Translated by Kevin Chao
In general, Kelly Services, one of the most consulted staffing agencies in Mexico, takes two weeks to locate a marketing manager, but finding a social networking expert can require up to two months of searching.
Not surprising, since Mexico has the second biggest deficit in information and communication technologies specialists in the eight Latin American countries studied, after Costa Rica. It is 62,800 professionals, or 36%, behind the Latin American average of 27%, and only when engineers are counted favorably. A Cisco study reveals this “gap” and predicts that it will grow to 115,000 professionals, or a 41% deficit, by 2015.
Rafael García Aragón, a headhunter for Kelly Services, explains that the lack of qualified personnel has increased, for example, the salaries of community managers, who can make 15,000 to 16,000 pesos [US $1,187.40 to $1,266.56] a month with just a year or two of experience.
While the “triple A” companies, as the international companies are called, pay them up to 20,000 pesos [US $1,583.20] for their services, digital marketing managers receive between 45,000 and 60,000 pesos [US $3,556.71 to $4,742.28] a month.
But this is just the beginning. He predicts that by 2016 or 2017 there will be greater demand for information and telecommunications engineers and licensed specialists in digital marketing, graphic design and electronic sales, due to a probable increase in internet users in the country, currently under 50% of its population.
His concern is corroborated by the study Networking and Connectivity Skills in Latin America, recently presented by Cisco, which shows that Mexico does not have enough experts to address the issues of information security, mobile and wireless networks, and even fewer to operate networks for video technology, cloud computing, mobile phones, data centers and virtualization.
Max Tremp, director of technical operations for Cisco Mexico, explains,
“This lack of personnel, I live with it every day. Companies come to Mexico and look for personnel with little success. There are people with 13 years of experience without the proper level [of skills].”Of the eight countries included in the study, the third most technologically underserved is Chile, then Peru and Venezuela, while Colombia, Brazil and Argentina have more professionals, according to the survey of 4,000 managers in the region.
The troubling part, warns the study, is that this want of technological skills continues to stunt the economic growth of Latin America. It thus recommends convincing businesses to invest in knowledge, universities to broaden their curriculums, and governments to adopt programs with a digital aim.
"We still have time to train these professionals in schools and plant seeds in businesses,” adds García Aragón, the Kelly Services executive.And he advises young people that instead of regarding social networks just as entertainment or recreation, they should prepare, learn the metrics or generate ideas to open businesses, because this is how giants like Apple and Microsoft were born.
“Understanding this could be the difference between finding work and not finding work,” he assures.To illustrate this point, he mentions publishers seeking designers not for traditional books, but for eBooks. Spanish original