Door64 Announces Results of First Austin Hiring Priority Survey; Software Needs Most Urgent At 56%; Java Skills Most In Demand
Austins only organization representing the voice of 20,000 technology professionals, Door64, today announced results of the areas first ever Hiring Priority Survey. For Q1 2012, of 15 specific technology skills needed, software represented more than half, surpassing all others - hardware, semiconductor and Information Technology (IT) skills - combined. Within software, the top four specific skills in demand, in order, were Java, User Interface / User Experience (UI/UX), Software Quality Assurance, and .NET. These four skills together accounted for 40% of all hiring priorities among responding technology companies.
Door64 celebrates its five year anniversary this year, amassing a network of over 20,000 Austin area technology professionals. The organization regularly puts on high quality networking and job seeking events, and serves as a fantastic barometer for both candidates and companies in technology employment. As such, the organization chose to take a leadership role in gathering tangible, specific, actionable data regarding hiring priorities for companies in Central Texas.
We all know, it is often one or two key holes in a company that can impede growth, said Door64 founder, Matt Genovese. We are stepping up and surveying the hiring managers of a set of sizable Austin area technology companies every quarter starting now with todays survey results, to get deliberately granular about what these hiring shortages are.
The Door64 Hiring Priority Survey results for Q1 2012 drew over 100 separate responses. When distilled down just to represent technology companies in full business operations, versus groundbreaking new start ups still in business formation phases, or recruiting firms or independent consultants who may be representing the interests of several companies, over 50 respondent results were aggregated. Those 54 managers were polled on their top 3 hiring priorities from 15 different specific technology skills. 56% of the needs were in the software category, with IT needs coming in a distant second at 20%. IT included skills like systems administration, network engineering, project management, security. Third was the hardware or semiconductor category, at 14%, meaning chip design, verification, embedded software. Fourth and final was an other category.
In the 56% software results, nine different specific software skills were offered as options. Fascinatingly, of 54 companies responding, only one or two indicated current need for SharePoint, or Ruby on Rails, despite so much buzz about Ruby. This could be because Ruby is often used in the earliest stage build of technology companies, and start ups were not included in the survey.
