The application development & support market has remained in a positive position throughout this year with only the upcoming holiday period stalling the slow but steady momentum. We have seen demand in the usual areas predominantly led by .Net & Java but we are seeing most demand and probably the shortest supply in tier one ERP skills (mainly SAP & Oracle), Microsoft SharePoint, Front End Web and Mobile Development. With that in mind the demand for contractors skilled in Agile development methodology continues to rise, as companies move away from large scale in house software development programs in favour of quicker rapid deployment of products and services. When companies do commit to large scale software programs they are looking to utilise a combination of in house resources, contractors, local specialist service providers as well as global outsourcers. This creates greater spread of risk on key deliverables, flexibility with resources but major challenges in vendor management, accountability, communication and ultimately decision making.
Companies are increasingly looking at consolidated ERP systems with Oracle and SAP taking a majority market share but we have also seen a number of companies committing more capital expenditure to JDE, PeopleSoft and Seibel upgrades as in most cases they offer a much more cost effective solution rather than the larger investment needed to implement Oracle or SAP. You will see from our salary review that SAP Basis & Oracle Database Administrators have experienced the largest rate & salary increases due to high demand and increasingly low supply. We have also seen a similar trend in demand for HR/Payroll consulting skills across most of the major ERP products. Due to the shortage of available skills in this area we have seen companies bringing resources from overseas to meet demand on critical projects. As with any technology skills shortage there has been a large push from candidates looking to enter the contracting market in order to take advantage of higher daily rates, this in turn has led to a large number of permanent positions being left open for 6-12 months.
What Next?
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Ok, so you have finished VCE and scored a higher enter score than most, your heart skips a beat spending endless hours writing code and you decide you want to be a programmer. What programming language do you wish to learn? Which will be better in terms of job prospects? What language would still be in high demand in 5, 10 or 15 years’ time?
In most cases, a language is chosen by development teams because they know it, feel it’s the most cutting edge technology on the market, or feel it would result in a cost effective method to implement in to their website.
Ideally, development teams should examine the strengths and weaknesses in using both technologies instead of going for whatever is hip in the marketplace.
Hopefully this comparison sheds some light as to what technology is best for you and your future as a programmer.
Current Demand
I did a quick search on seek and found that 1,645 results were found in Australia with the key word, “.NET”, and 4,061 results were found with, “JAVA”. What does this say about what’s happening in .NET? Should these figures be the contributing factor to what technology to use?
By no means should you consider this data as concrete evidence without considering other variables – like how much competition you have with other programmers in your field, how many roles are available in your area, and how many roles are available within your skill level (junior, mid-level or senior). You should conduct your own preliminary searches on different job boards before evaluating what career path you should take. Read more…
Working within the application development space you get a front seat into the newest trends within technology. In the past 12 months iPhone and Android development has increased dramatically. Every company, from the one man operation in a shed to the massive corporate, is jumping on the band wagon in a race to get to the finish line first with the best most user friendly applications but which direction should they go, iPhone or Android?
With the new iPhone coming out and Android continuing to deploy better and better hardware; and both operating systems rolling out exciting new features and innovations with each release, which is better? After reading countless blogs and speaking with the frontline users I have come up with a couple of different categories in which both iPhone and Android go head to head and help you decide… Read more…
I recently read a blog called Migrating ASP.NET MVC 2 applications to ASP.NET MVC 3 Preview 1 by Elion Lipton. On January 13th 2011 Microsoft released an update to MVC. Elion speaks about the MVC usage, what it can do and what it can’t do.
But who really benefits from the change? What are the pros and cons of installing MVC3 and updating your MVC 2 applications?
Whilst it is new and improved I don’t necessarily believe it is a revolution, here are the notes from Lipton’s blog. What are your thoughts, do you think it is a revolution?
Usage
The only requirement for this tool is that you have .NET Framework 4 on the machine. You do not need to have Visual Studio or ASP.NET MVC installed (unless you want to open your project!). Even though the tool performs an automatic backup of your solution it is recommended that you perform a manual backup of your solution as well.
To convert an ASP.NET MVC 2 project built with Visual Studio 2010 to an ASP.NET MVC 3 project in Visual Studio 2010 perform these steps:
- Launch the converter
- Select the solution
- Click the “Convert” button Read more…
There are a few critical things you need to consider and understand before you make that move from permanent employment to contract…
Prioritise!
There are four key factors you need to consider before you proceed. Money, Technology, Projects and Location. What is most important to you? The chances are if you have genuinely set your heart on being a contractor money and technology will be top of the list.
- Money
Most of the time when you’re doing full time contract work you will have to spend just as much time trying to find that work. If your salary was $80k (roughly $40/hr) you have to think about taxes, driving, phone calls, buying software, IDEs, and lots of other expenses. General rule of thumb is to put a 30% mark up on your regular pay. Of course in this industry, you have to do what you have to do to get some work so don’t be too rigid with your negotiations and remember its easier to find your next assignment when you’re already working –creditability and current project work counts a lot for your marketability. Read more…
Everybody knows that the future of IT development and business is only going to become more focussed on mobile applications. Everybody is trying to get involved from recruiters, blue chip corporates, hobbyist developers, budding entrepreneurs and SMEs. 20% of web traffic now comes from mobile phones and everybody I know has a phone where they can surf the net. However, is this growing market stuck in limbo?
