We have started with a key question from an HR leader around not so known/unusual set of locations that am excited about optimistic about.  I took some time to look into both qualitative and quantitative data sets.  Some elements of this analysis is also based on my personal visits to the region.  (so not a full quantitative set of criteria – only directional set of data). One thing we quickly realized around this is the fact that the days of location definition being one city attribute, is almost over.  We have to look at the ecosystem as a whole and the digital Corridor that a given location provides.

So from that perspective, here are the digital corridors that we are quite thrilled to see grow

• Nashville -TN, Huntsville- AL and Birmingham AL:  This Corridor has shown initial promise around Digital talent growth.  Several jobs in the areas of Scrum Masters, Python Development, Database, Business Intelligence, Data Analytics are being executed from this Corridor.  Birmingham has system administration and technical support talent.
• Charlotte- Atlanta – Corridor – This is a very good emerging corridor for diverse talent.  Charlotte brings corporate functions and IT talent while the Atlanta corridor has Software and other digital skills.  The diversity in technical roles in Atlanta is also slightly better when compared to other regions
• Manchester Area – UK.  This region has good Cloud talent, Software Development Talent, and Data scientists.  Within the UK, this region is set to grow the fastest in certain areas of technical skills
• Coimbatore – Kochi Corridor -India:  A hidden location for many companies in the west.  This Corridor houses a phenomenal number of Engineering institutes.  As a consequence of being the back office locations for decades, they have come to the front.  The city is home to many self-taught engineers and Entrepreneurs
• Fukuoka, Japan – Situated on the northern shore of Japan’s Kyushu Island, this is the most emerging startup hub that is formed by global talent.  There are about 1000 startups, and the government is very determined to grow this region.  (Seoul – South Korea is pretty close to Fukuoka)
• Dhaka – Bangladesh:  Dhaka is not far from producing a batch of Tech unicorns.  For the first time, 17 teams from Bangladesh have been selected for the NASA tech mission.  ShopUp has raised over 20 million from Sequoia to digitally connect all mom and pop shops in Bangladesh (a technology that will be useful even in the US)

There are other locations, such as Vietnam, Indonesia, Utah, Detroit Area, and other places where the ecosystem and other factors change dramatically.  Let us know if you need additional details, and we will bring in the latest

Last week we interviewed a few technology leaders to understand what they think are the core knowledge elements that all Digital workforce should know/strive to learn.  Here are knowledge components that you may consider for all employee training:

1.0 Products and Libraries that are changing and within a given Stack:  Many leaders said their best engineer knows the latest libraries and tools’ names.  Almost a universal theme that emerged from our interviews. Knowing this means that you may be able to do it easier using these libraries rather than reinventing the wheel

2.0  Familiarity with Use cases:  Whether you are a data analyst, or an engineer, or a corporate function person – Digital is all about use cases.  (the foundational problem that you are working to resolve).  Field level understanding of this is essential

3.0  Available Digital Forums to get help:  It is amazing to see how many people use 3GPP standards (for 5G, for example) to discuss technical/methodologically complex issues.  Some people know about these forums, and some do not.  The best workforce is always resourceful in this aspect

4.0 Events and Conferences:  The best resources are always hungry and make time to attend targeted events and conferences.  Due to the pandemic, all events are now online.  So knowing the events is the only job of the resource

5.0 Follow the money:  Where are VCs investing within a tech area/industry area:  If you are a senior director and above in a bank, it will be good to know this.  There are several blogs written by Andreessen Horowitz and company that are quite useful in this regard.

There are several other factors, we will send you a report, if this is something of interest to you.

Several recruiters have asked to create some aids/tool kits to make it easy to work with their business leaders.  In other words, when tech leaders throw some terms – how do we make sure you are not derailed. We are beginning to create several agile-based scorecards.  Here we have created a tech library for Recruiters that you may find it useful