When experience can really pay off

Unusually for a recruitment exhibition director, Simon Bennie doesn't want to see too much fresh talent at his show this week. "ExhibIT is aimed at people with at least a year's experience," he explains. "We're getting people who have been in the industry 20 years. They started on computers that you had to wind up."

Experience on clockwork computers might not be everyone's idea of a must-read CV, but it sounds good to some unusual employers who will be trying to bag the best of around 2,000 IT professionals who will visit the Autumn ExhibIT show in the Hotel Russell in London on October 14-15.

Most of the attention in IT recruitment has been given to training newcomers with new skills, trying to create an army of young -programmers in the internet language Java for example. This has ignored a valuable potential resource of e-commerce and internet skills: older, more experienced programmers.

These professionals might have more experience with mainframes than e-business, but they have an advantage that's impossible to teach a newbie: experience in the business world.

That's one reason why alongside recruitment stalwarts like Railtrack and Smithkline Beecham, there are some less obvious candidates trying to attract the attention of 20-year veterans: for example internet bookstore Amazon.com will be there, as well as internet service provider Easynet, which also provides e-commerce facilities to companies wanting to set up shops on their servers. E-commerce management consultancy Conduit, recently acquired by web developer Razorfish, will be recruiting too.

There are several reasons why grey hair can be good in the internet age. An old dog who is willing to learn new tricks can pick up Java in a matter of weeks if it is needed. By comparison it would take years to pass on their operational experience to a 21-year-old newly-qualified Java programmer. Also, new e-commerce demands that internet sites are integrated with mainframes and Unix-based data, and that they work reliably. It's e-commerce, but the skills are the same as they were 20 years ago.

According to the 1998 skills shortage survey from the Computer Software and Services Association, "operational" skills like Unix and database programming are still more in demand than internet skills - in some cases the shortfall is twice as large".

"It is a shame that e-businesses don't recognise the skills that are available in other sectors," says John Eary, the head of skills source consultancy at the National Computing Centre. "The experience that practitioners with traditional IT skills learned in the mainframe environment can be very valuable to companies getting onto the internet. Java and HTML skills are more visible, but underneath there's a complex infrastructure that needs management."

Bennie has heard the companies who will be at ExhibIT asking for exactly that sort of candidate. "The overwhelming prerequisite is length of experience," he says.

Brian Mulligan, managing director of Easynet Limited, accepts that to get the staff he needs, he will have to train his hires in internet skills.

"We are hiring in all departments," he says, "The sector in which we operate is very new, consequently we seldom find the fully finished candidate." Instead, he prefers "promising raw material". One warning for old-timers though: as with most internet companies, "willingness to learn" is a priority, along with "no ingrained habits or pre-conceptions".

Mulligan's problems mirror those faced by most internet companies, according to recent research by PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC).

In a survey of 231 high-tech companies with fewer than 250 employees conducted earlier this year, 51% said that finding the right staff was a barrier to achieving growth targets. That compares to 4% who picked a "lack of money" as a barrier.

Four out of five said they were having problems finding and retaining staff, despite huge pay differentials for those with experience.

What can the greybeards contribute? Plenty, according to the London School of Economics. Its report "The Digital 100" evaluated the web sites of 100 large brands, and found that few sites provided the reliability and level of customer service to match their sophisticated graphics. "The big issue now is how to manage all these complex technologies," the report concludes, "[to] make them more reliable, secure and more easily managed".

Some internet companies have learnt their lesson, and for them, those old-school skills already came first. YAC.com - the company name stands for "you're always connected"- is about to launch a web portal that will provide a free "single inbox" for voicemail, email and fax, which goes with a free personalised phone number. Chairman Mike Feerick knows YAC's reliability will be compared with a phone company, so the site has to work every time.

As a result he has spent much of the seed capital recruiting experienced telecommunications engineers, mostly from BT supplier Nortel Networks, because he believed that reliability and simplicity would sell the service rather than pretty pictures. "We purposely did not add in all the 'bells and whistles'," he explains. "Instead, we concentrated on designing the simplest interface possible."

His instruction to his developers was cut down the fussy creative work, and to make sure the site doesn't crash. "Make it simple, colourful and fun and provide a really useful service," he explains.

At internet consultancy Organic - which lists brands like The Gap among its clients - UK managing director John Baker wants to use "traditional"engineering skills too - but finds the internet's "flaky" image puts off some potential joiners. "Engineers traditionally see companies such as Organic as creative shops with limited opportunity," he says. "The reality is that Organic offers technical career growth on a par with companies such as KPMG and Arthur Andersen."

It's a similar requirement at the London office of Viant Corporation, where teams made up of creatives, strategists and technicians build web sites for brands like Radio Shack and Kinkos. As a client partner, it's Asim Rafiqui's job to lead a team, and he will take all the technical experience he can find to underpin the creative vision.

"A lot of the internet and e-commerce was actually built on what we call traditional IT skills," he says. In his team he has some ex-mainframers with 20 years of experience. "Some of the most forward thinking people on the team used to work with character-based screens, and now they're into technology like interactive TV. The fact that they are 10 years older than me means nothing."

According to Eary at the NCC, many companies are learning the same lesson. "Technical and network support specialists should be welcomed into the world of e-commerce. Entering a young industry that has many lessons to learn, they would bring valuable experience and understanding to many companies. They might help avoid costly mistakes."

Geoff McMullen, the British Computer Society's vice president specialising in professional issues, groups the skills that greybeards offer into three areas: developing applications, keeping the infrastructure running, and supporting users.

"There is a need for staff who understand how to write transaction handling programmes that are robust... there is, I think, a case for building on good experience, rather than take new staff who have never written operational systems," McMullen says.

The requirements are at their most traditional in customer service: providing reliability, or support for your users, still has to work the same way.

"It's my experience that service delivery is not very different on the internet than in previous environments. Your previously acquired skills in relevant disciplines are easy to transfer."

But for anyone wanting to join an internet company, there are glitches. The PWC survey of small and medium IT companies shows that there isn't much room for on-the-job training: The UK companies surveyed gave an average of 4.9 days of skills training a year, the second-worst in Europe. If you are looking to develop internet skills, you must do it in your own time, it seems. Also, the NCC's Eary points out that the high salaries at these companies mask the sacrifice that experienced professionals must make to join.

"If a mainframe specialist from the public sector moves to an internet start up, he or she may have to give up years of accumulated benefits," he warns. "Even the higher-than-average salaries in the internet market may not be able to balance that out."

But ultimately, transferring your skills to the internet has a pay-off in the 21st century too. "Having an internet company on the CV can increase your employability,"adds Eary. "I would certainly recommend it."