Recruiting in Prime Time

Home May 1998 -> The IT Employee Shortage

Fixing the IT Staff Crisis

The Labor department has been predicting a shortfall in the number of Information Technology professionals in the coming years. High-tech companies have lobbied congress to increase the number of H1-B visas that allow skilled professionals to enter the country, because it seems there aren't enough Americans who are able or willing to go into the field.

Maybe those companies are just trying to create a glut of workers to decrease the price of labor. Maybe they aren't. Computer work suffers from an image problem. Who wants to major in a field where your most likely date for a Saturday night is with a compiler?

That's where television can help. Emergency medicine used to be an undesirable specialization. Thanks to George Clooney and ER, it is now one of the more competitive programs in medical schools. Remember the increase in law school applications during L.A. Law's strong run in the late 80s? This can be duplicated for Information Technology. The following are three pitches for the Labor department and the media moguls.

Besides, what else are the networks going to put on the air?

Datawatch

Sand, Surf, and SQL!*

A pair of Southern California database administrators realize that they spend most of their time staring at monitors, and interact with co-workers only by phone or e-mail. So they get a cell phone, two laptop computers, and set up shop at the beach! Hilarity ensues thanks to a whacky beach bum (Paul Rodriguez) and a boss who doesn't know what they're up to (Dabney Coleman). Sitcom veterans Scott Baio and Kirk Cameron mix with a bevy of bathing-suit beauties to turn out-of-the-office work into out-of-this-world fun.

Chip design and manufacture is a fast-paced, high-stakes industry centered near the beautiful landscape of the California wine country. Throw in the best looking intellectual property lawyers and material scientists this country has ever seen, and you have the makings of an ensemble drama sure to be a hit series.

Watch in amazement as late night brainstorming sessions lead to technological breakthroughs and steamy romance.
Listen transfixed to tense proclamations like "There's a leak in the clean room!"
Share the pain of Chemical Vapor Depostion gone wrong due to tragic chemical dependency problems.

Ken Wahl, here's the chance to make a comeback.

Intelligence used to be a tool to protect the national interest. Now it is the National interest. Encryption and firewall specialists defeat phreaks and hackers who threaten to bring down banks, air traffic control systems, and entire branches of government. Data recovery technicians help put the mob out of business. Best of all for the company producing it, international intrigue can be acheived with stock footage and the casting of exotic actors with accents. Who needs to shoot on location when you're inside, standing next to a mainframe?

Mark Hamill comes to television as "The Chief".

[Home]

SQL = Structured Query Language, a tool for selecting information from compliant databases. Just a helpful note for the non-IT types.

Last Updated: 18 May 1998
Rant Back!