jsync | Java Staffing Specialist

What's Hot? A (Semi-) Scientific Study of Popular Technologies in the Philly Market

07/11/2006

by Dave Fecak

Every so often we here at jsync like to share our observations of the local job market, as we imagine you will find this information useful. Usually we will make comments about trends based on what we are seeing and hearing from the local community. This time we decided to do things a little differently.

In order to give a more accurate snapshot of what Java-related technologies are in high demand, we have sifted through new job descriptions we have received recently from a cross-section of over 20 jsync clients. From these reqs we have assembled a list of 23 ‘buzzwords’, and then we tallied how many of our clients requested each specific technology. Here is what we found out, and also our thoughts on what some of these statistics might mean to you.

NOTE: The job descriptions were all requests for Java EE Developers and/or architects, so Java and Java EE should be a ‘given’ for all requirements. This survey includes some ‘related’ technologies as well, such as SQL or databases, which are not specific to Java but certainly relevant enough for inclusion. We eliminated operating systems as almost all shops seem to be developing on Windows and deploying on some flavor of Unix.

THE TOP 8
1. JSP/Servlets – 95% – web development is still king
2. SQL – 76% – surprised it’s this high? We’re not – database skills are still viewed as very important, and it seems that more and more software professionals are getting rusty with their SQL.
3. XML – 67% – no surprises here either (you’ll see when we get to Web Services)
4 (TIE). Struts – 57% – still the granddaddy of web frameworks
4 (TIE). – Oracle – 57% – still the granddaddy of databases
4 (TIE). – Open Source Tools – 57% – this is companies that list ‘open source’ on their reqs. NOTE: Many companies listed various open source products, but this is specific to companies who requested candidates with various open source experience or enthusiasm.
7. Web Services – 52% – we were a bit surprised this was as high, but perhaps the hype is over?? This should also explain why XML ranked so high. NOTE: SOAP is lumped into this category.
8. EJB – 43% – this is also a bit of a surprise. The Java community seemed ready to bury EJB, but this shows a possible renewed faith in the most recent release.

THE MIDDLE 8
9. Hibernate – 38% – seems to be on the rise
10. JBoss – 34% – Hibernate and JBoss this close to each other seems to make sense
11. XSL – 33% – not a big surprise here
12. WebLogic – 31% – a little surprising to see it below JBoss, but that could be a function of our clientele
13. Agile – 29% – look for XP/Scrum/Agile to become more requested
14 (TIE). Swing – 24% – higher demand than we would expect
14 (TIE). JMS – 24% –
15. Spring – 21% –

THE BOTTOM 7
16 (TIE). AJAX – 24% – we believe the pre-game hype on AJAX is over, so look for this number to increase (maybe dramatically) over the next few months
16 (TIE). SQL Server – 24% – decent traction still
18 (TIE). Portal – 19% – seems to be on the rise a bit (NOTE: This includes client requests for ‘portal’ experience and various portal products experience)
18 (TIE). Other Databases – 19% – DB2, MySQL still breathe
20. WebSphere – 14% – local market share probably lags to their global
21. Other App Servers – 10% – and these 10% weren’t Oracle
22. JavaServer Faces – 5% – JSF still hasn’t quite caught on with the mainstream

THE VERDICTS
If you know just JSP/Struts and can find your way around a database, you should get some attention from hiring companies.
You can get even more attention if you have a bit of EJB or Web Services experience, and at least one or two of the more common open source frameworks or tools.

Stock in AJAX, Web Services, and Agile methodologies are rising – open source products in general are also still on the rise – JSF is yet to make an impact.

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