It’s been a while since I’ve vented my spleen over economic
development events in Pittsburgh. Things
are definitely on the right track with lots of good news coming from the
autonomous vehicle sector, artificial intelligence startups, various robotics
enterprises, and not just health care but biotech and medical related
startups. And there’s a new optimism
coming from the locals as evidenced by positive predictions not only from the
chamber-of-commerce types but also business executives at the major
corporations as well as the startup crowd.
What’s not to like?
Well it seems, as we used to say in a previous software company employer
of mine, all is not smurfy in our smurfy world.
A report caught my eye recently that should cause concern
among the crowd crowing about Pittsburgh’s new “tech hub” status. The software company Zoom, which announced
back in May that they were establishing a large development office in
Pittsburgh, last month pulled back on that.
They noted that their Phoenix office, announced at the same time as
Pittsburgh, was further ahead in hiring software developers and would take
priority over Pittsburgh. Huh?
In case anyone hadn’t noticed, metropolitan Phoenix is now
literally twice the size of metro Pittsburgh, so undoubtedly there is a larger
talent pool to draw from. But who thinks
of Phoenix as a tech hub when, huff and puff, Pittsburgh has all these software
geeks being pumped out by our vaunted CMU?
The problem seems to be the only place pumping out software geeks IS Carnegie
Mellon. Zoom specifically mentioned
Arizona State University as a source of developer talent. OK, ASU is a major State university. I’ve visited their campus in Tempe myself and
it’s, well, big. And I’m sure it pumps
out a lot of software talent. And in
today’s high-tech economy there’s not time available to fiddle fart around
searching for potential employees. Human
resource people are just like us: they’re going to follow the easiest path. And
it seems Pittsburgh is not providing that pathway.
Thank goodness for CMU in this regard. But I must ask, what about the, oh, two dozen
or so higher education institutions in the greater Pittsburgh area alone, not
to mention another dozen or so in the Tri-State? What are they producing? Obviously not what’s needed. Here I’m calling out my own beloved alma
mater, the University of Pittsburgh.
While Pitt is pulling its weight in the fields of medicine and bio-tech
[at least it seems such although frankly I’m not sure it’s in the same league
as Harvard, Emory, UCSD, or Stanford; yet] Pitt seems glaringly deficient in
helping to satisfy demand for software engineers.
Let’s note that not everyone associated with software
companies has a degree in computer science.
Software companies hire electrical engineers, mathematicians, mechanical
engineers and others with STEM degrees as well as computer science majors. While Pitt has only established a credible
comp-sci program within the last decade, I believe it has a long history of
engineering graduates, or at least I believe such. The expression “if you’re not part of the
solution you’re part of the problem” applies here. Is Pitt, and many of its compatriot
institutions in the area, putting out too many social science majors in an
economy looking to hire STEM grads?
And what about CCAC?
Not everyone in a software company needs be a math PhD from
Stanford. Community colleges have proven
they can train competent software programmers to the degree needed by firms
such as Zoom. Given the size of CCAC
there should be a strong pipeline of those grads coming out.
Yup, the time for celebration has not yet arrived with
regards to Pittsburgh’s shiny new economic future. Competition from Pittsburgh’s cohort cities
is tough and getting tougher; not to mention competition from locales worldwide. Pittsburgh’s has always built its economic
success on the foundation of more and better knowledge. Its educational institutions need to and can
do more. Just sayin’.
