Companies hiring have advantage over job seekers in tough new media sector

A downturn in the new media industry has created an employers’ market for talent, but a recruitment firm specializing in the sector is optimistic it can weather the storm. Al Pitt, a founder and president of PixelScout Inc, says since opening its doors a year ago the industry has taken a 180-degree turn when it comes to hiring and retaining employees. Last year, skilled workers could write their ticket. Today, it’s the employers who are in the driver’s seat, although Pitt says companies shouldn’t get too bullish. Rather, he advises them to hire wisely and focus on retaining skilled personnel before the market turns around one more time, possibly in the first half of 2002. Founded by Pitt and partner Al Verrechi as an initiative of the Multimediator Strategy Group (now Delvinia Inc), PixelScout was created to deal with a glut of job openings in the new media sector (CNM, June 28/00). Since then, the company has expanded from the two partners/employees to include a third staff member, and has dealt with about 30 clients. Times are tougher now, says Pitt, after massive layoffs in the new media and information technology sectors, combined with cutbacks in in-house IT budgets at traditional bricks-and-mortar firms. "What happens is there are fewer clients, and that makes our job more difficult," he says. "On the other hand...right now you are getting inundated with resumes, and that’s making it difficult for HR. Our services are still valuable... When times were good, we were coming to you with four or five people. Now that times are difficult, we’re still coming to you with four or five people, letting you concentrate on what you do best." Out-of-work dot commers range from twenty-something graduates from programming and design schools to more experienced workers. "It’s all across the board. We have a number of high-level executives who are out of work right now," says Pitt. That excess capacity in the market, he says, means employers are cream skimming for talent on terms that are more reasonable than one year ago. "The industry has done a 180. There’s no room for negotiation any more." It’s also a more difficult environment for new graduates. Instead of hiring programmers and designers with three-year course diplomas, Pitt says companies are now demanding and getting recruits with two or three years of experience. The nature of other hiring practices have changed as well. "Even in sales, there is more of a premium now on people who have the ability to develop new clients rather than just massage current accounts." However, the dot com implosion hasn’t increased demand for older workers with more experience, particularly those who have worked through such slowdowns. Instead, Pitt says there’s been a minor shift in the age at which young people are getting their first jobs in the field – usually in their mid-20s now, compared to their early 20s in the heyday of the IT boom. The industry, it seems, continues to be a young person’s game. Despite turbulence in the current job market, Pitt says there are still jobs available, from junior to senior positions. One of the beneficiaries are bricks-and-mortar companies that are able to lure workers who previously were only interested in joining pure-play Internet organizations. The job prospects in the IT shops have dropped off, and as for the dot coms, Pitt says, "they don’t exist." Still, he doesn’t worry that PixelScout has any immediate survival concerns. Though winning clients has become more difficult, he says there is enough demand for its services to outlast the downturn, which he forecasts will improve by the middle of next year. When the firm first opened, it had intended to expand beyond the Greater Toronto Area by franchising its operations. Pitt says the company hadn’t planned to move forward with that expansion by this point.

Companies hiring have advantage over job seekers in tough new media sector

Broadcast | September 6, 2001

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