it career trends 2017

“IT Career Trends and

Importance of

Modernizing Your IT Skills”

Information Technology: It’s all about change

Bob LangieriExcel Technical Services, Inc.

[email protected]

(949) 240 - 0438

It’s all about change

• IT has always been about change. From paper to digital

• PC’s, Networks, sharing data to Electronic payments

• The Internet, email, Cloud – Internet of things

• In music, from vinyl records to cassette and CD to MP3’s, iTunes, digital

downloads played on your smartphone.

• Wired phones to Smartphones – a web connected computer in your pocket!

• From main street shopping to malls and online-shopping, on-line everything!

• Whether you are a Developer, Manager, Systems Administrator or in

marketing. We all have to adapt to change. And it will take some effort.

Excel Technical Services, Inc. – IT Staffing and Contract Services www.excelsearch.com - 2016

Key Lessons – Be Aware – Be Prepared

• The Economy

• Technology Trends

• Modernize Your Skills and add value and career security

• The Reality of Your Professional Worth

• Embrace Change – New skills, new environments


The Economy

What you should aware of:

• Unemployment numbers: the basic number, the real number

• Monthly Number of Jobs Created - Usually exaggerated

• GDP – Gross Domestic Product of all Goods and Services

• Stock Market reflects near term economic – Recession or Expansion

• Federal Reserve raising interest rates

• Business News – Companies expanding, contracting, innovations, failures


The Economy and Jobs

• U.S. unemployment is at a low 4.9% - real unemployment is more like 10%

• California unemployment rate is 5.5% - Orange County 4.6, L.A is 5.5, San Diego is 5.3, Riverside 7.1, San Francisco 3.7, Sacramento 6.0, Kern 10.6, Bureau of Labor Statistics

• We are out of a recession, but with a weak growth rate and 2016 GDP 1.2%, need 4%

• Companies are still cautious to hire while the economy is in a slow recovery. More Contract-to-Hire or Temporary flex-staffing, part-time

• UCLA Anderson Economic Report – June 2016 Forecast: Slowly, Steady Growth Continues

• Recession Possibilities for 2018 – but not as severe as Great Recession of 2008

Economic Indicators have a direct correlation with job opportunities


The Economy – GDP


The economy has improved – or has it? GDP: Normal GDP should be about 4% - This year we are at 1.1% annualized rate.

The Economy – Job Creation


August 2016 – only 151K jobs createdWe need 250K+ / month to just to keep up with population growth

12 month Average = 201K vs 1 year ago 228K jobs

The Economy – Job Creation


Unemployment Trends for California Improve

The Economy – Recessions Happen!


Will you be ready for the next Recession?

Technology Trends

• Technology jobs continue to be a best area for growth – but not as great for RPG which is in severe decline – Java, C, C++, C#, Ruby, Python, PHP, Linux, “Open” tools are the hotter tickets to success

• Best job prospects in IT are: C, Java, Mobile, Cloud Computing, Analytics, Project Management, Security, Big Data, etc.

• Companies that are hiring, are seeking the needle in a haystack – or multiple skills with new technologies. They want A, B, C, D, E, candidates have A, F

• RPG Developers are retiring. There is a need to cross train interns or use other Open technologies to access legacy RPG systems.

• More Part-Time RPG Developers needs – is there a P/T career for you?

• H1B visa workers rise from 172,500 applications 2015; 233,000 for 2016; 236,000 2017. http://redbus2us.com/h1b-visa-2017/


