IT skills in demand

IT skills in demand

Information technology is changing the world, including
crisis-plagued Indonesia. The problem is the dearth of skilled
workers in the country who know their way around the web. The
Jakarta Post contributor Rudy Madanir looks at the hunt for
workers with Net value, including those who went abroad.

JAKARTA (JP): Most people find themselves in a bind when it
comes to job hunting, especially as the opportunities in
Indonesia are few and far between.

It's a different case for information technology (IT) workers.
The most sought-after professionals on earth, their problem is
how to pick from the slew of attractive job offers piling up on
their desks.

Recruiting firm PT Sumberdaya Info Prima is overwhelmed by the
demand. "It's enough to make my head explode," said company
president Chris Mangowal.

With contracts for 120 positions, the firm was forced to
scramble to find the most qualified candidates before they were
head-hunted by someone else.

The firm styles itself as a recruiting specialist for IT
workers, claiming it has the most complete and accurate database
for thousands of IT personnel in the country.

Even with its considerable resources, it, like many other
companies, has had to face up to the daunting shortage of
qualified candidates.

The company's staff interviews six to eight candidates a day,
makes the rounds of campuses and, as a last resort, targets
workers with proven IT skills.

Mangowal acknowledged that the growing practice of hijacking
IT workers was unavoidable due to the desperate circumstances.
The firm itself has gone after dozens of workers.

"Sometimes a client comes to us and says 'I want so-and-so',
and tells us where we can find the person," said Mangowal.

Managing director of IT consultant PT Sapora Nusantara Linda
Mangunsong said she was accustomed to having many of her
experienced IT consultants move on to other firms.

Like other casually dressed, young IT workers in IT solution
company PT Arus Nawala, 27-year-old technical director Arie
Zanahar has found his e-mail full of job offers in the past year.

"Generally, they offer me three times my current salary. There
was one offer for five times my salary plus stock options," he
said.

Facing the real threat of losing his staff, company managing
partner Oki Subagyo is also desperately seeking 15 to 20 more IT
workers amid the skyrocketing number of job orders for website
design and technical support.

Compared to other job hunters for whom the crisis drags on,
workers who know the Internet are on easy street. Job wanted
advertisements are crowded with IT-related positions. Many
qualified IT specialists no longer bother to read the ads because
the firms come to them, offering dazzling salary and benefit
packages.

Mangowal said a senior management IT position could be worth
US$100,000 a year, a senior programmer can earn Rp 10 million to
Rp 15 million in take-home pay per month while a programmer with
a couple of years of experience would earn from Rp 5 million to
Rp 6 million a month.

An entry level IT worker can make between Rp 1.5 million and
Rp 2 million a month, higher than salaries in most entry level
positions in other sectors.

The tremendous demand for IT workers has been triggered by the
proliferation of dot.com companies and established firms now
yearning to go online. Many are still busy developing their
websites, with e-commerce yet to be considered.

Once considered an exorbitant expense, IT technology is now a
vital investment. Many firms have set up IT departments, in
contrast to the outset of the crisis when they refused to buy new
computers and laid off IT specialists.

The cyber era is still in its infancy in the country, but
there is a great need for more IT workers -- computer programmers
and technicians, webmasters, network engineers, technologically
savvy managers -- to help it on its way to development.

There are no exact statistics on the demand for IT workers,
especially qualified ones. Some estimate the demand could reach
triple or quadruple the supply.

Overseas

The problem is compounded as the small pool of locally
qualified IT workers has been depleted by job offers from
overseas. They might be treated like kings at home, but foreign
enterprises are matching the offers with excellent benefits,
especially tempting during the prolonged crisis.

"I would say about 1,000 of our alumni, or 10 percent of the
total, are now working overseas," said Once Kurniawan, dean of
the School of Computer Science at Bina Nusantara University.

He said many of the school's graduates found work in
Singapore, and others went to Australia, New Zealand, Europe and
the United States.

Many of the school's lecturers also could not pass up the
offers from abroad, he added.

Mangowal said his company sent 50 people abroad at the
beginning of the crisis.

"At that time, they just wanted to get out from Indonesia for
safety reasons, no matter what happened overseas."

The brain drain of IT workers to foreign countries is facing
not only Indonesia, but other developing countries like India and
China.

Mangunsong, who claimed to have maintained close contact with
Indonesian IT workers abroad, said she understood why many of the
workers who were Chinese-Indonesians left the country during the
instability.

"If I was one of them, I would have done the same thing,
because of feeling insecure here while there were so many better
opportunities outside," she said.

Due to the shortage of IT experts at home, Mangunsong said she
sometimes called on Indonesians working abroad to help her on
projects. She noted that clients would sometimes complain about
the expense of using the outside consultant but "then I respond
that our Indonesian consultant can easily get more payment by
staying overseas".

With the election of President Abdurrahman Wahid in October
last year, many Indonesian IT workers abroad started to come
home. Mangowal said he was able to relocate many of the workers
he sent abroad. Others, however, have stayed put abroad, with
financial concerns included among their reasons.

Even with the return of IT workers, the number is still not
enough to help the country build an e-economy.

Although the warnings are growing louder about the IT crisis,
the education sector cannot be expected to solve the problem
overnight. It takes time and money to develop IT specialists,
with IT-related training usually coming with a hefty U.S. dollar
price tag.