Better training, pay reasons for employees jumping ship

DENVER — Tim Revere had spent seven years with one of Boulder County’s finest high-tech employers. The business analyst seemingly had it all — good pay and benefits, a high profile and recognition within the company, a challenging position on a process re-engineering project.

Yet he wanted more. He was making a transition from marketing and sales to information systems and longed for a more technical position. But the driving factor was the commute from the suburbs of Denver eating into the time the single father could spend with his 7-year-old.

When a friend landed a job with a downtown Denver firm implementing a similar project, Revere’s interest was piqued.

“I e-mailed my resume, got a phone call the next day, went for an interview the day after that; on the fourth day I got an offer,” he says.

Not only was the company more conveniently located, Revere discovered he could get more hands-on technical experience and formal training there. But the icing on the cake was the 22 percent increase in pay and the formal bonus plan.

When he turned in his resignation, his boss immediately made a counter offer “where the money was exactly the same,” Revere says. “That was very good but not good enough, because they couldn’t move the company to downtown Denver.”

Revere (who asked that his real name not be used) started his new job Feb. 1.

Experiences like this are hardly unusual, says Michael Erbschloe, information technology analyst with Carlsbad, Calif.,-based Computer Economics, who telecommutes from Denver.

“It’s a definite trend. There are particular skills sets that are in demand, and employees are jumping from company to company and getting considerable pay increases by doing so,” Erbschloe says.

Among the most marketable skills Erbschloe names are network management and design, electronic commerce applications, and COBOL programming to resolve the Year 2000 problem on mainframe computer systems.

Although Erbschloe says the job market is most volatile at the high level, he sees it throughout the high-tech industries from mid-range archive management and computer operator positions to assembly jobs.

“People are jumping ship really fast for training opportunities. Let’s say they are in a company that is not highly automated. A company down the street says, We want people with x number of years in manufacturing, and we will train them.’ The pay may not be much more, but if they have the opportunity to modernize their skill sets, they will go really fast,” Erbschloe says.

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