Future software job market
A third year software student sent me an email asking: “What will happen in the next few years based on current trend? I only have one more year before graduate, what do I need to focus on to ensure that I will get good job? Please advise.”
Answer: As a software engineering student, you should not worry too much about job in the next few years. There will be many opportunities, software is considered as the fastest growing job and the competition for software skilled workers is increasing globally. As third year software student, you probably had several courses in programming languages such as C++, Java or C# already but with the rise of mobile device usage globally, many companies will be more interested in software for smart phone such as the iPhone, Android and tablet PCs such as the iPad. You may need to look into Objective C as another programming language. As the trend indicated, I believe mobile software will surpass other software development on all traditional computing platforms soon. You may look into some guidelines about develop iPhone, IPads application at:
http://developer.apple.com/devcenter/ios/index.action
In response to growing pressures and regulations imposed on the banking industry over the past years, the outsourcing industry will see an increase in works from financial services companies. More U.S. and European-based business will have to outsource to reduce costs. The executives are forced to cut costs as the results of the financial crisis so they will look for outsource companies with the capacity to take over the entire product or application development process, and in some cases, manage the entire IT business function. This will allow them to focus their efforts on advancing their business, while the outsourced companies will focus on infrastructures, software development optimization, and other factors that contribute to their business growth. This is a major change in outsourcing strategy, in the past most companies only outsourced coding and testing works but the trend clearly indicates that the future of outsourcing will be in managing the entire information systems. There is no reason for a Bank, who is in banking business to focus on IT systems. It is more logical for a bank to focus on banking business and outsource all of their IT to a cloud computing company, who know how to provide good IT services. The same logic are being applied to many other business so I believe, in the next few years more companies will outsource all of their IT systems to cloud computing companies. These outsourcing contracts will be very big, probably several hundred million dollars each but it also requires larger size outsourcing companies. Due to this trend, I believe the hiring of software developers will increase significantly in the next few years as most outsourcing companies must grow fast to seize this opportunity.
Additionally, the automobile industry will also experience significant change. Due to the price increase of oil production, many car manufactures are now switching to hybrid cars or electric cars. These cars must have sophisticated electronic systems to control the engines so there will be high demand for embedded software developers. If you have not taken any course in this area, you may consider learning this skill as embedded software will be a very important skill to have.
Today, 65% people read news and articles on the internet so printed newspapers, magazines will disappeared soon. The news media industry are turning more to the internet as the delivery models. Many will have to outsource too which in turn will create more demand for software developer worldwide. Other business that sell products online are booming as it is much cheaper to open “Virtual stores” than renting a location so website developers will also be in high demand. With more information can be found on the internet, e-government will also change the way people interact with government. I believe the outsourcing industry is already in the midst of an exciting growth period as more and more companies recognize the value that outsourcing providers can deliver. To stay competitive, after the global recession, companies must find cost-efficient way to accelerate key business activities by outsource to lower cost countries. As such, software outsourcing companies that can meet the growing demand for expertise in these areas (Financial, Banking, Mobile application, cloud computing etc.) will be at a significant advantage.
As more companies are looking for outsourcing companies with strong global delivery capabilities. The demand for skilled software people will increase significantly. The trend clearly indicates that skilled software people with good English language who are willing to work anywhere, anytime will be at the highest demand with the highest salaries.
Sources
- Blogs of Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University
