In the domain of data consulting, companies have been operating in a scarce skills market for years.

In South Africa in particular, the challenges we face of continual skills recycling (when a company hires and rehires new people rather than investing in new talent or upskilling and cross-skilling people in their organisation), emigration and international remote working opportunities all contribute to a loss of available experienced people in the fields of data analytics, data engineering, data science and other related disciplines.

The global digital skills gap

The battle to attract and retain these skills is not confined to South Africa, however. Recent reports note that the global digital skills gap is continuing to grow.

For those of us who work in the tech space, this should fill us with excitement. We are certainly seeing more focused university degrees being offered and more young people are enrolling for these courses believing that the road to becoming a data scientist truly is paved in gold.

Why then, are so many of these young job seekers still exactly that – job seekers? What is preventing us from matching this apparent demand with a greater supply of smart skilled professionals?

The use of the label “senior” to define a person’s level is oversimplified.

In both consulting and recruitment, the desired skills level of any potential candidate is frequently described with the all-encompassing label “senior” – an oversimplified way of describing what is often a complex set of skills, certainly in the data domain.

There is a perceived risk in hiring someone, either a consultant or a permanent employee, who hasn’t been working in the field of data for many years. The experience of the person is quantified in years; their expertise is often doubted as it is not accompanied by this track record. Often, it seems the “buyer” of the required skillset feels compelled to label a person “senior” in the belief that this will de-risk their purchase. But is that really the case?

We limit our own ability to deliver with this misconception, often spending more for less – we get less time of less individuals – less minds are applied to the problem statement for the same cost, with a huge and often unfair or unrealistic reliance on “key resources”.

Mitigating the risk of non-delivery

The real risk of non-delivery is not solved, however, by simply hiring someone who is at senior level. They may have no more experience using recent technologies than someone with less mileage. In fact, often the technology skillset required has not been in existence for long enough for anyone to have a significant number of years of experience.

Don’t get us wrong – mileage cannot be fast-tracked and experience can’t be bought. There is huge value to be had from having access to people on your data projects who have been around the block and bumped their head a few times. Ensuring that the team has the right mix of those with many years of experience and the young, smart, curious newbies makes for a great result, not only from a solution perspective, but also in the ultimate cost to the business.

The Calybre capability model

In assessing expertise of our data consultants, at Calybre we apply our capability model, including all the technologies that we cover in the data domain, as well as the human skills (soft skills) that we believe are important in a great consultant. This allows us to evaluate our entire team fairly and really understand how someone who may only have a few years of work experience may be more highly skilled than someone who has been working in the field for decades.

Delivery can be de-risked by ensuring that these young people, who are at the beginning of their data career, are well supported by some of us with more than a few grey hairs. Being open to a teaming structure creates a space for those who have the expertise but not enough experience to start building their own track record. We regularly see our “old dogs” being taught new tricks by some of our newest graduates!

Expect more from your data consultants

At Calybre, we believe in challenging ourselves and our clients to Expect More. We create opportunities for people who have the right attitude and aptitude, and we are 100% committed to creating excellent data professionals.

We stand by our tagline that we are a team of “Really Awesome Data People”. By investing ahead, we ensure that our people are ready to solve our clients’ data challenges, in whatever area of the data domain required. We continually invest in our people, ensuring that they have relevant skills, including certifications, and that they are challenged to grow by also focusing on development of their soft skills.

Call to action

So, the next time you are writing a role profile or describing the type of consultant that you need to deliver your data project, resist the temptation of the “senior” label. Describe the expertise that you are looking for, and if you do need someone with years of experience, make sure you think about why. You could end up saving yourself some budget.

About Calybre
Calybre is a data consulting company based in South Africa and the UK. To find out more about how Calybre can help you unlock the story in your data, visit us at www.calybre.global. Or connect on LinkedIn, Facebook or Instagram.