Job Trends in Software Development Based on An Application Prototype

Hello everyone. I’ve worked earlier (about 3 months ago) on a prototype of a project to determine job market demand and trends in software development. I did that prototype within a day and thanks to a “cron job” and data gathered from popular websites, I now see some significant results.

I did the small task with a vision in mind although my goals were not clear. And that is precisely one of the reasons why we should prototype. Sometimes we ought to see the possibilities and problems beforehand.

So here’s some of the data which is a result of that prototype and it’s not surprising (for me at least).

1) Some Companies Want Their Full Time Employees To Work Anywhere

Location: Anywhere

There will be more telecommuters in the future. It’s not a guess. They wouldn’t care if you were in the Middle East, in Vietnam or some mountain in the Cordillera (Philippines). It’s also a good idea because we all spend too much on transportation. Being in an office and working with people you can see and hear from a distance is not daunting. It’s probably just the costs of having an office, maintaining one and finding people who are willing to work in an office everyday.

2) There Is An Increase In Part Time Employment Opportunities

Employers usually prefer to hire full time and contractual. They want people boxed into one project and focus on that project for the entire month or two. Some companies realize the difficulty of finding people willing to work full time so they hire part time on flexible terms (no fixed working hours).

3) Drupal, Wordpress and Ruby on Rails are Skills That Employers Want to See Your Resume

Drupal is in demand because it seems to be the quickest way to do e-commerce and social networking sites. With Ubercart and so many modules available it could fairly be easy to accomplish that with the right people in place. Ruby on Rails is the most sensible framework which inspired other frameworks which emerged years later like CakePHP. Wordpress? Needless to say, nearly every blog is powered by Wordpress. But my blog is an exception because I am a Rubyist. I use Ruby for everything I want to build but I look at all other languages and frameworks to see what those tools and frameworks can do.

If you want to get hired, focus on one or all three. Choose your game. You will find that all of these are helpful and usable. (I am a senior Drupal and Rails developer but not seeking employment. I see a lot of growth in both communities but I choose RUBY!)

4) Facebook Open Graph API and Google API Knowledge and Experience Preferred

Today you cannot say this and expect that you will be hired or even get attention. “Hello I am software engineer. I know the difference between REST and CRUD.” These are the essential concepts in developing apps. Althought it helps, they prefer people with previous experience in Facebook app development and those who’ve done stuff with Google API’s (Youtube, Google Maps).

5) iPhone Apps

There’s a lot of revenue in iPhone apps (more than I thought or presumed). A famous blogger disclosed that he earns a trivial amount of $50/month (average) from Google adsense compared to the the fairly significant amount of $5,000 per month (average) from free and paid iPhone applications. So needless to say, they need you if you’re a mobile/iPhone geek.

6) Verbal Communication Skills

This is a recurring term. Why Verbal?

Honestly, I found it difficult to communicate with people via chat. Typing words is painful and time-consuming (Campfire, IRC or just Google chat). I’ve done it for years! Until recently, I had to speak nearly everyday to communicate issues. It is very important that you speak and you know how to articulate your concerns and your ideas. Working without talking for years - it’s been difficult for me to actually feel normal again and finally get to just speak about what I should. The disadvantages are pretty obvious.

7) Test Driven Development

So I’ve read a lot of requirements. This is also a recurring term. Based on the data gathered, the terms “BDD” and “TDD” appears more often than “iPhone”, “javascript”, “written communication skills” and “verbal communication skills.” Test Driven Development is popular for Rubyists. The Cucumber framework is written in Ruby but it works with anything else including PHP. TDD is not a concept exclusive to Rubyists but its great support for TDD is remarkable and this is one reason why I like to keep using Ruby on Rails or Sinatra.

The actual results will soon be shown in a website to be launched hopefully within the year. Happy Holidays!