For programmers, it’s never been easier [to find a job]. The world of open source software is such an easy way to get into showing off your work — and it makes you feel good in the process.
One of the big advantages if you go to Harvard or Stanford and you want to get into investment banking is that you’ll meet a lot of people that will make it easier for you to get into investment banking. If you want to be a great software developer, you can do all of that without paying $60,000 a year in tuition, just by putting in some sweat equity in improving the comments in the open source world.
I’m constantly being asked, “Do you know any Rails programmers?” If you’re a programmer today and you’re not employed, you’re not looking or you’re not doing the right things: (A) get involved in open source development, (B) learn a development environment that’s hot right now.
Christian
on 08 Jun 11I bet you can tell when someone talks about web development who doesn’t really do it. The same goes for talking about Harvard. Most students in the Harvard CS program foremost don’t want to be “a great software developer” and so your comparison is meaningless.
Sean Iams
on 08 Jun 11I love that David said “improving the comments in the open source world” rather than something like “contributing features to open source projects.” Great clarity and communication is key to developing great systems and great software.
I learn a ton by going through code, and clarifying it to others; either by explaining it to people or by re-writing it in a more readable way. This is also how a lot of good optimization is done.
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on 08 Jun 11Advice B sucks.
Joe
on 08 Jun 11Amen! As an active open-source developer, I’ve never been busier nor billed higher rates.
@Christian – In regard to Harvard, David said “investment banking”, not software development. He’s saying the great thing about our industry compared to say, investment banking, is that you don’t need to spend big bucks to make the connections that get the jobs.
Ben
on 08 Jun 11As a programmer’s view, I agreed that “get involved in open source development and learn a development environment that’s hot right now”. Recently, I have experienced good journey on some open source projects that I used. You will know how they manage, what they not to do, and how to co-work with global people.
Lee
on 08 Jun 11I don’t agree with point B at all – it’s a crazy thing to do.
If you learn a ‘hot’ development environment, you’re competing against everyone else doing the same.
As an example – PHP Developers, especially freelancers, are competing against Asian developers that will work for $1 h/r, but Coldfusion Developers can command a premium but there are less of them out there.
Daniel
on 08 Jun 11What would you say is the hot development environment right now?
Joe
on 08 Jun 11I don’t see the problem with point B. Follow along with David’s three point logic.
1. The point of this post is “it’s never been easier [to find a job]”. Nothing in the quote posted about high rates or getting a premium. It’s advice about getting a job. 2. “learn a development environment that’s hot right now” means to position yourself with skills that are in demand, not skills that are in low demand. 3. If your skills are in greater demand, it’s easier to find a job.
Which of these points do folks here think is false?
As an aside, compare demand for PHP to demand for Coldfusion. Out of 60,000 jobs posted, Coldfusion’s not even among the top 50 on one decidedly non-scientific study: http://www.odesk.com/blog/2011/01/in-demand-skills-in-a-borderless-economy/. PHP is most in demand.
Demand-driven skill-building is a perfectly valid way to go about preparing oneself to find a job.
Hamid
on 09 Jun 11Thanks for your great post, the question is, what’s the hot development environment right now? Ruby on Rails?
Dominic Pettifer
on 09 Jun 11@Lee
A lot of devs are set in their ways and won’t bother to learn the hot new dev environment, preferring to stick with what they know and are comfortable with, even if the industry is leaving them behind.
So you’re not competing with with everyone doing the same thing, you’re competing with a few who have the foresight to see where the industry is going, and get a head start in that hot technology before it goes mainstream.
DHH
on 09 Jun 11Naturally, I’m biased, but yes, I think Ruby on Rails is incredibly hot in the job market right now. I keep hearing from companies using Rails that they can’t find enough skilled programmers.
Anonymous Coward
on 09 Jun 11Of course, keep in mind that you’d probably hear the same thing from companies using filemaker pro and cobol…
Professional Amateur
on 09 Jun 11It’s the same as with any profession. Take the oldest profession in the world, for example: yes, there is a huge demand for BJs worldwide, but one can be had for mere pittance. On the other hand, some tricky SM stuff might get risky, so a considerably smaller number of pros will offer such services, but the pay is excellent.
Anonymous Coward
on 10 Jun 11@DHH – All developers are hard to find at the moment. I heard a story on NPR stating the unemployment rate for programmers is around 4%, and a number of those aren’t working because they really aren’t trying to. My company has been trying to hire a competent junior-to-average PHP developer for 4 months and have had only a smattering of resumes and nobody with a clue.
DoubleThought
on 11 Jun 11I am agree that RoR is hot these days and demand growing up.
Anonymous Coward
on 13 Jun 11I’m with Joe. PHP, Python & Ruby are popular but there are many unskilled practitioners and offshore devs dragging prices way down. Compare to learning Scala and Lift – I don’t know any unemployed Scala devs and last time I looked Scala/Lift jobs advertised between $120k and $250k. The equivalent positions in PHP/Python/Ruby will get you $40-120k. I suspect you’d also find pretty high salaries for F#.
This discussion is closed.