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Posted by: ITNovaScotia Admin	Friday, May 26, 2006
By Stephane Massinon The Daily News HALIFAX - Nova Scotia Business Inc. will soon start looking to bring home IT workers who have left Nova Scotia. The business-development agency will launch its IT Labour Initiative and travel to Boston, Ottawa, Toronto, the Silicon Valley in California, Calgary, Atlanta and Raleigh, N.C., and set up events to raise awareness about the province's IT industry. At the events - the first is to happen by September - it will bring company representatives from organizations such as XWave or Research in Motion to talk about Nova Scotia's IT industry. "We're going to set up these fairs in Boston, Ottawa and the whole message is, 'Hey, for the first time, we actually have jobs in Nova Scotia if you want to come back home,'" said Stephen Lund, president of NSBI. Lund added that people don't have to be from Nova Scotia or educated here to move to the province. "It's going to work because the jobs are here - that's the difference." See the fill story at The Daily News

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Comments (9)

Re: Bring 'em back

By ac on Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Nice to see a focus on helping grow IT and get people to return home but I hope it is not at the cost of those that have remained here through the good and bad times. I also find it odd that they would try to get people to return from Alberta with the current boom on out there. It would be hard for any local firm to compete with the salaries and benefits being offerred out west. I've even heard that recruiters from there were trying to draw IT people out from NS recently.

Re: Bring 'em back

By sd on Monday, June 05, 2006

I believe Mr. Lund needs to find out how many IT people have remained here in N.S. after graduation and are receiving EI or have exhausted their EI due to the lack of finding employment in the IT field here in N.S.. I feel these new jobs should be offered to these people first. However, it seems that if you go away and then return to N.S. you have a better chance of employment. This practice has to change. IT employers need to start accepting people with little work experience and take the effort to give them training in the areas they are lacking while they are employed with them. If a person can go to Alberta with a diploma and get on the job training and employment; it should also be available here in N.S. Unfortunately, it is not .

Re: Bring 'em back

By Dave Astels on Thursday, June 08, 2006

The "renewed" focu on IT in Nova cotia i amuing. NS does not have an IT industry. It ha a handful of people/companies that have had some success in the field. It also ha laid back and spread it's legs to large corporations by taking pride in call center job creation. These are not IT jobs. We should not be as the new India... with an emphasis on cheap workers.

It reminds me of a ad a few years ago in Atlantic Progress which boasted about how NS workers will work for peanuts becasue they like living here.

It's time we shrugged off the defeatist attitude that plagues the area. We could be a center for IT work. We could become a new Silicon Valley wannabe... we have most of the required ingrediants.

But there's no real work here. Branches of large services companies do not make an IT industry... hi-tech startups do. See the recent blog posts by Guy Kawasaki and Paul Graham on the subject.

I speak as someone born & raised in NS (Truro), educated at Acadia and subsequently U of Calgary. I worked in several startups in Calgary and moved back to the Wolfville area in '99. Now I spend half my time on client sites throughout the US, workign the other half from home in the Annapolis Valley. We do like living in NS, most of the time.

dastels@daveastels.com
www.daveastels.com

Re: Bring 'em back

By Tom R. on Thursday, June 08, 2006

"It also ha laid back and spread it's legs to large corporations" wow, that is a pretty crass expression. just from looking here there are a lot of companies doing ICT work, as big as yours or bigger. there are a bunch of interesting startups or small companies that you might not hear about but do good stuff, like hbstudios. i would say that there isn't a defeatist attitude; i'd say that people are reluctant to 'toot their own horn'.

Re: Bring 'em back

By SS on Friday, June 09, 2006

I don't think the real problem is a "defeatist attitude", it is more to do with lack of exposure and support from within the province. For the small to mid size IT companies, of which there are hundreds, it is very difficult to get press coverage. Also, agencies like NSBI seem to focus efforts on brining in "come from away" businesses with their tax rebates and related incentives, yet overlook the small shops that are run by the locals. Perhaps more effort needs to growing from within and promoting those we have than dreaming of the quick fix from away.

People don't think we have an IT industry as no one seems to be aware of what we already have under our noses. Sure its not Silicon Valley but we also don't have the population of infrastructure to be that big. We just need to grow within our means, and not shoot for the stars in one step.

Its funny to hear various people comment on the local IT industry, those on the outside looking for work seem to complain there is no IT in the province; many of those already in the industry are busier now than ever and find it hard to find people to fill their needs. Somewhere between these two views is a gap that needs to be filled.

Re: Bring 'em back

By Dave Astels on Sunday, June 18, 2006

I must apologize for the spelling mistakes in my comment.... But WHY is the text edit box set to a font colour of light grey?>!!!

" i'd say that people are reluctant to 'toot their own horn'." Why? if we're doing good work, we should toot our own horn. To quote Richard Branson in "Screw It, Let's Do It": "If you want milk, don't sit on a stool in the middle of a field in the hope that the cow will back up to you."

"We just need to grow within our means, and not shoot for the stars in one step." Sure... not in one step.. but if you don't shoot for the stars you'll never get there.

Yes, I know of several software/technical companies in the area, some doing cool stuff. But I have yet to meet another conference speaker from Nova Scotia at any of the industry conferences I speak at. In my network of consulting colleagues, the closest people to Nova Scotia are in Montreal.

Maybe it's just a matter of scale... I can probably count on my two hands the number of high visibility people in my field in Canada. Almost all my colleagues are in the US and Europe.

I fully agree with SS wrt the activities of the NSBI etc., in luring "from away" businesses. You can't import an tech economy.. you have to build it. You can attract talent form away, but not the businesses.

And, please... make this font darker! ;)

Re: Bring 'em back

By Tom R. on Monday, June 19, 2006

sure we should draw attention to good work. i was saying that people don't - not that they shouldn't. yes, shoot for the stars. but don't be an all the time arrogant, in your face self promoter though (i.e. branson); you gotta be professional too. how did you get to be an one of those high visibility experts? like carnegie hall, practice, practice, practice - while still tooting your own horn appropriately, to exhaust the metaphor.

good to see some other sometime regular readers too, but only stumbled on this reply when looking for something else.

(PS - font looks black on my xp - FF 1.5.0.4. but i would like box bigger, at least as wide as the comments i'm replying to. maybe they fixed it.)

Re: Bring 'em back	By Donald Doucette on Thursday, January 11, 2007
My son is employed in IT in Edmonton and Calgary for the past 10 years. Recently he sent out an inquiry via email to a Company in Nova Scotia and he has yet to receive an answer. Is this how interested N.S.is in "bringing back" our workers ????

Re: Bring 'em back

By By S.D. Jan.20/07 on Saturday, January 20, 2007

For some reason it seems that IT employers take their good old time responding to resumes or inquiries here in N.S.. They seem to like to be hounded before they respond, if at all. My son is an IT graduate who was able to get employment in the IT field for a 9 month term before he was layed off due to lack of business. He spent a whole year applying for different positions in IT by email, resume drop off, followed up by a telephone call to confirm if they had filled the position he applied for. Mr. Doucette tell your son to keep trying . I seem to get the impression that this "Bring 'em back" theme that our provincial government has adopted is just another way of looking like they are doing something when they lack the support but don't realize it. It seems the only work that gets a quick response here in N.S. is call center work: which in my opinion is not real IT employment. As the old saying goes "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink." NSBI can lure the people home, but if the businesses don't expand to absorb the influx, then it will be another Made in N.S. Flop program.