Even though Hutcherson seemed to have a natural talent for programming, without a sheepskin, no one would give him a chance. "It was really frustrating. ... The classes came easily for me, and I was helping classmates who in another month or so would graduate and get jobs," he says. "But I could talk till I was blue in the face, and they wouldn't even consider me."

"We decided to leave the Fairfax area to train and put to work nontraditional folks in the information-technology field," says Beverly Lucas. Lucas is senior vice president and co-founder of The Software Factory, the company that she and Jerry Hill started after helping information technology companies in Northern Virginia. "We kept hearing about the programmer shortage, and we believed that it wasn't as much an issue of worker shortage as it was worker distribution. So we moved to a place that had higher unemployment -- 11 percent -- and underemployment. If people had the aptitude, they could learn."

Lucas and Hill gave Hutcherson the opportunity he thought would never be his. "My Cobol programming instructor said I should give them a call," Hutcherson says. "They gave me a chance to learn on the job. They give employees the time to learn new things and encourage you to learn all you can. It's the perfect environment."

The Software Factory had to take a unique approach to finding high-tech workers. Virginia is fast becoming one of the largest technology-growth states in the nation. According to Bob Stolle, executive director of the Greater Richmond Technology Council, the commonwealth ranks ninth nationally in the number of technology firms and high-tech employees. But as the number of high-tech firms rises, so does the demand for workers. Experts estimate that there are close to 30,000 unfilled technology positions in the commonwealth, with nearly 90 percent of those clustered in Northern Virginia.

The imbalance of supply and demand has forced recruiters to get more creative. High-tech companies aren't the only businesses affected. Everybody's searching for workers with computer skills. Banks, insurance companies, retailers, high-performance manufacturers and semiconductor plants all need tech-savvy workers. And with the commonwealth's 3.1 percent unemployment rate, filling these vacancies is more than a challenge.

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The average info-tech salary tops $47,000, says Bob Templin, who heads Virginia's Center for Innovative Technology. To compete with outsourcing bodyshops that pay nearly $300,000 for top programmers willing to live out of a suitcase, companies like Ernst & Young and IBM Global are forced to pay six-figure salaries.

Because of low unemployment, there are worker shortages in many areas -- retailers and construction companies, for instance, desperately need warm bodies. "What I do for a living is in demand," says Scott Amos, a benefits consultant with William M. Mercer Inc. "But the shortages in technology are over and above the general shortage." That's part of what's forcing the high salaries. His company also has found that a number of computer languages draw a premium on top of the already competitive pay. "If I'm a programmer and I know Cobol, I'm worth at least 10 percent more," Amos says. Cobol programmers are in demand to avoid programming gliches in the year 2000.

"The biggest risk is that high-tech workers will price themselves right out of the market," says David Lucien, president of Interpro Corp. and vice chairman of the Northern Virginia Regional Partnership. "Things could become less competitive if the cost base gets too high. That's why companies are considering other benefits like stock options and quality of life."

Many executives are reluctant to reveal their secrets, so they instead point to what others offer. "It's becoming common practice to pay bonuses to employees for recruiting," Lucien says. "They can get up to $15,000 for a name that works out. Companies are getting more and more creative. They might give them a laptop or a sign-on bonus."

In some circles, a laptop is small potatoes. Tech wizards in Silicon Valley are driving Porsches and nearly drowning in stock options. A job with Netscape Communications Corp. means on-site massages, laundry service, adventure vacations and tickets to the most prestigious sporting events. More common are casual dress codes, frequent salary reviews, tuition-paid master's degrees and training programs that keep workers up on the latest.

"They are creating the right business and work environment," says Templin. "It's not just salaries, but they offer stock options, creative work arrangements, flex schedules, jogging paths, restaurants, creative studios."

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Many businesses are mining their competitors for employees. These predators are stealing workers with enticing packages, which only pushes benefits packages further into the stratosphere.

"Companies have to look for new resources to solve the problem instead of fighting over the same resources," says Yong Kim, president of User Technologies Inc. of Arlington. The company has been successful in retaining employees, but it needs to add another 1,000 workers in the coming year. "Stealing employees is not a good thing. ... We need to work together, to control ourselves and find new resources. It may be more painful and take more time, [but] in the long run it will reduce the problem."

The Software Factory is taking that approach. Not only did the company hire former motorcycle mechanic Hutcherson, but it hired a former sheriff, a hotel clerk, a factory worker and a senior manager who was laid off in downsizing. Workers do everything from searching for embedded chips to fixing year 2000 problems for the state of Connecticut.

The Software Factory's approach, however, is unusual. "There is a big misconception that you need to be a geek to enter this field," Templin says. "Only about a quarter of the positions require advanced degrees." The trick is to look for workers outside the hallowed halls of four-year institutions.

