Reasons Why You Struggle in Hiring Technical Data Talents

A research on Talent Shortage showed that businesses are struggling in hiring talented data scientist from time-to-time. At least 50,000 positions in data science and machine learning are lying vacant due to a shortage of skilled and qualified talents. Another reason why the market becomes rare is that more jobs have become increasingly data-driven.  

But, is it true that talent shortage is really happening, or is it just a buzzword because employers don’t know how to hire IT candidates?

Answering the questions, an IT and hiring professionals, T. Brad Kielinski commented that when companies struggle with recruitment, they tend to blame the market. They see that there is a shortage when actually there is a huge talent pool available. He advised employers to look within first before start hiring. If it takes more than 60-days to fill in a position then you have some serious work to do.

That being said, it is not about talent shortage but your apprehension in why you are struggling in your hiring process. Thus, you should recognise the problems before coming up with the solutions – and here are four common reasons why you struggle bringing in technical data talents.

The biggest reason is that your organisation does not provide or fail to understand the need for technical data practice. In other words, you have low or even no investment in the right tools, strategies, and resources needed for IT talents to work right. This simply indicates that you are not supporting them to work, thus indirectly encouraging them to walk out the door and find a better company with greater support to hire them.

You confuse your own standard for hiring technical talents to other companies’ standards. As an employer or a recruiter, having knowledge and understanding about hiring standard is vital. You should know the qualities (job descriptions), technical and professional assessment, process, as well as vision that you are looking for in your hires. Additionally, you should not just copy others when everyone is having different questions. Standards usually vary from companies to companies. 

You don’t acknowledge the competition well. As organisation robustly adapts technology and is becoming data-driven, technical data talents are like staple food – they are always in high demand. It means you are not only competing with one or two other employers but more people are aiming to hire those top data talents, indicating that someone has to lose out. If you are determined enough, you should be more competitive by providing the needs and wants to technical candidates you wish to hire.

You don’t have the knowledge on how to evaluate your data talents. Generally, when hiring candidates, those who possess good social skills and interpersonal skills outside their expertise are the “right” ones. Yet, hiring technical talents is another story. If you don’t have deep technical knowledge, it will be hard for you to even screen which one is “the right ones”. Therefore, to help you with this specific challenge, Synopsys suggested that you can start by understanding technical questions you need to ask your candidates. 

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