“After the recruitment freeze in some large groups, we have discovered start-ups and SME which need recruitments and finances.”
Marc Wilson is one of the former members of Digital who have spread over the research park and who, thanks to their expertise, have taken part in the development of Sophia Antipolis. After Digital, Marc Wilson had taken part in the Next adventure in Sophia, Steve Job’s company, the founder and new boss of Apple. Next had closed down in 1992, but in 1996 Marc Wilson launches his recruitment agency specialized in information technology and telecommunications in Sophia Antipolis (Le Thélème building). Since then, Techselection has multiplied recruitments, of managers especially, project managers for services or products, of technicians for large groups located on the French Riviera.
- Sophianet.com: Have you noticed a slowdown in recruitment since the beginning of the year ?
Marc Wilson: First we have noticed a change in the kind of customers. Large groups have announced that they will layoff worldwide. When a company stops growing, they first cut trips and recruitments off. This has led to the opportunity to deal with other customers. The recruitment freeze is not for every company. Other companies have accelerated and have been financed.
An example among others : ACR (Adavanced Communication Research) which makes webserver telecom equipments targeted towards management of websites for SME. Companies such as Completel, Neurocom, Activia, Castify, Realviz keep on recruiting. Basically, after some large groups have stopped recruiting we have noticed that SME have recruitment needs.
- Sophianet.com: recruitments had become hard because of a lack of computer scientists. What about this situation now ?
Marc Wilson : Last year, wages have risen. The employee’s satisfaction pyramid is the following. The first third, at the top, is composed of those who are employed and are satisfied with this job. The second third represents those who are looking for opportunities in order to reach the fist third. Such employees are thus pretty interested in what they do and they can improve themselves. The last third is composed of people who are unemployed and student waiting for a job. Since 1998, we were in a really good period: almost everybody had passed in the first third.
Today, if you want to stay in the first third you have to make choices. For instance, leaving a large group which have frozen its development for a smaller but rising company. The job market has come back to a balanced situation. Last year, it was not possible to apply to a java engineer profile. This year it is.
- Sophianet.com: What is going to happen now ? Will recruitment keep on slowing down ?
Marc Wilson: If you don’t review what happens in America, everything is wrong. The snag is the American economy of course. At the moment, large groups are waiting. In September, we will know whether they will recruit or not. However, the good news is that start-ups and SME are benefiting from the fact that large groups are waiting. Traditionally, big companies offer more money and are more attractive. Thus, they can recruit the best applicants. Today, start-ups and SME can also hire the best ones without having to overpay them as it was the case last year.