Why? http://industry.java.sun.com/javanews/stories/story2/0,1072,46541,00.html

While JDJ is hyping articles to sell more magazines and get clicks to its site, it conveniently forgets to mention that the aforementioned shortage is expected in South Africa. You're not much of a trusted news source- you've lost complete creditbility amongst many talented people in this industry who are struggling to survive in this economy today.

Love it, Allan! As an ex- Phantom pilot, that is...

There is no doubt whatsoever that gold fever was part of the driving force behind Java in the late 90's. Non-technical decision makers followed the Pied Piper of Prosperity away from mature client-server development not because the web was a more productive toolset (it still isn't for corporate internal apps), but because they were either fascinated with the promise of newer technology or frightened by threats of being "left behind." Developers and wanna-bes flocked to the fold because they could feel righteous about amazing salaries ($60,000+ for a developer right out of college, anyone?) since they were "fighting the evil empire." Everyone seemed to win. What we see now is simply the inevitable aftermath of a gold rush - things will stabilize, and the hucksters will be forced to move on to something else.

Java is a terriffic language, but still tough for many to master and daunting in it's scope. The truly masterful hard-core developers are, and ALWAYS will be, rare. They will also be wasted if their talents are spent on 85% of the tasks needed for corporate productivity.

To truly compete with the MicroSerfs, we still need something for Java similar to PowerBuilder. A limited framework for Java development targeted at those 85% of developers / corporate problems which truly enables them to deploy simple prototypes to "average" solutions quickly. Sybase is in the toilet, and never really successfully translated the PowerBuilder paradigm to the web. Perhaps if they had developed a framework which REALLY converted a PowerBuilder 2-tier app directly to a 3-tier Java app... SilverStream tried, but couldn't market, an all-in-one solution - then their technology was obsoleted by J2EE.

Java won't die. But, if someone (my vote is on the Open Source community) doesn't simplify development of the web-equivalent of a simple Microsoft Access application, Java will ultimately recede to niche markets.

Bill Reister
VP, Applications Development
MMS Incentives
Atlanta, GA 30092

I second Alan's comment "At the end of the day we are all software engineers, designed to solve problems". Employers are not really worried about what programming language they choose, what they are worried about is How does it solve their business problem? End of day if we as software engineers communicate how Java as a programming langugage address the issues of Quality, Reliability, Maintainability and Timeliness in solving business problems it would be appreciated and rewarded.
Quality is addressed through Testing, Java has a beautiful framework JUnit to empower developers. I can vouch for this time and time again as it has won me and my company accolades on using basic software engineering principles in delivering quality software. If we as developers do not compromise on quality, reliability, maintaiability and timeliness of the code/business problem that we design and develop we will always have a job to do. It is not being able to adhere to these basic software principles/discipline that some developers struggle between finding jobs and jumping between the next hype that comes along.
I would like to end with a quote "No one said it was going to be easy, nothing worthwhile is!"

The learning curve matters, probably more than ever. Engineering errors can cost employers their business; employers naturally want people who've already learned not to make real howlers.

To succeed in anything but a junior position you need to be an experienced engineer with solid design and research skills. This defines basic competence, but it isn't enough. Every language and environment (yes, even Java) has its own tar pits that are only learned about through some degree of painful personal experience.

Since employers can't measure prospective employees' instincts, they have to ask for quasi-objective experience measures, like 10K lines in language XYZ delivered to and used by real customers. It doesn't mean that you learned anything but it means you had opportunity and serious incentive to do so.

As far as the bingo card goes, most HR people and the recruiters they hire lack the most basic understanding of what any of the keywords mean or how they relate to one another. They're flying strictly by IFR and the keywords are their gauges, so line managers have to supply the list. The process of getting hired doesn't really start until the resume gets past the keyword filters to the desk of somebody who can actually read it,

It was stated in the article that "At the end of the day we are software engineers, designed to solve problems", regardless of which language or technology is chosen. Personally, I've always agreed with that statement. I try very hard to provide software solutions which use whatever language or technology fits best. However, hiring managers and HR personnel only see the "hole" that needs to be filled. Unfortunately, that "hole" is usually described in terms of a specific skill or language, like ".NET Programmer" or "Senior Java Developer", etc., which sometimes becomes an intangible "roadblock" when searching for a new position or contract. It's not really fair, but then again, who said it was suppose to be?

Well, the assertion that "At the end of the day we are software engineers, designed to solve problems." begs the question. Why does the industry insist on bingo-card skill sets? All I've heard for the past five years is how companies want to check off certain skills, and continue to ask for people with improbable and impossible skills. ("Java, C++, Perl, VB ... and RPG!") Is the "industry" changing from this bingo-card mentality (skills + years of experience) to asking for professionals with OO design and implementation skills who are language-agnostic?

At the end of the day, it's the paycheck that motivates anyone, not the principal of fighting the evil empire or whatever your fix may be. I can say that I'm a staunch Java supporter, and have loved the language since I encountered it. However, C#, clone or not, is an easy transition and Microsoft development doesn't require the guru of God requirements that most employerers seem to believe that Java does, so why not? Be looking for Java to go the way of Social Security. A sweet deal to begin with, but when the baby boomers (J2EE senior developers) begin to retire, who is left to fill the gap? Employers should realize that they have to grow the plant, or go the way of the American steel industry.

Won't C# also run in Linux and Windows? I saw that the GNU folks are hard at work on this?

Do you think that when Microsoft has a cross-platform portable langauge that Java's major selling point "portability" will disappear? Or is C# portability a myth?

I think things are starting to drift back to center. We kind of stuck it to the business for a while and then they thought they could bring in the cheapest people they could find because of the economy. I think the business is starting to realize that most of the time, they get what they pay for. I know I am having to prove myself a little more to get the good rates but it's worth it to me professionally

Periodic downturns have a way of weeding out the pretenders, companies as well as developers, and only allowing the most useful and proven to survive. I’m sure there is a little HR payback going on now as well for the time when JAVA developers had immense bargaining power.
I also program in .NET and have found it to be slower and less reliable than I would have thought. As long as JAVA is faster and more reliable on the WINTEL server platform .NET will have hard time moving beyond the Microsoft-only crowd.