A talent gap exists and is growing between the digital skills required and the number of available people with those skills.
The talent pool, digital company executives are saying over and over, is simply not deep enough. Those with skills in high demand are pushing up the annual salary level that is always created around a void between supply and demand.
I recently read that John Ebbert, Managing Editor of AdExchanger.com ( a website dedicated to advertising technology) had been quoted as saying “There is pain for hiring in digital at all levels. The marketers, the publishers, the ad tech companies, the agencies, data management companies — they’re all going for the same type of employee.”
During this interview, he elaborated that the middle management and senior level roles on the job board on their platform, updated every 45 days, have doubled in the past year. The digital talent gap is driven in part by the enormous amount of user data that ad tech companies are collecting for agencies and marketers — data that is instrumental in directing ads to consumers and analyzing trends. New hires are needed for a variety of tasks, including writing code, creating digital advertisements, Web site development and statistical analysis.
Joe Zawadzki , CEO of MediaMath said that as of last week his company had 13 positions open and had gone to job boards, recruiters and even hosted technology-focused meet-ups to find people. In September, the company hired its first senior vice president for human capital to help with recruitment.
On average, Mr. Zawadzki said, it takes two to three months to find the right person — someone with a combination of pure quantitative skills, applied marketing skills and an understanding of how the advertising technology business works. With a limited talent pool, many ad tech firms are after the same people.
It appears clear that maintaining note of all good people we have come in touch with is, as important as knowing good recruiters. Agencies have not traditionally hired for skills that didn’t exist in the past. The world of digital has created a need for new skills that are being trained and developed ‘now’.
We all need to be aware that working within our own communities is going to divulge fresh, passive candidates who are more likely to join a company that they have heard about than put their CV on the open market.
