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Teen Angels Computer-savvy teenagers are one solution to the information technology worker crunch facing small businesses When Andrew Lufburrow's pager went off for the third time in his math class, the high schooler asked his pre-calculus teacher for a bathroom break. "Hurry back," said the teacher, knowing perfectly well that the 17-year-old CEO was on his way to see a client. It was no secret among the faculty of C. Milton Wright High in Bel Air, Md., that Lufburrow had his own technology services business. Most didn't like it. Says Lufburrow, "My pre-calculus teacher thought my business was a running gag to get out of class. It was like, 'Andrew's bolting again.'" Lufburrow earned a "C" in pre-calculus that year. But his company, AAL Technologies, turned in an "A+" performance and grossed $150,000--much to the surprise of all his teachers. Fast-forward to the present: Lufburrow is now a freshman at the University of Maryland of Baltimore County (UMBC) where he continues to balance work and school: he has more than two dozen regular clients and yes, he's taking calculus. Clients still buzz him during class, but his college professors understand his need to take care of business and are interested in seeing him succeed. After all, his AAL Technologies is the first-ever student start-up to be headquartered in the school's new high-tech incubator, the UMBC Technology Center. Though his success is exceptional, Lufburrow's ability is not. High school classrooms are filled with students who know how to install a local-area network, build Web commerce applications, or construct corporate databases. But that doesn't mean businesses are scrambling to hire them. Employing teens means reconciling the concerns of parents, schools, and labor laws. Not to mention that students live in a social universe that's light-years from a professional workplace. However, a continuing shortage of information technology (IT) workers may persuade more companies to take a second look at this untapped pool of talent. InfoWorld reports that 85% of chief information officers surveyed last year by Forrester Research were having trouble hiring IT workers and expect the problem to grow worse in the future. Finding top-notch employees is perhaps hardest for small businesses, who cannot compete with the huge salaries offered by large competitors. One college graduate turned down seven job offers with salaries as high as $58,000 before taking a job with Microsoft, according to an article in the Seattle Times. Recruiters from big IT firms have been known to woo potential hires with expensive dinners, huge signing bonuses, and even weekend excursions--all perks that would break smaller companies. Small businesses will have to be more creative when searching for IT support, according to Harris Miller, president of the Information Technology Association in Arlington, Va. For some, that may mean scouring community colleges, school-to-work programs, and high schools for skilled workers. Teenagers with solid technical abilities and good interpersonal skills can be a boon to a company, according to Miller. "Just because a young person lacks four years of college and a master's in computer science doesn't mean you should deny them a chance," says Miller. Getting a chance, however, was not easy for Lufburrow. Clients were impressed with his abilities but put off by his youth, he says. He won his first big client--the $130 million Heritage Savings Bank in Lutherville, Md.--on the merits of his bid. But it took some help from his grandfather, chairman of the bank's board of directors, to get his foot in the door. And once on the job, Lufburrow was challenged to prove that know-how--and not nepotism--got him the contract. Any doubts about Lufburrow's prowess evaporated as he installed a local-area network linking the bank with its four branch offices, fixed its Y2K problem, and designed a Web page for the financial institution. Heritage president Peggy Stuart says she was impressed by the teen's work. "He stayed right on budget. And he really loved the challenge," says Stuart. It was the thrill of learning new technology, she adds, that motivated Lufburrow most. Mastering new technology inspires talented teens like Lufburrow to boot up their computers in the first place. And learning new things--even something as complex as generating streaming video or three-dimensional graphics on a Web site--comes more easily for them. Dr. Jerome Kagan, professor of developmental psychology at Harvard University, says adolescents between the ages of 18 and 21 can learn the skills associated with technology more rapidly than those over 35. "It's the best time in our lives for retaining multiple pieces of information," he says. Companies that employ computer-savvy teens say they possess many