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Employer Quotes

The quotes below are from employers in this industry: Information Technology (IT)

They are talking about this topic: Experience & Credentials

 

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For entry-level technicians, employers look for a minimum of an associate degree. Some say that associate-level technicians tend to have more practical experience, while bachelor-level technicians tend to have stronger soft skills. Some respondents feel that candidates coming from disciplines other than IT can be successful technicians as well.

Employer Quote Region
"I'd say there's a whole new group of people coming up that are going for the two-year degrees. It used to be a bachelor of science for computer degrees. It's changing. They're learning a lot in the two-year colleges. The technology changes so fast; it changes really fast." Metro
"I'm going to challenge the notion that we need, at the education level, science and math to be effective in IT. I look at our IT leadership team and most of them were liberal arts majors. Drama is another one, and one was a finance guy. Medieval philosophy as an undergrad. They started out as developers, like myself. So, I do think different companies in different levels of the IT staff, so to speak, [lost in translation] hardcore technologists. If you look at the numbers of people that are in IT, most of them aren't doing things that need that kind of background, in my opinion." Metro
"People here are hiring people with four years of college and no other experience. I'm hiring students." Metro
"It depends on the more traditional technology side of things versus catering to the healthcare software, which is pretty specific. You have a wide variety of people in it, and I wonder if we have a single computer science major in our company's support analyst side of things. So, the variety is actually quite nice, you know? People come in from a lot of different angles but, again, the common trade is technical aptitude and business acumen." Northeast
"It's easier for us to hire the specific skill set focused two-year grads because they come with the skill set of actually using these technologies on a day-to-day basis. With the four-year programs, many of them turn out to be better off long-term because they have that larger base. But they need the experience of dealing with those products." Northeast
"A candidate's major is important to us. We have computer science or the equivalent, so it has to be closely-related for most of our positions." Northeast
"Employer 1: We want the specific. We're getting exactly what we need in terms of computer science. That's what we want.

Question: So, for you, the major matters?

Employer 1: Yes, it does. Absolutely.

Employer 2: So, you don't want someone with a liberal arts degree and a minor in computer science? You want the computer science major?

Employer 1: Correct. Yeah.

Question: So, somebody who's a history major but who loves technology?

Employer 1: Well, one of our best senior guys is a linguistics major. Go figure. I don't know.

Employer 2: That's rare."		 Northeast
"Where we see a difference between a two-year program and a four-year program is if we're talking about new people coming into the workforce. Those who have a technical—or where they're in a more vocation-specific program—and then those who have a liberal arts education where they cover critical thinking and a broader range of ideas...I don't know if the two-year programs have as much time to cover those additional skills, so there might be a difference there in those two types of programs." Northeast
"Question: When you work with those high school kids and you've hired a couple of them, when they go on to higher education, do they tend to aim toward two-year or four-year degrees?

Employer: Both. Two-year and then ultimately into a four-year. It seems to be the trend. Again, we've only got two, it's not like we have a lot of history doing it."		 Northeast
"Question: So, if somebody had been a medical assistant, and they decide that they want to do IT, and they get a two-year IT degree—and they have that medical mindset and they can apply it to IT—they're ready for you to hire?

Employer: They don't need any specific technical certifications, just a technical aptitude."		 Northeast
"Employer: I know we are all in similar fields here, and there's some overlap as far as what we're looking for and potential candidates, but it seems to me that the two-year technical programs produce candidates that are more ready to hit the ground running and actually dig in with skill sets that align with our industry. The four-year programs are more of the broader skill set. And we end up looking for candidates with the four-year degree that actually have some experience. Or the two-year fresh out of school.

Question: So, you hire people with two-year degrees directly, but for the people with four-year degrees you want them to have some experience?

Employer: It's not a rule, but it generally seems to follow that pattern. Yes."		 Northeast
"Question: And do those folks tend to come out of the two-year program or the four-year program?

Employer: The two-year program with experience."		 Northeast
"Essentially, we normally require more experience if they have an associate's degree, and maybe a bachelor's degree with no experience." Northeast
"Employer: I think the majority would certainly be in the infrastructure piece as support personnel, so typically we would be hiring and looking at the capabilities of a person...

Question: Are they typically two-year degrees or...?

Employer: I think it's a requirement that they have at least a two-year degree before we even look at the position. But whether that degree is related to what they actually do or not, that's kind of the question.

Question: So, they may have a degree in something else?

Employer: They very well might, yes."		 Northwest
"We don't necessarily go out and look for a specific certificate or anything like that." Northwest
"Employer: Previously, we may have taken experience in lieu of education, but that's getting much, much harder to do now. So, I think most of the positions we will be filling will have at least an associate's degree.

Question: If not a bachelor's? That education level and the skill level and the technical ability that comes with that is more important now that it used to be?

Employer: Absolutely."		 Northwest
"It just depends on what classification people are in. Certain jobs, many of our jobs, do require a completed post-secondary education, which would either be an associate's degree, a bachelor's degree, or we will accept advanced military. You know, veteran's training if it's specialized in areas we need. Typically, they don't have to necessarily be in a tech-related field. We have people that work in tech jobs that have English degrees and are outstanding." Northwest
"From my perspective, I would say many of the four-year grads have much better social skills, soft skills, whatever you want to call it. I see the biggest soft skills gap in two-year grads." Southwest
"An associate's degree with hands-on experience." Southwest
"For our needs, the two-year degree seems to be a better fit. The two-year program is a better program because things are changing so fast, all of these different devices that they're using. Students need to have that basic understanding of how it all works, but everything's changing so fast. If they're going to a four-year program, by the time they get through, the things that they learned in that first year are probably going to be outdated. The best thing they can learn is—once they have that basic understanding and that skill set—then the on-the-job training is what we need them to have." Southwest