Difficult to recruit in the IT industry - are the entry points too informal?

As usual, the IT industry stands out as the industry with the greatest recruitment pressure. This is evident from the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise's latest recruitment survey, published a few weeks ago, in which nearly 7,500 companies from a number of industries were asked about the conditions and obstacles regarding recruitment.

The sector is also characterized by seeking relatively more people with higher education and - above all - as an industry that makes unusually little use of traditional recruitment channels such as advertising and the Employment Service.

Social skills and social and professional networks are certainly important in a knowledge-intensive sector like IT. But the question is whether the focus on the informal is not too great, leading to seeking only what is familiar and missing opportunities for diversity and new ideas? Last week I met a group of 'career rebels' from DIK, which organizes communicators, librarians and archivists. A group with clear systems experience, but no documented experience in systems development. The lack of formal routes into the IT industry, where they can demonstrate their systems skills even without a degree from KTH, means that the uphill struggle for them is considerable. My recommendation to them was to somehow get into their CVs that they have worked with, or taken courses in, system development of some kind, which they can court the IT companies with. But what readiness do the companies have to receive them?

A further indicator that the focus on personal contacts is perhaps at its peak in our industry can be seen in the "Recruitment abroad" bars at the bottom of the chart. They clearly show that the IT industry, despite distinguishing itself as a global industry in urgent need of skills, does not recruit abroad to a much greater extent than our more nationally oriented sister industries...