Computerworld 10 hottest tech skills for 2016

1. IT Architecture - The term "IT architect" encompasses a wide range of specialists, from enterprise architects to cloud

architects, so recruiters say it makes sense that IT architecture expertise is in demand as companies move forward with all sorts of

technology-driven projects. 2. Programming/application development – Enterprise systems will always need developers. Demand for

programmers and developers is springing up in new areas, too, thanks to the rise of mobile and the emergence of the Internet of Things. 3. Project management - project management remains a top five skill: More spending means more projects. 4. Big data - People who can interpret and then help bring that data to life visually — building dashboards and things of that nature,

so the executive suite 5. Business intelligence/analytics - hiring managers are looking for recruits with technical expertise, but they also

want BI specialists who understand the business and the industry. Such requirements put a premium on good candidates. 6. Help desk/technical support - Important to have people who can communicate and have good customer service

skills. 7. Database administration - employers want people with extensive backgrounds in database administration and a deep

understanding of data reporting tools and technologies such as Oracle, SQL, DB2 and Hadoop. 8. Security/compliance/governance - Compensation for security pros keeps going up because demand for talented

people is strong, and because security specialists play a critical role in most organizations. 9. Cloud/SaaS - Research firm IDC predicts that more than half of enterprise IT infrastructure and software investments will be

cloud-based by 2018. Specifically, spending on public cloud services will grow to more than $127 billion by 2018, according to an IDC

forecast report. 10. Web development - organizations have come to rely heavily on the Web as a channel for connecting with customers,

clients, partners and employees since they built their first websites a decade or two ago. While they don't need Web developers to

establish a Web presence anymore, they do need people with the ability to ensure that their sites are open and ready for business.

Source: http://www.computerworld.com/article/3012033/it-skills-training/10-hottest-tech-skills-for-2016.html


Programming Language Popularity –

based on Tiobe’s Search Parameters

Programming Language

2016 2011 2006 2001 1996

Java 1 1 1 3 21

C 2 2 2 1 1

C++ 3 3 3 2 2

C# 4 5 6 11 -

Python 5 6 7 25 20

PHP 6 4 4 9 -

JavaScript 7 9 8 7 23

Visual Basic .NET 8 103 - - -

Perl 9 8 5 4 3

Ruby 10 10 22 32 -

Ada 27 16 15 19 7

Lisp 28 12 12 15 6

RPG 36 26 13 10 10 Excel Technical Services, Inc. – IT Staffing and Contract Services www.excelsearch.com - 2016

Source: http://www.tiobe.com/tiobe_index

Update: RPG has actually

moved from 36th place to

currently 41st place

September 2016.

The reality – there are lots

of new tools for it to

compete with yet it will

still be used for the next

15-20 years.

Career Survival: How Marketable are your skills?

• In the 1980's RPG lll was king - spell “R” “P” “G” = $Hire

• In the 1990’s – 2010 – Good RPG III, and ILE skills plus some other key skill = $Hire

• Today there are more Sr. RPG Developers than Job Openings

• Companies and recruiters can, and are being very selective in who they consider

• You must have more than just good RPG ILE skills

• Your resume should show experience with some new technology

• Your resume should show that you are motivated to learn new skills on your own

• Too busy is not an excuse to not keep up with new technology

• Add New Skills – Extend your Career – Increase your Value $ = Earn More $


Github’s Top Coding Languages Show Open Source Has Won


Github.com has become the primary means of housing open source software—code that’s freely available to the world at large; an increasing number of businesses are using the service for private code, as well. A look at how the languages that predominate on Github have changed over time is a look at how the software game is evolving.

Open source is now mainstream. And the mainstream is now open source.

In particular, the graph reveals just how much open source has grown in recent years. It shows that even technologies that grew up in the years before the recent open source boom are thriving in this new world order—that open source has spread well beyond the tools and the companies typically associated with the movement. Providing a quicker, cheaper, and more comprehensive way of building software, open source is now mainstream. And the mainstream is now open source.

