Significant gaps have appeared in the development industry in recent years. It comes from the demand for technological advancements and issues with education. This poses a problem since the development industry is one of the most popular and in-demand industries in the world. In fact, the global number of graduates in this field is around 400,000 annually. Millions of jobs are needed every year in development, which indicates there aren’t enough developers to fill them.
In order to combat the issue, companies have begun outsourcing individual development projects. Even temporarily employing developers, individually or in teams, has decreased the gap somewhat. However, it is only a temporary solution. Another solution is for companies to train or pay employees to take classes on new and necessary skills. One of the biggest reasons companies need to hire is because current employees don’t possess the necessary skills for certain projects.
Tech-centered jobs are increasingly difficult to fill in particular, specifically in the US. More companies are relying on Cloud services alongside machine learning. This means the IT industry will have its hands full keeping up with updating, processing, and distributing data through those services. Its gap has increased substantially as a result.
Effects of the Developer Shortages
For companies that can’t find qualified developers or must take time to properly onboard new hires, current employees are often handed multiple tasks. Piling more onto those employees has created another problem—burnout. This is exhaustion created in the workplace, often associated with stress and frustration related to workloads. An effect of burnout spreads negative emotions through the company, which can lead to lower hiring percentages. Candidates looking for jobs have recently begun to pay more attention to company culture. If a company’s employees feel burned out, candidates aren’t likely to apply for any positions there.
Not surprisingly, one of the top causes of the developer shortage is poor education. While this is truer in the US than in other countries, general education in development won’t cover the main skills developers need in the workplace. The education system that opts to cover only the basics misses the necessary technical skills developers must have in the real world. As a result, developers and even companies look for third-party ways to be taught those needed skills.
Job postings that have strict or specific requirements often exclude a large portion of valuable candidates. Even for candidates who don’t have all the skills a company desires, candidates willing to learn should be considered for employment. Having soft skills, particularly enthusiasm and passion, make better employees. Their eagerness to expand their skillsets has been proven to be more beneficial than only candidates with the desired set of skills prior to being hired.
Final Thoughts
The gap between the number of available development jobs and developers to do those jobs isn’t likely to decrease significantly in the coming years. Ultimately, it will depend on how companies looking to hire developers approach candidates as well as the forwardness of those candidates to continuously learn new skills. A combination of better education, looser job requirements, and more cooperation is the best way to decrease the developer shortage.
