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 Software Development – Snapshot of 2008 and looking forward to 2009
My specialization area at Corporate Recruiters is in Software Development - I focus on all positions involved in the SDLC (Software Development Lifecycle), from intermediate individual contributor to Manager/Director level. I have been at CRL since January, 2001 with 13 years of prior experience in international executive and specialist recruitment. As my business is a very good barometer of the health of the software sector, I can speak factually about 2008. To get an idea of what 2009 may bring, we polled a number of our clients to see what they were planning.
Based on our numbers, 2008 proved to be a great year for qualified and senior software developers in Vancouver. In fact, my personal numbers for 2008 are only 10% behind the average of the last three years. We have seen that the demand for senior people with strong interpersonal skills and leadership potential continued to exceed supply, and clients have frequently found themselves in competing situations with other organizations.
Looking forward may not be as comforting as looking back, but we are still seeing a surprising amount of demand for tier-one software developers. Among those companies that are actively hiring, we are seeing continued backfilling of critical positions. However, there are also a growing number of companies that are using the current market malaise to improve the quality of their team, now that they potentially have access to A-players who they couldn’t previously attract and/or afford.
Looking Back - 2008 Activities:
In the commercial software area, I am often asked a variety of questions related to hiring decisions, ranging from current salary ranges to which technologies are more in demand. The following are my answers, based on my completed searches in 2008:
- Java vs. .NET/C# vs. Open Source
- 45% of hires required.NET/C#
- 35% of hires required Java/J2EE
- 20% of hires were in the Open Source/LAMP environment
- 10% required Microsoft technologies other than .NET, i.e. C/C++
- Individual Contributor vs. Leadership
- 53% of hires were at the Senior Individual Contributor* level
- 47% of hires were at Lead* or Manager/Director level.
* The role of senior individual contributors typically include leadership potential with attributes including good communication skills, confidence, mentoring, etc., but apply most of their time differently than people in a lead role.
- Seasonal Hiring
- Typically, the first and third quarters are the most active hiring periods. However, 2008 was a year of constant activity; all quarters were equally active with a comparable number of completed searches in each. Our activities showed little evidence of seasonal fluctuations.
- To Agile or not to Agile?
- Most development positions require experience with or exposure to Agile development environments. Interest in the framework has increased significantly as evident in the attendance numbers of the Agile Vancouver (www.agilevancouver.ca) conference – in 2006 there were 140 people, in 2007 170 people, and now in their 3rd year, 206 people attended the November 2008 conference. Many of those who attended were hiring and project managers who wanted to ensure that they know the latest information on how to manage Agile environments effectively and efficiently. A point of interest: The attendance of Agile2008 (www.agile2008.org), held in Toronto in August, jumped to 16,000 from just 7,000 attendees in 2006!
- Salary Ranges (base salary only)
- Intermediate Developers: $62,000 to $78,000
- Senior Developers: $76,000 to $92,000
- Architects: $90,000 to $120,000
- Development Leads*: $85,000 to $98,000
- Development Managers*: $97,000 to $125,000
- Development Directors*: $120,000 to $140,000.
*Range highly dependent on size of team
Looking Forward – 2009:
We have included a number of hiring managers in a survey; here are the consolidated results:
- 91% of companies have NOT laid people off and/or do not plan lay-offs;
- 18% of companies have cancelled searches and/or implemented a hiring freeze;
- 27% are seeing some reduction in salary expectations (not quantifiable);
- 82% have NOT seen an increase in availability of high-quality candidates;
- 45% will continue to hire multiple development resources into 2009; 22% have not planned/budgeted for any hires in the first 2 quarters of 2009, while 9% plan on hiring contract resources only and not permanent staff; the rest are unsure at this stage re hiring activities and couldn’t comment either way;
- Highest in-demand skill set?
- 42% indicated senior level .NET development skills;
- 20% indicated Java/J2EE skills;
- 7% indicated open source development skills;
- 9% each indicated senior QA, senior DBA skills and C++ development skills to be the highest in demand skills;
- 4% indicated mainframe skills.
In Conclusion:
As with past economic cycles, the upcoming year will be one of opportunity and growth for some companies, business as usual for others and a battle of survival for others. In Vancouver, we are blessed with experienced entrepreneurs, savvy and mature VC’s, and a strong talent pool. Here at Corporate Recruiters, we look forward to playing an active role in the next chapter of the Vancouver Tech Community’s lifecycle!
By Amanda Du Toit, Corporate Recruiters Ltd. Amanda can be contacted at amanda@corporate.bc.ca
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