Google and Verizon Debate Whether They See 'Talent Shortage'

/**/ /**/

Are the country’s best and brightest still flocking to prestige jobs at tech companies like Google and Facebook? Managers from tech firms disagreed at a panel event at the Massachusetts State House on Tuesday about the availability of talent their companies have been able to find to hire.

’I do not believe there is a shortage of talent. I think the question is finding the right talent for the job,’ said Google Industry Director Brian Cusack.

Cusack said today’s marketplace is more data-driven than ever before, so Google seeks a specific sort of person to work there.

’We need to hire individuals who have those same types of analytics skills that can be combined with salesmanship,’ he said.

Despite how much background knowledge and natural abilities a hire might have, ’we’re always going to have to train people in our own products,’ Cusack said. ’If we’re going to sell our products well, we have to know our products.

Verizon senior manager Manuel Zapata had a different opinion on the matter: He believes there is a growing gap in computer science skills in the workforce.

’Across the world, there’s a very big shortage of computer scientists,’ he said.

Zapata explained that because nearly every industry now looks for people with advanced computer science skills, it has become harder to hire someone with those skills for a tech firm, specifically.

’The amount of people we need are not there,’ he said.