Headhunter George Van Derven, the founder of Sacramento, Calif.-based Alternative Technology Resources Inc., has formed an unlikely alliance. He recruits workers from places like Siberia and hooks them up with high-tech jobs. "We are creating life opportunities for people," says the former airline executive who made his first Russian contact when he sold a computerized reservation system to the former state airline, Aeroflot. "Many of the positions the Russians are filling are ones that require maintenance on existing systems. Oftentimes U.S. workers don't want to be in the backwaters of computer maintenance."

Congress is even considering increasing the number of visas it issues foreigners with computer skills. But finding help overseas is only a temporary solution. The general consensus is that the emphasis should be on training people who are already here.

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Just before Christmas, John Gawne returned home from an anniversary cruise with his wife to find a big job awaiting him.

"Our president sent me an e-mail asking me to see him," says the executive director of Old Dominion University's information technology program, also known as ITPro. James V. Koch, the university's president, wanted Gawne to come up with a plan to enhance Old Dominion University's role in training workers for technology jobs. Gawne started scanning the Internet night and day at a time when most employees were getting ready to take time off for the holidays.

During the next few weeks Gawne put the information he was gathering into a proposal that eventually got the university $5.5 million in funding from this year's General Assembly. The state dollars will be used over the next two years to provide $1 million in scholarships for students getting degrees in computer science and engineering. The money also will help Old Dominion improve its technological infrastructure and rev up ITPro -- an initiative that offers technical training and job-search assistance to people interested in pursuing careers in information technology.

The school also developed what it calls Cobol Boot Camp. "EDS wanted to see how effective this kind of training was, so they tested one of the students, and he tested as though he had 12 years experience," Gawne says.

The first ITPro class started in July with 29 students. The second class started in August with three times that enrollment. "The reaction to the program is beyond my wildest dreams," he says. "There is obviously a pent-up demand in the Hampton Roads area."

Old Dominion is not the only educational institution discovering the need for technology training. Several regional partnerships, created from Virginia's Blueprint for Technology-Based Economic Growth in Virginia, are attempting similar programs. "We've had six new initiatives funded," says Lucien of the Northern Virginia Regional Partnership. The partnership, one of 11 around the commonwealth, put together an intensive semiconductor training program at the Manassas Campus of Northern Virginia Community College. "We brought together regional leaders to examine industry needs," Lucien recalls. "The education community was poised to be responsive, we just had to tell them what we needed."

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Businesses continue to reach even deeper into the labor pool. When Luis Interiano went to his high school computer teacher and said he was interested in learning more about the field, doors started opening. The summer before his junior year marked his initiation into the world of advanced software programming at Arlington-based User Technologies Associates Inc. "When I started out, I knew how to type and get around Windows 3.1," says Interiano, now 23 and a web designer for the company. "But each day I had a few hours to sit and learn new programs. That summer I learned Quattro Pro, Word Perfect and D-base, and that opened up more opportunities."

Interiano says when a division manager needed something done, he'd do it. "I never said no, and I think that helped get me even more projects."

According to User Technologies' Kim, it's important to reach out to high school students. "We treat them like junior professionals, and we pay them a couple dollars more than minimum wage," he says.

That's why Interiano has stayed at the software company for more than five years. Now considered an Internet expert, he was recently offered a lucrative position with a web- development powerhouse in New York City. "The offer made me feel that if I can get an offer from New York City, I can get a job anywhere," he says. "Even though it was a tough decision, I felt that at [User Technologies], I have more opportunity to do my own personal thing."

User Technologies isn't the only company looking to high schools for workers to fill the ever-growing pool of vacant positions. BTG Inc., a Fairfax-based information technology services and systems company, is participating in a pilot program called the Ballou Project in D.C.'s economically depressed 8th ward. In less than three weeks, BTG and other high-tech companies were able to get the high school's computer lab up and running with the proper equipment.

"When you ask companies to help, sometimes they're not sure how," says Theda Parrish of BTG. "But if you say, 'I need 20 computers and so many feet of cable,' they're right there. Technology people are task-oriented."

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Finding 100 workers here and 50 workers there is a little like scooping sand with a sieve. Vacancies in Virginia are projected to reach nearly 130,000 by the millennium. There just aren't enough warm bodies to go around.

The number of students graduating into the computer science field needs to more than triple. "We just can't keep doing what we're doing now in the future," says Stolle. "We will have to rely on a greater use of technology and come up with more creative approaches."

"This is going to be a real challenge," says Mike Daniels, vice president of Science Applications International Corp. and immediate past chairman of the Northern Virginia Technology Council. "For every job that is not filled, our economy won't reach its full potential. If we have 1,000 open jobs, that could mean millions in revenue. ... There is no one answer, and it is a puzzle with a lot of pieces."

© OCTOBER 1998, VIRGINIA BUSINESS MAGAZINE