Here are three trends that I have noted in the mobile/iPhone development space:
1. Every client wants a developer who has proven experience of delivering commercial applications, sometimes relevant applications in their field (e.g. banks want candidates who have delivered mobile banking apps before).
Read more…
Ambition recently hosted our first user group at our head office in Sydney.
We were joined by the Silverlight Designer and Developer Network who meet once every month to discuss all things applications and Silverlight. However, the focus of the group is not just on developers, it’s for designers who don’t traditionally have the community and support that developers have.
The user group was attended by 15 people who relaxed and talked over pizza and beer. The meeting focused on promoting the development of ideas and best practices for anyone who works with Silverlight. Read more…
Contactors have been part of the IT landscape since the early 1980s. Large project teams were formed to rewrite or convert manual paper based legacy systems and processes to computerised/automated processes. Contractors came into their own as a highly skilled, mobile workforce whose expertise could be used for the duration of the project and then let go when no longer needed.
Despite their long history in our workforce landscape myths still abound around the perceived disadvantages of contracting.
MYTH 1. YOUR SKILLS WILL BECOME OUTDATED
This is a common fear that, over time and without training, your skills will become redundant and it will be hard to find work. This can be a problem not only for contractors but also permanent employees who don’t invest time inself-training. You do need to work hard at keeping your skills updated and there are many courses and training materials out there to help you do it. Read more…
The New Year is always an interesting time. Resolutions are usually instantly broken, dieting and detoxing normally lasts no longer than the first week and obviously everybody looks forward to returning to work! However as most techies are aware, the new year brings the annual geek fest that is the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), held in Las Vegas each January where the vast majority of electronic organisations debut their new tech for the year ahead. (2700 exhibitors in total, basically everyone except Apple).
So did we see any game changing products?
Motorola Xoom
After a few years in the gadget wilderness, it appears Motorola are back on form with 2 of the most exciting products of the show. Their Xoom tablet won the coveted ‘Best in Show’ award, all the more impressive considering the large amount of tablets being introduced as every company jumps on Apples’ bandwagon. Using the new Android operating system Honeycomb, developed specifically for tablets (up until this point any Android powered tablet device was restricted to a 7 inch screen, hence the small size of the Samsung Galaxy Tab), the Xoom boasts a dual core processor, a 5 megapixel rear and front facing camera along with 720p video recording and 1080p video playback, 32 GB on-board memory with expandable card slot, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1 and Flash support! With claims of a 10 hour battery life whilst watching video, the combination of this tablet and the new Honeycomb operating system should see Apple scrambling to catch up.
Motorola Atrix
Even more impressive in my mind is the Motorola Atrix, a smart phone with all the standard bells and whistles of 2010 devices combined with 4G connectivity and a dual-core processor, giving it the power of most modern laptops. The clincher being a docking station in the guise of a laptop, offering the user the best of both worlds.
House of Marley Headphones
Making waves not necessary for the most innovative product of the show, but for affordability and style, the new line of headphones from the House of Marley made a big impact. A forward thinking but minimalist design, the company gives a large slice of all its revenue to charity, making their products very hard to resist, especially considering the rasta coloured wires. Read more…
Whilst attending the FST (Financial Services in Technology) event last Friday, I listened to Greg McAweeney, the GM of RaboDirect, speaking about using Social Media to enhance customers experience. Rabobank Direct is a specialist online-only savings and investment bank and the only bank that publishes a blog on its website. They feel this demonstrates their openness and transparency and I was surprised to learn they are not afraid to showcase the good and the bad on their site for all to see. The brainwave idea is that we must relinquish control, as Greg says, we never had it anyway! We must embrace the opportunity to show ourselves “warts and all” to redress some of the crowning issues that have recently dogged the banking industry and, on reflection are the same complaints that have, over the years, been leveraged against the recruitment sector. The banking industry has taken a hammering post GFC with little trust and much anger from the general public, as with the recruitment industry key concerns predominately focus around openness, transparency and honesty.
With many unscrupulous and unethical agents and agencies around it is my experience that consultants with an honest, ethical and assiduous approach will always shine out from the pack. In addition using social media is a fantastic way to create communities and become a “trusted advisor”, a specialist in your chosen field and with something of more value to give than your average “common or garden” variety recruiter. It is a wonderful opportunity to create an open forum for feedback and ultimately lead to innovation as posts both positive and negative can be analysed and addressed. Read more…
The application development & support market has remained in a positive position throughout this year with only the upcoming holiday period stalling the slow but steady momentum. We have seen demand in the usual areas predominantly led by .Net & Java but we are seeing most demand and probably the shortest supply in tier one ERP skills (mainly SAP & Oracle), Microsoft SharePoint, Front End Web and Mobile Development. With that in mind the demand for contractors skilled in Agile development methodology continues to rise, as companies move away from large scale in house software development programs in favour of quicker rapid deployment of products and services. When companies do commit to large scale software programs they are looking to utilise a combination of in house resources, contractors, local specialist service providers as well as global outsourcers. This creates greater spread of risk on key deliverables, flexibility with resources but major challenges in vendor management, accountability, communication and ultimately decision making.
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