Farming for IT

Baseball teams have farm teams, where they can train players who are not quite ready for the major leagues.

IT doesn't have farm teams, but IT shops can establish connections with recruiters and staffing companies, and recruiters and staffing companies can establish connections with available talent. It's less formal than the baseball farm team, yet it can be quite effective.

If you're running an IT shop, you want a farm team -- unless you can grow your own talent. Some shops can, but they are few. And you want a channel that can give you the right talent when you need it.

Unlike baseball teams, IT shops see cycles of growth and reduction. The business cycle affects both, but baseball teams have a constant roster size. IT shops have a varying roster size, and they must acquire talent when business improves. If they have no farm team, they must hire talent from the "spot market", taking what talent is available.

Savvy IT shops know that talent -- true, capable talent -- is scarce, and they must work hard to find it. Less savvy shops consider their staff to be a commodity like paper or electricity. Those shops are quick to downsize and quick to upsize. They consider IT staff to be easily replaceable, and place high emphasis on reducing cost.

Yet reducing staff and increasing staff are not symmetrical operations. New hires (appropriate  new hires) are much harder to find than layoffs.  The effort to select the correct candidate is large; even companies that treat IT workers as commodities will insist on interviews before hiring someone.

During business downturns, savvy and non-savvy IT shops can lay off workers with equal ease. During business upturns, savvy IT shops have the easier task. They have kept relationships with recruiters and the recruiters know their needs. Recruiters can match candidates to their needs. The non-savvy IT shops are the Johnny-Come-Latelys who have no working relationship. Recruiters do what they can, but the savvy shops will get the best matches, leaving the less-talented folks.

If you want talent, build your farm team.

If you want commodity programmers, then don't build a farm team. But then don't bother interviewing either. (Do you interview boxes of printer paper? Or the person behind the fast food counter?) And don't complain about the dearth of talent. After all, if programmers are commodities, then they are all alike, and you should accept what you can find.