Skills for Todays RPG Developer

Primary Skills Secondary Plus

• ILE RPG, Free Form RPG • XML, JSON, Web Services • Python, Ruby

• SQL, Embedded SQL • RPG Open Access • C

• SQL's Data Definition Language (DDL) • RPG Open Access Handlers • JQuery

• JavaScript • HTML5, node.js • NoSQL

• Procedures & Service Programs• .NET (VB.NET, Visual Studio,

ASP .NET), C#, Sequel Server• Wordpress

• RDi – Rational Developer for IBM i • PHP & MySQL • Crystal Reports

• Major ERP Systems – JDE, Infor,

PKMS, WMS, etc. • Security Basics

• Perl (any other “open tools”),

Linux, Go, Apple Swift


Real World Job Opening #1


Software Engineer – RPG Developer

Great opportunity to work for a bleeding edge organization that rewards teamwork and encourages contribution and education.

You will work to maintain and enhance existing applications as well as research and develop new solutions for business problems.

Work with a team to analyze, code and test existing software for Web-enabled CRM Solution. Get a chance to experience the

melding of back-end legacy systems with web and social front-end as well as constantly look at new technology and methodology

to solve business requirements.

• The right candidate should have a minimum of 3 – 5 + years of experience with RPGIV / ILE and CLLE and preferably RPG Free.

• You should have experience with stored procedures, service programs, API calls, binding directories, and web technologies.

• You should be familiar with IBM i - iSeries DB2 databases, IBM i-iSeries IFS, iSeries connectivity to PCs and networks

• Experience with Embedded SQL in RPGLE, prototypes and procedures, service programs, API calls, binding directories

• Object oriented programming background with strong SQL experience preferred

• Experience with .NET, RPG Open Access Handlers, web services, XML, AJAX, JSON and/or web applications is a plus, not a

requirement.

• Able to work on new systems as well as maintain applications including analysis, debugging, coding, testing, and documenting

changes.

• Any exposure to Profound UI a big plus.



Sr. Programmer Analyst – Project Lead to support the development team.

Opportunity to work in an advanced IBM i environment where the CIO is and IT team are pushing the envelope to use

some of the latest programming tools. This company is also big on education and are members of COMMON. This is a

senior position and the right person needs to show that they are a self-starter, motivated to keep up their technical skills

like RPG Free and RPG Open Access along with supporting Web Services and XML. You will be involved in mentoring Jr

and mid-level staff as well.

The right candidate should possess:

• RPG ILE/Free including Service Programs, Procedures

• Develop new interfaces using ExtJS (JavaScript) front-end, and RPG + SQL back-end.

• Responsibilities will include DBA, Web/Front-End developer.

• Create SQL objects to normalize existing database, externalize database logic, and move business logic into the

database layer (views, MQTs, UDTFs, Triggers, Constraints, etc.).

• Prefer experience with JavaScript, XML, Web Services, Ajax, Apache Server

• Project management skills



Hands-on IT Manager

Must Have

• Extensive RPG development experience in RPG III, RPG IV, RPGLE.

• Must have used Service Programs (they have dozens of Service Programs that work with 100’s of programs)

• At least 2-3 years of recent experience working directly with newer features of RPG including procedures, service programs,

embedded SQL, etc.

• At least 2-3 years of recent supervisory or management experience running a small to medium shop (3-7 personnel)

• 5-10 years of solution design experience; design and development and managing entire software development lifecycle.

• At least 2-3 years recent experience working with RDi, RDp, or even WDSC.

• At least some experience modifying commercial ERP packages or building add on programs for ERP packages.

• Very strong desire to be a “hands on” manager, not just a manager but a true technical lead for the RPG developers.

• A “love” for RPG and the IBM midrange platform by any name (AS/400, iSeries, System i, Power System). Passionate even.

Nice to Have

• Experience with Friedman Corporation “Frontier” ERP.

• Experience with Power system upgrades (software and hardware).

• Any of the following: NGS IQ, DBU, Surveyor by Linoma, ProGen by BCD, Help/SYSTEMS tools (ROBOT, CONSOLE, ALERT, UPS).

• Java experience or a desire to learn Java.

• Anything Microsoft .NET

• Anything LAMP (Linux, Apache, My SQL, PHP).

