Graduates breaths of fresh air

Shirley Ng enjoys the formality of her training. Picture / Fotopress

Graduate programmes are back. After going out of fashion - it doesn't look good to be hiring students when you are laying off legions of loyal workers - IT firms are again hunting the best and brightest from our universities.

"We call them vitality hires, they bring new energy and ideas into the organisation," says IBM human resources manager Paul Hellyer.

"We are looking for achievers, people who are not just academically excellent, although that is important, but people who are successful in other areas - community, social, sporting - and who are adaptable and flexible."

Like many organisations, IBM puts its graduates (including anyone within two years of leaving university) into a structured programme where they regularly receive group training.

They are also assigned mentors who ensure they have exposure to a wide range of roles within the business.

A similar system has been adopted at Carter Holt IT subsidiary Oxygen, the largest SAP consulting business in the country.

Business optimisation division manager Wayne Pohe says Oxygen decided to do something about the skills shortage. It has taken on a small number of graduates over the past couple of years, but intends to hire at least six computer science or business graduates early next year.

"We've seen that when a large SAP implementation gets underway, then local resources are stretched and SAP skills have to be imported - usually on a two-year visa," Pohe says.

"These people typically fly in for a big contract and fly out again. They are a net cost to the economy. I want to build the pool of skilled SAP people within New Zealand."

Pohe says if managed and mentored well, a graduate trainee will start being of value to the business within about six months.

"It's not rocket science. You put a young dog with an old dog and teach it to hunt," he says. "We start with the key skills they require, including basic consulting skills, as well as domain experience.

"We also give them project experience, which is invaluable to younger people - they learn a few war stories and come out a hardened consultant."

Oxygen pays for formal SAP training, costing about $20,000 for each graduate, and requires them to get certification.

Shirley Ng joined Oxygen as a graduate trainee last year, after completing a bachelor of commerce at Auckland and a masters in information systems in Sydney.

"I am a SAP consultant but not totally technical so I don't need programming skills," she says. "It's about trying to understand what the customer wants, then come up with a technical solution and pass that on to a developer programmer.

"The way the programme has been structured, you have time to build up the skills you will need. You visit customer sites so you get an understanding from a business point of view. That is good, because during university you read text books and understand the theory and the methodology, but you may not understand what it actually means on the ground."

Apart from special training courses, Ng's first six months were spent on a production support helpdesk. She says the hardest part was working out how a customer's problem affected other parts of the business.

"Any changes you make may flow on into areas covered by other technical teams."

Ng says when she compares notes with friends who went into jobs without such training attached, she has clearly got the better deal.

"They have to learn everything themselves, and there are only so many times you feel you can ask questions.

"Having a formal programme, you know step by step what is expected, how to develop to become a full consultant, and you can grow in a comfortable situation."

Auckland University computer sciences department professor John Hosking says a lot of companies are starting or resuming graduate recruitment programmes.

"What is different from the boom years of the 1990s is that companies are taking more interest in induction and building strong links with the universities," Hosking says.

"Students are also more selective about where they are heading. They look for a company doing interesting things rather than one with a big name."

He says while the large consulting firms have always tried to recruit smart graduates and train them, software companies now realise they have to do more for new hires.

"Companies realise with the current job market they are not able to recruit from experienced people, they will not be able to recruit immigrants as easily as before, so they have to get involved in taking graduates and inculcating them in their company culture to get a long-term benefit."