By Shera Dalin
In a recession, job losses are inevitable and the essential information technology industry is no different. Several hundred St. Louis-area IT professionals can attest to life on the unemployment line.
But an innovative program created at the RCGA, Greater St. Louis Works, has been offering IT workers a coveted spot to network for new jobs and connect them with retraining opportunities that will make them more attractive to prospective employers.
Greater St. Louis Works, an initiative at the Regional Chamber and Growth Association, runs two programs that help displaced workers: Bounce Back and Start-Up Connection.
Bounce Back, a joint initiative of the RCGA and 16 partner organizations, began a year ago as a network of information technology professionals. It enables laid-off workers to apply for and receive federal/state money that pays for retraining courses at 31 colleges, schools and universities in the metro area. The covered training ranges from short-term courses of about six weeks to traditional semester-long university classes, says RCGA’s Blair Forlaw.
“Most of this can be done in a relatively short amount of time and with an affordable amount of money,” she says.
Individuals can qualify for up to $6,000 of tuition assistance for a wide range of classes such as Java programming or management information systems.
“We work with them to find out what they need in the marketplace and the state helps them pay for education through dislocated worker funds,” she says.
Retraining is critical in particular for laid-off workers whose companies didn’t provide for continuous education. They were good at the skills their former firms required but aren’t competitive in the new platforms or languages that are in demand in today’s workplace, Forlaw says.
For many professionals, the retraining costs have been covered completely by federal funds, and in a short time, they land new jobs. So far, about 350 people have participated in Bounce Back.
“We don’t want to lose this valuable talent,” Forlaw says. “When our economy comes back, we will need all the IT people we can get.
In addition, a group within the organization formed a research team to look for nontraditional IT jobs that displaced workers could pursue. They identified six fields, Forlaw says: short-term jobs; contract work; nonprofits; entrepreneurship; green computing and other emerging sectors; and teaching computer science or IT math.
To help foster job opportunities, the Greater St. Louis Works team at RCGA created Start-Up Connection, entrepreneur job fairs where emerging companies seeking IT professionals could gather and scout for talent. The jobs might range from a young firm seeking only part-time help up to multiple highly skilled professionals for an IT department. Two Start-Up Connection events have been held so far this year and more are coming, Forlaw says.
Efforts such as fairs and networking have paid off for the area’s IT workers with pink slips. Following are the stories of workers who credit Bounce Back with giving their job search a boost.
Mark Welle
Sometimes the boss gets caught in the layoffs along with his employees. That’s what happened to Mark Welle of Maryville, who was the head of the IT department at Macy’s Midwest Division. He was laid off after 23 years with May Co. and Macy’s along with his entire 30-person department a year ago.
He spent four months looking for a job and realized during that time that he needed to obtain advanced certification in information systems process management to obtain the higher level job he desired. Through Bounce Back, he attended a certification program at the University of Missouri-St. Louis and earned his project management professional certification from the Project Management Institute.
That made him attractive to Panera Bread Co., which hired him as director of information systems process management in December. Welle spent only four months looking (although his wife was laid off from Macy’s at the same time). He credits the 40-hour certification program he took, fully paid for with $5,000 in Bounce Back funds through the Missouri Career Development Center.
“That certification was a big help in getting me the job at Panera. Having the Missouri Career Development Center pay for my training was a no-brainer,” he says.
Uma Nagabhushan
After 11 years as a senior software
engineer for Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Uma Nagabhushan of South St. Louis County, was laid off in October. She was able to get an interim assignment with a local consulting company for six weeks. In the meantime,
she began attending Bounce Back networking sessions and getting tips on updating her resume and where to search for a job.
“I started to meet new people and I met some of the staffing agencies and recruiting firms. That was a very good thing,” she says. “Nobody knows where that next job will come from.”
Nagabhushan considered attending classes to advance her skills, but at that time there were no funds available and, happily for her, her skills were quite current. She always sought new jobs that required learning new skills at Enterprise and that strategy made her more employable in the end, she says.
As she networked, Nagabhushan posted her resume on several Websites. A recruiter found her on CareerBuilder.com and helped connect her to a job with Computer Sciences Corp. of Falls Church, Va. She now works from home here as a senior programmer analyst.
“I telecommute, which works out great,” she says.
Nagabhushan also is taking Web-based design and development classes at Webster University on her own.
Her advice for IT pros on the job hunt?
“Network and follow any opportunity or lead that you come across. Also, highlight in your resume every skill you have ever learned. Most of all, don’t give up. It takes time to find a job in this age.”
