[Sigia-l] What happened to the good IAs

[Laurie Gray]

Hi, Giovanni, we're seeing this in Atlanta as well. I suspect it's because
in many cases, as soon as someone entering the field has a year or two
experience under their belt, they're determined to be "close enough" to
senior and are getting snapped up eventually by a smaller company that is ok
with them in a senior role. It's the larger companies, IMO, that are being
more stringent in their searches for true seniors. I do think that those in
the field who are true seniors got their start prior to the dot-com
implosion and stayed employed in the field during the dark times of the
early 00's. Not a lot of new talent entered the field during that time, but
as the field has gotten more popular, we've seen juniors coming in.

I think we're all partially responsible for the lack of well-qualified
mid-level staff in the field because aside from the IAI's mentoring
community, there are not widespread, solid mentorship/growth models for
those starting in the field. It's a conversation we've certainly had here in
Atlanta, and a conversation that popped up more than once last week at the
UPA conference. I, too, have plenty of ideas as to why this is the case and
how we can fix it, if this this thread continues.

Laurie

On 6/20/07, Giovanni Fortezza <giovanni at fortezza.com> wrote:
>
> Hello all,
>
> I have been on the list for a while and follow conversations as much as I
> can and was wondering whether anyone else is currently having these
> problems.
>
> In the New York market there is a shortage of Junior IAs and IAs but there
> are plenty of Senior IAs. Which would suggest that there are no IAs
> entering
> the workforce, however that doesn't seem to be the case. The majority of
> the
> senior IAs I am interviewing are at best Junior and the rest are certainly
> not senior.
>
> That raises the issue that have seen on this list in the past, should
> there
> be some kind of certification or a certain number of years/projects or
> both
> that an IA should have under their belt in order to move up a level?
>
> I understand the issues around it i.e. who gets to decide what the
> criteria
> is, who will enforce it and so on. But I feel that as professionals whose
> primary objective is the development of a great experience we need to do
> this. I have some more ideas as to how to pull this off but I was curious
> as
> to what the rest of the community feels.
>
> Any thoughts?
>
> Giovanni Fortezza
>
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