There is a developer shortage.
Those who claim it’s a myth point to some pretty weak sources, or weak interpretations of real data. From the hiring point-of-view, there’s no question. It’s a candidate’s market. If you’ve got the skills, you’ll have your pick of attractive opportunities.
1. They point to something that doesn’t surprise me at all: college graduates who studied STEM often end up in fields other than STEM.
2. They include in their definition of STEM all sorts of jobs that have nothing to do with software engineering, and frequently nothing to do with engineering of any kind. STEM includes anything science related.
For instance, psychology is a very popular degree, but students of psychology frequently end up working in other fields.
3. Most university programs are radically out-of-date and out of their depth when it comes to teaching computer science. They’re great at teaching computer science fundamentals that will never go out of style, but they’re terrible at teaching current technologies and practical skills, including the web and mobile platforms that many employers are hiring for.
I have never met a fresh college grad who was ready to start contributing productively to an app development team fresh out of school. Not once in five years that I’ve been actively interviewing candidates.
In other words, many reports should really be read as indictments of University CS programs that fail to teach students practical skills.
If a whole industry, the government, and the president of the United States is saying that we have a shortage of trained software developers, you should probably give more weight to that than to some sensationalist, poorly researched media report.
If you can’t find a job writing software, either you’re not ready, or you’re not looking very hard. There is a large standing demand.