other qualities that make such hires worth seeking out. "The best reason to hire [high school] kids is you don't have to unteach them bad habits," says Todd Levitt, executive vice president of the Olympus Group, a Web-development firm based in Alexandria, Va. "They will grow that much quicker." One of Levitt's most valuable employees, John Yowell, is a 17-year-old high school senior. Though originally hired as a receptionist a year ago, the enthusiastic Yowell took it upon himself to learn the basics of the company's computer databases. He's become so good that he now manages all recruiting and sales-tracking data at Olympus. However, Levitt didn't place such responsibility in the hands of one so young without first being certain his maturity was as developed as his computer skills. Other promising teenage employees haven't worked out at Olympus, and Levitt agrees that the emotional and hormonal swings of adolescence are something to consider when making such a hire. Says co-founder Julie Holdren, "We've made some hires that were better suited for a summer of lifeguarding." Michael Klein, CEO of Transoft Networks and himself a computer prodigy who launched a company at 17, avoids hiring students altogether. He points out that the qualities that make these young workers attractive--creativity, energy, a propensity to think outside the box--can also make them difficult to manage and easily distracted. Plus, fitting them into a culture with older workers can be hard. "A big center of your social life is the workplace," says Klein. "How does a teenager relate to a co-worker who's married with two kids?" But Klein admits that his Santa Barbara company would consider hiring a techno-whiz who displayed maturity beyond his or her tender years. Such a decision paid off handsomely for Jade Systems Corp., a systems integrator based in Long Island City, N.Y. Jade president Debbi Milner was looking for warehouse workers when she found 19-year-old Dimitri Putilin at a high school job fair in a local parking lot. "I thought I'd find an extra pair of arms for our warehouse," she says. "I was quite surprised to find Dimitri there, someone with such confidence and [computer] experience in such an unlikely setting." Jade hired Putilin and put him to work installing computer networks for heavy-hitting clients like Chase Manhattan and Brooks Brothers. The company was so impressed with his skills and work ethic it decided to invest in additional training for the teen. It's an investment that has paid off for both sides. Putilin's expertise has expanded to include the Compaq, Domino, Microsoft, and Oracle systems. Now a 22-year-old, he is putting that knowledge to work creating e-commerce software for Jade. Jade, meanwhile, possesses a valuable commodity in Putilin: a crack programmer whose education and skills are tailored precisely to the company's needs. Putilin and Lufburrow are the advance guard of the most computer-literate generation ever to pick up a mouse. For small companies, such teenage technocrats represent a real competitive asset as more and more jobs demand technology skills and the need for top-notch information workers grows. Such hires are also often a bargain for cash-strapped businesses who lack big IT budgets. "My nephew needs to raise his rates," notes Mike Keene, CEO of Keene Advertising. "He is afraid to because a lot of people are scared by his youth." Keene's nephew, Aaron Greenspan, is the 16-year-old CEO of Think Computer in Shaker Heights, Ohio. When the Boston-based advertising agency decided to install a computer network, Keene told his nephew he could submit a proposal to do the work--but made no promises he'd win the job. Greenspan prepared a plan, then flew to Boston during a break from school to spend a few days poking around the shop. Agency honcho Keene--a self-professed computer novice--knew his nephew had the right stuff when a rival company submitted a proposal a few days later that resembled Greenspan's bid. Greenspan won the contract and installed the network successfully. He now monitors it from his home in Ohio via the Internet. He has also become the de facto source for troubleshooting for Keene's 15 employees, answering software questions and recommending the best PCs to purchase for the office. All this only happens, of course, once Greenspan is home from school. Unlike Lufburrow, Greenspan can't jet away from class that easily. "Next year it should be easier for me to get out to clients or head home to work," he says. "I'll have my drivers' license." http://www.inc.com/extra/stories/03309911.htmlYou've reached the end of this story... There are currently no more articles on Andrew Lufburrow. Please check out the next success story! [ Next Success Story ] . about us . thanx . contact . awards . guestbook . site map . Copyright (C) 1999 (email link outdated) |