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04.30.07
Are There Enough Developers?
 By Dan Morrill
One of the things that was apparent in 1995 through 1999 was that developers, really good developers were hard to find.
In 2007, we are facing the same crunch, even with the ability to outsource work. Web 2.0 software developers are hard to find, the competition is fierce, because of that, wages are going to spiral upwards for truly talented programmers.
While outsourcing is not a zero sum gain, the ability to have good, competent developers, code writers is essential to getting any IT project off the ground. While companies like Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and others all are in process of hiring, finding the cream of the crop of developers is a limited rare and hard to find resource. This does three things, raises the cost of hiring, and puts increased demand on job seekers to live up to or show the potential of what may be an unreal goal, and push off from employees who seek a decent work life balance.
Seeking the Cream of the Crop - it is a fairly well known caveat in society that only 1 in 10 people is truly creative enough to solve difficult and tricky development, artistic, or interoperability problems. Given that many of these people are already employed, and these are the people that are being sought, it puts pressure on average developers, average coders who may not be capable of living up to the ideal programmer. HR, both Microsoft and Google are geared towards finding that 1 in 10, sometimes 1 in 50 programmers, developers, or creative people to solve those really complex problems that these companies face.
Raising the cost of hiring - people generally know when they are in demand, and will seek to balance that demand out with an ever spiraling benefit and pay package. Employees will test the water; see what they can get away with to take a position. Nevertheless, the next person that comes along that will meet an extended pay and benefits package means that the employee might as well jump ship unless there is some compelling soft reason for the person to stay there. Since competition for that 1 in 10 or 1 in 50 is so steep, spiraling wages and benefits packages for them puts pressure to keep costs down in other ways, such as stagnating wages amongst contractor and average staff.
Work/Life balance - the work life balance of many people is generally important. No one can do extended 18 hour days, even with all the perks of the work place at any major company. They burn out, feel abused, and seek to leave after time. Yet they are
so good at what they do essentially they become the key person, who knows how to make it work, while they are seeking to get out of the office for a day. Usually it takes about 1 to 3 years for this kind of process to really take effect, along with stamina, belief
systems, and reward systems that are in place for stellar performers.
The average person in the company sees all this, but rationalizing out the process is difficult. How do you gauge the performance of a bunch of overachievers in a company of overachievers? How do you rate an average programmer with a healthy work life balance against the developer either through self motivation or some other external element works those 18 hour days.
Then how do you rate an outsourcing company that is made of the average programmer, or newer programmers who do not have a lot of experience?
This is what makes coding for web 2.0 so exceedingly difficult, finding the right person to make all that Ajax interoperability happen when the technology is so new that the people who know it are the ones who are self taught. Classes in programming for Web 2.0 are rare, meaning all those programmers who are self taught are busy working on projects, and may not be available for hire.
Outsourcing is not going to solve this problem because it is a global problem, in a global environment. No one can find anyone available to work on their web 2.0 projects. We need more graduates, yes, but we also need a commitment from industry and education to work in tandem with new technologies to make sure that when they catch on, the work force is available, and that those creative people have outlets that companies can afford, and have the opportunity to work on neat projects.
Comments
About
the Author:
Dan Morrill has been in the information security field for 18 years, both
civilian and military, and is currently working on his Doctor of Management.
Dan shares his insights on the important security issues of today through
his blog, Managing
Intellectual Property & IT Security, and is an active participant in the
ITtoolbox blogging community.
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