Technology Trends - The Future of RPG


Usage of RPG code.

If you take the average trend line of this you will see that RPG is slowly declining.

Ranking2016: 412015: 392014: >512013: 42

5 years ago: 2610 years ago: 1315 years ago: 1020 years ago: 10

Source: www.Tiobe.com

This chart is not available for 2015 & 2016, but there is a slight upward bump in RPG. RPG went from >50 rank to 39 in 2015, 41 in 2016.

Demand for RPG vs. other Languages


Job Category/Keywords 09/14/2016 09/11/2015 09/04/2014 9/10/2013

Total Dice listings 80882 81741 80,909 81,976

All Developer or

Programmer

21896 35398 24782 30415

Java 16488 *3054 *5353 *5678

Project Manager 585 *7283 *3103 2951

MS .NET 1697 / *7686 *7316 *3081 *3475

SAP 4505 4966 *2913 *3414

Business Analyst 1977 4985 *2444 *2578

Oracle 10440 *6507 *1964 *2870

Web Developer 1037 1911 *1337 *1472

Mobile Developer 779 / *157 4986 1413 / *41 1149 / *36

C# 7278 6664 *1253 *1374

DBA 1928 2280 *917 *1193

Python 6984 5981 *594 *427

Ruby 2709 2834 *504 *445

RPG (ranked 41) 123 168 *60 * 50

All IBM i, iSeries, AS/400 316 215 242 / *31 567 / *117

Is RPG Dead?

• No, but RPG is no longer the “hot-ticket” it was in the 80’s and 90’s. RPG Legacy code will continue in the background for another 20 + years, but new tools/skills will be used to access the data in these systems.

• As the current generation of RPG Developers retire, replacements are coming from the Java and newer language curriculums. It is difficult to find RPG classes in colleges. See learning Resources!

• New IBM i/RPG installations are hard to find as most “new” Power System installs are going to AIX or Linux. IBM is betting Big on Linux. Reality only about 175,000 US installations.

• Many IBM i / RPG shops are still not modernizing and this hesitation can eventually undermine the future of the IBM i and RPG and your job.

• Updating and Modernizing your RPG to RPG Free/RPG Open Access will enable your legacy code to work with the new generation of tools.

• There are nightmare stories of IBM i shops moving to Oracle or MS based ERP yet there is very little vocalization to promote RPG


Salary Trends – IBM i vs. Non-IBM i


Salary ranges for Southern California IBMi market from www.excelsearch.com Based on active candidate salaries and recent job searches. * Non-IBM Environment taken from Robert Half * Salary Survey 2016 http://www.roberthalf.com

IBM i Developer Survival Guide

Keep up to date on the IBM i features and trends � Start with updating the OS with version 7.x or 8.x

� Writing RPG IV Free Form using all of its intended features, not RPG III style

� Learn and embrace SQL, writing business logic as subprocedures.

� Write code that allows multiple user interfaces: Mobile, rich web UI’s, Excel and PDF documents

� Learn how to build your own RPG-OA handlers to extend your existing applications and build modern IBM i applications from scratch.

� Learn HTML5 and Web Services

� Learn and use JavaScript, XML, JSON, jQuery, AngularJS

� Learn and use PHP, Python, Ruby on Rails, .NET, SQL Server, NoSQL, MySQL

� Learn and use Crystal Reports, MS-Visio report writers

� Speak the language of global IT developers, not RPG III/ILE developers

� Attend COMMON, Local User Group meetings, iPro Developer & other blogs, YouTube

� Listen to user needs and translate problems to solutions with IBM i and Sell Management & C-level execs on what your IT tools can do!


Hiring & Retaining IT Talent

• Give your IT staff something to learn. Don’t try to find the person who has everything, find someone who shows a desire to learn and they will repay you with loyalty and extra efforts. The person who does have everything you want can easily decide to leave for another opportunity that offers more challenge or money.

