant degree may not be any guaranty that the employee won’t change careers. Further, without on the job training or further certification work to perform in a job adequately, the degree may not be enough to start running in a job.   

With rising college debt, some students are forced to drop out just shy of a degree for a variety of reasons. Women and minorities tend to top the list of “not quite degreed” although they bring tremendous diversity which companies desperately need. Their dropping out could be due to becoming a caregiver, for instance. Veterans have skills learned through their military careers that may translate nicely into various data center careers, but again, they may not be degreed.  

Those that do complete their degrees will spend the first years of their work lives seeking out the best paying positions to lower their debt burden. Quite often, they end up job-hopping in the process. Employee turnover leaves companies in the perpetual, expensive cycle of training and re-training. Students that dropped out just shy of a degree, but have been working in their field often get overlooked in the hiring process. Students in cities that don’t offer data center related degrees may get passed over in favor of those that have a more relevant degree without even being considered. 

People that have been in the workforce for years, but without a degree, find themselves cut from consideration despite the fact they have tremendous applicable experience and may be the best candidate from a knowlege perspective. All of these factors are changing how we review candidates.  ATS systems are as good as their programming, and often highly qualified individuals are passed over for not matching the correct keywords, or being just shy of a degree despite having hands-on related experience.  Studies have shown that 85% of time spent submitting to ATS systems is a waste of time, and that the majority of jobs are filled through networking.  However, the key to building diversity is to look outside of your “similar circle.”  Not all amazing candidates will tick every box on your checklist.  And some would argue, that they don’t need to, either.

Trades, Women, and Vets

These three segments (women, vets and trades) of the population provide a solution to many talent shortfalls in the industry both for talent and diversity needs.  On the job training and certifications can fill in the blanks on skills. In some cases, these individuals can bring better processes and procedures through knowledge gained working in the various jobs that need filling.  Once people are employed in this industry, they gain a vast amount of crossover knowledge that will provide a fresh perspective in related jobs. In fact, crossover knowledge is an incredible incentive to start in the data center industry. Getting exposed to relevant topics and steering your career in new directions can be fun and increase earnings potential.  In short, if you get bored with one job or decide it’s not for you, being exposed to other segments can provide a great path forward.  In some cases, a certification course is enough to get you into that position.   Companies like to train within and many are seeking to do so to promote within.  But what about those not on the company payroll?  Not everyone wants to seek a degree. Some folks are happy working with their hands, or writing code, or a variety of jobs that are not degree related but critically needed. Why shouldn’t they get in on the fun!

Exposure

Exposure to the industry is ubiquitously defined as a starting point, beginning with kids at a young age.  Cirriculum is another path identified as needed.  Scholarships are available through many organizations to enhance skills and introduce new potential positions.  181 CEOs have committed to viewing skills and not degrees.  Major companies have dropped the degree requirements for many of their positions, coding for example.

Why the Podcasts?

This series is a bit of an online job fair if you will. This industry has suffered from people not knowing what a data center is, and not knowing how even to start thinking about a career here! We have an incredible line-up of guests that will speak to how they got into the industry, what they like about the industry, what their days are like, etc. Many of us just fell into this industry as we started before there was one. The first of the series discusses some potential trade careers. It provides a simple definition of a data center, and discusses some of the types of data centers.   

The series is designed to be shared. We developed the series to share with those in junior high and high schools, minority outreach programs, and anyone that has an interest in learning more about this rapidly changing industry. Are you thinking of changing careers? There will be something here for you as well. No, you don’t have to code, but that is one way to get in, and we will undoubtedly talk about coding, too.  

We are published on most popular podcast platforms, with the first episode here.  We will be posting links to those on our new page this week.  We hope you enjoy the first one, and welcome feedback on topics you would like to hear!  So far we have lined up construction, cabling, security (both physical and cyber), networking, servers, storage, sales, marketing just to name a few.  Please enjoy and share!  

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