In this Tech Careers Q&A, Tim Smith, a principal with the American Management Systems (AMS) Learning & Professional Development Group, discusses the way his company is training recent grads for legacy applications work, such as fixing the Year 2000 problems.

Fairfax-based AMS is an international consulting firm that designs and integrates technological solutions. Their clients include telecommunications firms, financial services institutions, state and local governments, educational institutions, federal agencies and energy companies. As of April 1998 AMS was the 13th largest consulting firm in the world with an average annual growth of about 20 percent per year. Revenues for 1997 were $872 million and are expected to exceed $1 billion in 1998.

Q: What technology trends are affecting companies like American Management Systems?

Tim Smith: One of the main problems that AMS began focusing on in late 1996 was the area's technical work force shortage. We determined that over the next several years we would have a really hard time finding enough new college graduates to meet our programmer/analyst needs. So we began brainstorming possible ways to minimize the impact of this shortage.

One of our first suggestions was to recruit non-technical graduates, those in the humanities and social sciences areas, and turn them into programmers and analysts. Hiring non-technical graduates was not something new for AMS. We had already been bringing them into a variety of roles and had experienced a great deal of success with them.

Q: What qualities were you looking for in the humanities and social sciences grads?

T.S.: When we first see a potential candidate's resume, we look for anything that would indicate that they have an interest in the technology field. Perhaps they have taken a course in basic programming at college; maybe they have created a Web page; maybe they worked at a job doing some basic computer functions. We never ask if they are interested. They must display the interest first.

We also do not use skills assessment tests. We just don't believe in them and do not feel that they accurately measure a person's true abilities. Instead, in a series of face-to-face interviews we ask them analytical questions to determine their skills in that arena. Our AMS experts use these interviews to ascertain whether they are a good fit for our training program.

The IT industry is very exciting to a lot of people primarily because of the salaries, but no matter what your salary, if you hate what you're doing, you'll eventually leave or burn out. As I said before, go out and build your own home page. If you can figure that out, you enjoy it, and you think you might want to do it professionally, then you have something to offer.

Q: In what technology did you train these liberal arts grads?

T.S.: At the time we targeted our group, approximately 56 percent of our clients used some form of legacy applications. The legacy arena is a good fit for training humanities and social sciences grads because this area requires mostly analytical thinking, problem-solving, and logic skills, all of which could be more easily developed than those needed for the object-oriented arena. It turned out that the individuals we selected had the aptitude, an interest in the technology field, enthusiasm, and most importantly, they were available. In 1997, our pilot year, we took 52 students into our program.

Q: What does the training program consist of?

T.S.: We use a seven-week program -- called A-Track (Application Developer's Track). In the first week trainees are introduced to AMS and the kind of projects they will be working on. Over the next four weeks, the students receive intensive classroom training in program logic and programming languages like COBOL, TSO, ISPF and JCL. They are mentored throughout this process by individuals from across the company who are working on actual legacy-based projects. The last two weeks are application training, in which the students take the concepts they learned in weeks 2-5 and apply them to the actual product they will be assigned.

Q: What have you learned from this training program?

T.S.: One of the keys to our success has been learning to use the training program to assimilate new employees immediately into the company's business and philosophy so that they understand what their role is on their project and how their project fits into our larger business goals. I've seen too many companies that just dump new employees into a hard-core skills training class, leaving the employees wondering what they will be doing and why this stuff is important. Make them feel good about their new job before training them!

Another reason the program has been successful is that the computer-based training modules (CBTs) we use in weeks 2-5 are designed to be flexible. They can be taken at the student's individual pace -- and can be taken over and over or used as a research tool. The CBTs give the students a head start on the programming aspects of their new jobs.

We also make sure to keep each class small – no more than 10 – and we mix up each group with students slated for positions in all of the company's vertical markets (i.e. telecommunications, government, finance, federal, etc.). This mix helps them to understand the "big picture" business of AMS so that they don't focus too narrowly on one market segment. We've been so pleased with the success that in 1998 we plan to hold at least 14 classes, and we intend to include "experienced hires" -- individuals who have been out in the work force for a few years but not previously in programmer positions. The results of our pilot year were happy, productive employees and very satisfied managers. A few managers have even requested more of these "developed" employees over information systems and computer science majors. That alone speaks for our success.