Tech Jobs stays open for months, unemployment under 4%

I'm just waiting for salaries to reflect demand. I'm not moving from a small-town dev job to the Valley for a 15% pay jump and a huge cost-of-living increase.

I feel sorry for all my classmates who aren't in software dev. It's a nightmare out there. I know lots of recently-graduated unemployed business/humanities majors.

Perhaps it's the laundry list of technologies, frameworks and related technologies associated with a primary language. Some of these expectations are legitimate, but some/many border on postings just shy of "deep expertise in just about everything".<p>For giggles, I decided to head over to indeed.com and take a random posting for a Java Developer. I only chose one and below is what they are looking for verbatim:<p>"* BS degree or equivalent in computer science, electrical engineering, or related field is preferred * A minimum of 5-7 years of relevant work experience * Strong knowledge of Java and J2EE related technologies (JVM, JMS, Servlets etc.) * Knowledge and experience with Internet technologies and protocols (e.g. HTML, XML, TCP/IP, HTTP) * Extensive knowledge of creating high availability large volume systems * Solid experience and ability with the use of a dynamic scripting language such as JavaScript, Perl, Ruby or Groovy (we use Groovy) * Experience in OOAD principles and methodologies * Exposure to Hibernate, Spring or other lightweight container * Expertise with more advanced programming environments and concepts highly desired (e.g. J2EE, multi-threaded programming, high availability design etc.) * Wide experience with code control system and build tools (Maven/Ant) * Solid understanding of design patterns (Gang of Four) * Exposure to and desire to work in, a strong team-based environment * Knowledge or exposure to modern Agile methodologies such as SCRUM, TDD and XP * Knowledge and experience with unit testing practices desired * Experience/exposure to Test Driven Development and Simple Design"<p>Depending on how literal these requirements are to be taken, any one of these can knock you out of the running (you've got solid Java skills under your belt, but due to your specific environment you've got no JMS or no scripting language experience, or you're light on Spring, etc.)<p>I didn't post another one I found interesting, but it was asking for Ajax/CSS/front end experience.<p>The only equivalent I can think of is: "Real estate lawyer needed. Must have experience in constitutional, IP, marriage, family and international law. Any experience as it relates to the Geneva Convention considered a plus."

The best part of that article is the one comment complaining about employers being picky. The person leaving the comment uses "excepting" instead of "accepting" and "thou" instead of "though". Perhaps your writing skills have something to do with your unemployment?

Here in the South (and namely Greenville, SC) we've had a shortage of talented IT (devs mainly) since 2008. Great gigs here and great opportunities but most folks don't or can't relocate (due to being upside down in a home someplace) or can't fathom a 'pay cut' since our area doesn't pay Silicon/Boston/NY rates yet our cost of living is quite a bit lower (at least has been).<p>If you're a talented developer and out of work more than a month you either are horrible at interviewing, have terrible soft skills, or really aren't that good. Or you might be on vacation :)

"The first function of unemployment (which has always existed in open or disguised form) is that it maintains the authority of master over man. The master has normally been in a position to say: ‘If you do not want the job, there are plenty of others who do’. When the man can say: ‘If you do not want to employ me, there are plenty of others who will,’ the situation is radically altered.’"<p>-- The Times, 1943 (via <a href="http://bilbo.economicoutlook.net/blog/?p=11941" rel="nofollow">http://bilbo.economicoutlook.net/blog/?p=11941</a>)

Seems to be a major shift occurring in required skill set which does not help when you are trying to move from a Senior role to Senior role.<p>At least in my experience in the NJ/NY region, I have been looking for Flex/AS3 work for a few months, and have not seen a single interesting role advertised.<p>Personally it's quite daunting to make the 4th major shift in my career. Started out in classic ASP/COM, moved to Java when Microsoft introduced .NET, moved to Flash/AS3 about 4-5 years ago developing web video solutions.<p>Now I don't know where to start retooling, should I work in Mobile, or move back to web backend, or web frontend work... or a mixture of all three. Also after 15 years it's hard to take that pay cut and start back at zero again.

If the job stays open for months then either the role isn't that important, or the hiring company is doing something seriously wrong. Finding good people is not difficult ("site:linkedin.com works for x", where x is google, facebook, whatever). Attracting them is harder - either the company needs to sort itself out internally to meet candidate expectations or it has to modify its business model to pay the expected wages.

Please fix the headline. This might work:<p>"Tech jobs stay open for months, unemployment under 4%"

I think the problem is that good jobs (you can save to buy house) are gone. Basically, in SV, you can get 150K salary with 20 years experience and PhD only at Facebook, Google, Oracle, etc. However, these companies are extremely picky and positions like that are rarely open.<p>Smaller companies (and startups) are just looking for programmers - preferable fresh from college.<p>I predict this trend will continue: low end of programming business will grow and salaries will be suppressed because level of entry will be lowered as time goes. The high end of programming will shrink and it will be available only in big corporations.

Quality people are easy to find, the job boards are full of them.<p>Good luck finding a quality company or competent management.