to back up data, and Facebook has an API that lets third-party applications retrieve a user’s photos. However, using just those two APIs, you cannot automatically back up every Facebook photo to Dropbox. Companies such as IFTTT (If This Then That) allows users to create recipes that combine APIs.
✔ Virtual software containers: Traditionally, software programs could be described as an interconnected web of your code and code written by others. To incorporate someone else’s code into your own program, you had to check that both programs were compatible and that any third-party code used by the external program, called a dependency, was also compatible with your code. The process of resolving conflicts was frequently time-consuming and frustrating. One solution is to move away from the current interconnected system of software programming to an independent self-contained system. Docker is one company that hosts an open-source project to help programmers package software and its dependencies into a self-contained program called a virtual container. These virtual containers have standardized inputs and outputs, run on many operating systems, and can connect to each other with little need to check for compatibility. Just like standardized shipping cargo containers make it easier and faster to load and unload ships, so too do virtual containers make it easier and faster to package programs to work easily with other programs.
Tracking the Explosion of Coding Jobs
Creating applications and making computer programs work seamlessly requires many people working many hours because every instruction must be explicit. The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that across all industries, about 140,000 jobs in computing are being created every year that pay approximately $80,000. In some industries, computing jobs are growing by over 20 percent, which is two to four times the average growth rate across all occupations.
The demand is great, but computer programmers are in short supply. Colleges train the most computer programmers and graduate about 40,000 computer scientists per year. Using current estimates, by 2020 there will be 1,000,000 more jobs than qualified students, representing a $500 billion opportunity. See Figure 1-4.
Figure 1-4: By 2020, 1,000,000 coding jobs will go unfilled due to a lack of skilled workers.
Table 1-1 shows some of the coding occupations contributing to this boom. Each job is unique, and generally there is not a great deal of switching between jobs. For example, mobile developers don’t suddenly become data scientists, or vice versa. When people do switch between these positions, there is usually a training period.
Table 1-1 Entry-Level Coding Occupations
Sources: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Indeed.com, Glassdoor.com
Companies Hiring Coding Professionals
There’s no way around it – all industries are experiencing a massive shortage of talent who can code. Employers are looking for talent wherever they can find it. People with traditional and nontraditional backgrounds, and those who want to work in an office or work remotely are all finding companies that need help.
The two general types of coding jobs are full-time positions in companies and contract or freelance work.
Companies of various sizes hire people who have just learned how to code for full-time positions. The size of the company can have pros and cons when it comes to hiring people who have just learned how to code:
✔ Large companies: Companies with more than 1,000 employees, such as Fortune 500 companies and large tech companies including Yahoo!, Google, and Facebook have high standards for hiring employees. Given the number of applications they receive for each open position, recruiters at these companies usually use a strict screening process and grant interviews only to people who have a computer science, math, or engineering-related major. However, for those people who do pass the hiring screen and are eventually hired, there are many resources, both formal programs and people who can help coach and train you to increase your skills.
✔ Medium-sized companies: Of the three types of companies, getting hired at a medium-sized company can be hardest. With their large recruiting departments, candidates have to interview with as many people as in large companies. In addition, medium-sized companies typically do not spend as much money on training as large companies.
✔ Startups: With less than 20 employees, startups often desperately need coding talent and are small enough to make hiring decisions quickly. They don’t have a formal recruiting staff, so you should develop a personal connection with the person doing the hiring. Startups don’t have extensive training programs, and you are expected to contribute immediately. However, the small company size should help you form personal relationships with your engineering coworkers, who can help answer questions and informally train you.
✔ Government: City, state, and federal governments and their agencies have thousands of internship and full-time job openings for coders. Depending on the agency, the application process can be time consuming, and require proof of U.S. citizenship, extensive background checks, and completion of qualifying exams. Applicants can use www.usajobs.gov to search across all federal opportunities, and individual state government websites for opportunities in a specific state or city government.
Yoonie Kim has been a recruiter for technology companies for almost 15 years. She has held recruiting roles at Codecademy, Ning, Meetup, Google, Amazon, and Microsoft. I asked her the following questions:
✔ Can you share a little about your work experiences?
I’ve worked at tech companies of all sizes and stages. I started my career at Microsoft, and worked at large established companies like Amazon and Google, all the way to small and early-stage companies like Ning and Codecademy. I also cofounded my own recruiting company to help smaller startups build out their initial engineering teams. In 2014, I joined Dropbox to help build out the New York and Seattle presence and offices.
✔ How do you attract and screen candidates?
People use and have heard of your product, that helps, but I also reach out to candidates when employees refer them to me, and when I see candidates’
