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Java, it seems, is all set to regain its
position as a happening career option. A recently published Gartner
report states that it is presently the fastest growing programming
environment in the world. This is seen as a major achievement for
Java vendors and the developer community, who have been through
the worst phase in the past few years. The dotcom crash led many
to doubt Java as a sensible career and business option.
The past eight to nine months have again
seen a revival in demand for Java professionals. As per industry
statistics, more than 120 Java-enabled mobile handset models are
available from 19 manufacturers worldwide. Close to 275 million
PCs run on Java technology. Or take the case of Sun Microsystems,
which—in the recent five months—has had more than six
million downloads of Java2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) and Java Developers
Kit 1.1. Industry experts believe that developments like these have
helped Java regain the confidence of students and professionals
alike.
Swapan Dutta, country manager for Sun Educational
Services, says, “Whether organisations are developing enterprise
applications, creating applications for Web services or manufacturing
Java cards, there is an increasing demand for trained and certified
Java professionals. In addition, there is also a high demand for
Java professionals by telecom OEMs and PDA manufacturers developing
applications for mobile or handheld devices.” Sun estimates
the number of programmers on the Java platform worldwide to be approximately
1.5 million.
Growing demand
The Java/Application Development Market
and Brand study conducted by DevX 2002 website states that it is
the growing effectiveness of the Web as a platform, which will drive
companies to adopt Java in the next 12 to 18 months. In addition,
factors like Java’s ability to meet performance specifications,
security issues, need for rapid deployment of new applications and
commitment to open-source platforms will be the key driver. More
than 14,000 IT developers were interviewed as part of the study,
which evidently indicates the growing demand for professionals in
this field.
Sudhir Mathur, senior vice president and
head of Global marketing for Aptech, states, “At present, Java
is making a strong comeback as it is being increasingly used for
a range of applications, specifically in wireless devices, which
are becoming more and more intelligent. Developers are seeing increased
demand for Java and XML Web-development skills.” Driving this
demand is Java’s cross platform functionality, which makes
it the ideal platform for network computing. “Running across
all platforms—from servers to cell phones to smart cards—Java
technology unifies business infrastructure to create a seamless,
secure, networked platform,” adds Mathur. In addition, it also
has support from major vendors like IBM, Sun, Oracle and SAP. Java
is the primary platform for application server systems, such as
IBM’s WebSphere, BEA and iPlanet. These application servers
link pre-existing legacy applications and their associated data
with new Web services applications, which has resulted in the need
for J2EE trained professionals.
Career opportunities
As development related skills are again
in demand, Java is back in action. While year 1999 saw a significant
demand for front-end tool expertise for website development, subsequent
years have seen an increasing demand for enterprise-level programmers.
Career opportunities in Java exist in the areas of mobile computing,
wireless applications, Web development and application development.
Nilanjan Roy, senior manager of corporate
marketing for JobsAhead.com, says “The tremendous growth of
Java technologies has resulted in a skyrocketing demand for programmers,
developers and software architects.” Ajay Sharma, chief executive
officer and managing director of New Horizons India, points out
that the past two years have seen an increase in Java professionals,
with the number doubling from 2.5 to five lakh professionals. “An
IDC survey reveals that there are more professionals who are doing
software development on Java platform than on Microsoft,” he
adds.
With the increasing adoption of ‘click
and play’ features on many websites, the expertise required
is in object-oriented application, analysis and design. In addition,
many cell phone-makers like Nokia, Ericsson and Motorola are encouraging
the development of innovative Java-enabled programmes. All this
translates into distinct career paths for Java professionals and
new opportunities for the Java technology development community.
Interestingly, Java professionals are a
premium class and earn higher than Microsoft trained professionals.
A Java professional with about three years of experience can expect
to earn in the range of Rs 3 to Rs 3.5 lakh, whereas those with
six to seven years of experience (typically in a project manager’s
role), could be earning in the range of Rs 8 to Rs 10 lakh.
Focus on skill sets
Industry experts reveal that presently
the demand is for qualified professionals having strong development
experience. Another interesting factor is that many companies are
looking for a combination of other skills with Java experience,
for instance J2EE, ASP, XML, VBScript, SQL, OLAP Tools, Cold fusion,
data warehousing, RDBMS, and even foreign language expertise. According
to Jeeshu Ganguly, head of NIIT’s CATS division, compared to
2001, there is an increasing demand for higher-end Java certifications,
especially J2EE courses. In addition, the base education levels
for Java professionals has also moved up, with hiring managers insisting
on an engineering degree for all their programmers.
Dhruv Shenoy, vice president of marketing
for Monsterindia.com agrees that the skills in demand are J2EE,
Weblogic, Websphere and iPlanet: “Besides, we also hear about
demand for Java coding experts with experience in testing, Java
with OOAD experience, user interface development, debugging expertise
clubbed with expertise on XML or mainframes. Multilingual professionals
are also much sought after, particularly those with Japanese skills.”
“In terms of training, the requirement
is generally for programming, Web component development and J2EE
architecture. Training requirements are also coming in for J2ME
technologies. All this is opening network computing opportunities
for Java professionals,” says Sharma.
Web services, another lucrative field for
Java professionals, requires deep development of Java skills, experience
in Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB), servlets and business-logic modules.
Though EJB and J2EE experience is not a pre-requisite, but is slowly
becoming an accepted norm. In addition, the individual should also
have knowledge of Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) and Web Services
Description Language (WSDL). Another technology which Java professionals
should look into are XML Schema, or XSD, which is at the core of
SOAP, WSDL and uniform description, discovery and integration. Besides,
technical architects/solution architects are some of the long-term
career goals that Java professionals should work towards.
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