Finding Tech Talent: Midwest Competing With the Two Coasts

by Nathan Eddy

If Seattle has always been known for its weather-related clouds, before now it hasn’t been known for cloud computing. Amazon, Microsoft and other cloud service providers are seeking professionals with cloud skills in Seattle and surrounding areas such as Portland. “As more and more organizations use cloud services, providers will need to staff up in engineering, project management and specific cloud computing skills,” Shravan Goli, Dice president, told eWEEK.

Startups and media companies are looking for tech talent in the City of Angels as all businesses contemplate entering the digital era. This involves everyone from major movie studios to the guerrilla marketing shops they work with. While there is no “tech hub” in the famously de-centralized metropolis, this can encourage entrepreneurs who prefer a little more space for their disruptive ideas grow.

San Francisco is one of the toughest places to recruit in as social media and big data become more mission-critical for businesses. The epicenter of Silicon Valley, the City by the Bay has always been in the top three most competitive markets for hiring IT professionals, a distinction that is not likely to leave the tech metropolis any time soon.

Employers in the automotive capital of America are recruiting professionals who can help them design and build vehicles that are connected to the Internet. So many new model cars and trucks now have software in them that allow users to dictate emails, order up songs and talk hands-free, that automakers are focused on high-tech solutions to a (largely) petroleum-centric industry.

“We know St. Louis has been on our radar for the past year. It was the fastest-growing city for tech jobs last year, and Missouri was the third fastest-growing state for tech employment,” Goli told eWeek. The city’s startup culture is also growing, he added.

When it comes to health IT, the capital of Arkansas is far from small. The largest employer in Little Rock is the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. Other big employers include Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield, two companies that are implementing the mandates of the Affordable Care Act and transitioning to a consumer-driven health care environment. This type of transformation requires technology skills.

The federal government and defense contractors scour the D.C. area, including Baltimore and Virginia, for tech professionals. The D.C. area offers great opportunities for tech professionals, and Goli said, for hiring managers, it’s a battle to attract the right professional at the right time.

While the regional crown went to the Midwest, the Big Apple came in at number one as the toughest tech city in which to recruit. According to former Mayor Bloomberg’s “Made in New York” map, nearly 1,500 New York City tech companies are currently hiring, and on Dice there are more than 8,000 positions advertised on any given day that are based in this city.

It appears the Windy City’s recruitment market is only going to become more competitive as startup money floods the city. More than $1 billion in funding was raised last year, a 169 percent increase from 2012, according to a Built in Chicago 2013 report. All digital sectors were represented, including 38 software companies and 41 consumer-Web businesses.

On any given day, approximately 2,700 tech positions located in Boston are advertised on Dice. In addition to the education and medical technology industries that are highly concentrated in Boston, many companies here look for engineers who have been trained at one or more of the city’s research institutions. One of the keys to recruiting in Boston is employer branding because recent graduates want to know they are joining companies they can believe in.