By: Emily Matzelle
A software developer is by far the most in-demand job role in the technology industry. The reason? There are far more companies performing software development than there were in the days of packaged software. But software developer is an umbrella term. On a recent Volley podcast episode, Trends in Software Development, CompTIA researchers Carolyn April and Seth Robinson talk with CompTIA chief innovation officer Nate Garner about the challenges organizations face in building efficient software practices – and how to overcome them.
Software development used to be the domain of companies that were packaging software to sell, and everyone else was a consumer. Most companies today have software development needs, and while “software developer” is the most frequently used title, Garner says that organizations today are actually looking for full-stack software engineers.
“The idea of a full stack is that there are layers to the software development platform,” Garner said. “The front-end user interface is the visual element that your users see. The back end is the servers that store data and receive messages from the system. Those used to be separate roles, but now we expect someone to do both.”
Combining those roles allows companies to maintain smaller and more centralized teams – and the on-ramp is less complicated than it used to be.
“We’ve simplified the technology stack through lots of standard platforms that don’t require you to have a major math or science degree,” Garner said. “You can get in and pull together elements of user interface and have standardized communications back to a server connecting to a common database. All of those pieces have enough commonality between them that you don’t need a full engineering staff.”
Unfortunately, finding a full-stack software engineer is difficult these days. According to Garner, there is a shortage of available engineers.
“You used to put out a job listing and get 200 resumes in one day. Now you may get five. Full-stack software engineer is a title that’s really hard to find because all of the good people are already employed,” he said.
But the good news is there are many different paths to training and developing a full-stack software engineer. Garner says that IT pros can start teaching themselves pieces of the job, like working on the front end first and then moving on to learn the back end. Organizations can also take this approach by hiring a front-end engineer and outsourcing the back end.
Of course, Garner notes that most people will get to a point where they will need some education or training. He recommends code camps for people who don’t want to spend four years getting a degree. These camps tend to last three to six months and focus on the front end first and the back end last.
The reality is there isn’t one particular pathway that leads to becoming a qualified full-stack engineer. For instance, Robinson explains that people in entry-level IT support roles already have key experience in bridging the gap between engineers and the IT team – a skill widely recruited for.
“You can start out in mechanical engineering or have a business major,” Garner said. “It’s see a need, fill a need. The needs tend to be technology related and that’s how people can work their way to software engineering.”
DevOps is the intersection between software development and traditional IT infrastructure. With more companies taking on a software development role, one would imagine that the two would overlap in some way. But Garner says that’s not the case just yet.
“We haven’t seen as much success as you would hope with having full-stack engineers take on the DevOps role as well,” Garner said. “There’s so much involved in DevOps that software engineers tend to shy away.”
But that doesn’t necessarily mean your organization needs a specialized DevOps team. Garner says that there are a lot of packages coming out in the cloud that automate DevOps tasks, leading to a case where larger companies employ the specialized DevOps teams and smaller companies utilize an online package.
As organizations work on assembling the right skills and changing organizational behavior, they can leverage software for improved automation and customization.
With a shortage of qualified full-stack software engineers, and “software developer” being an overly broad term, upskilling and reskilling to fill software development gaps is a good bet. Candidates with different backgrounds and experience can learn basic software development skills to fill an immediate need while continuing to build their skills on an upward trajectory.
Don’t just sit around waiting for the perfect candidate to walk through your door. Instead, take matters into your own hands and build the candidate you need through workforce training and development.
Read more about IT Workforce.
Tags : IT Workforce