• Your staff should be made up of people who are self-motivated to learn and master new skills and share their knowledge. If someone isn’t motivated to learn or resist change, try to redirect them first and then maybe replace them.

• Get some of your staff involved in interviewing candidates and encourage them to be open minded and not set such a high standard that they rule out everyone.

• Hire an intern who can teach your staff new tools and have the experienced staff teach the intern more about RPG skills and the IBM i. Cross-train your staff.

• IT Managers need to fight for budget for new projects, new tools and staff augmentation or additional hires. They must also insure that they can offer competitive or better than competitive salaries or perks. Not all perks cost money. There are shops that offer 9-80 work schedules, bring training classes in-house one day a week (maybe a 2 hour class), webinar classes, sending staff to off-site training or seminars, etc.. Weekly or monthly IT staff meeting for sharing ideas, reinforcing goals, planning directions, listening to problems and solutions. The important thing is for you to get feedback from staff and deciding what needs your attention.

• Give credit openly to your staff who helped you achieve department goals, cost savings, higher user satisfaction

• Find ways to reward staff for exceptional achievements. It could be a letter, an Amazon gift card, a lunch or a bonus.


Advice for IT Management to build winning teams

“IT” - is all about change

• Evolving Technology will force you to adapt or get out of the way.

• To sustain your IT Career, you must add a new skill every 1 – 2 years.

• While you can’t be an expert in all things, you must learn enough about other evolving technologies that are relevant to you expertise.

• Develop your people skills – be a good listener. Be a hero to your users!

• Advocate Modernization at your company – be a champion of change!

• It is possible to stay at a job too long and doing the same old routine.

• Take a class, attend user group meetings, “Meet-up Groups” http://www.meetup.com


Learning Resources:

• The Code School: On-line courses for HTML/CSS; JavaScript; Ruby; Python; iOS; Git; Database (SQL-No-SQL) https://www.codeschool.com/

• Udemy: Inexpensive on-line classes from IT to Italian – Classes include: AWS Certified Solutions Architect; Linux; AngularJS; JavaScript and

JQuery Basics for Beginners $12; Python; SalesForce; MySQL, etc. https://www.udemy.com/courses/

• You Tube Video training - Many are available: example Charles Guarino - Introduction to free form RPG using RDi

• IBM – Developerworks: https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/learn/ibmi/index.html

• Code Project: Offers quick answers to code issues, explanations, sample code, tips, links to further explain details. They also post discussions

and offer newsletters and archives on subjects. http://www.codeproject.com

• Guru99: Here you learn by practice. Have others review your code for suggestions, corrections, etc. Inside, you will find tons of video

tutorials. All provided FREE!!! http://guru99.com/

• Alison: Free on-line courses include C language and PHP/MySQL not just IT. https://alison.com/

• RPG & DB2 Summit – Jon Paris, Susan Gantner, Paul Tuohy – Training events: http://systemideveloper.com/Summit/conferences.html

October 4-6, 2016 in Chicago area.

• COMMON a Users Group: Common offers free webinars/archives for members. Another reason to join OCEAN because OCEAN Membership

also gives you free COMMON membership. http://www.common.org/events/


Interesting Resources:

• The Most Popular Programming Languages of 2016 - New Relic – www.blog.newrelic.com

• GitHub.com - use GitHub to build personal projects, support their businesses, and work together on open source technologies.

• OpenStack.org - OpenStack software controls large pools of compute, storage, and networking resources throughout a datacenter, managed through a dashboard or via the OpenStack API. OpenStack works with popular enterprise and open source technologies making it ideal for heterogeneous infrastructure.

Have some favorite resources you would like to share? Let me know and I will add them.

Send to Bob Langieri: [email protected]


Build Your Skills and You Build Your Career

Questions?

Have a question about Career Trends?

Join the conversation on the LinkedIn

Group:

“IBM i Career Trends”

https://www.linkedin.com/groups/3779728

For further questions, contact:

Bob Langieri

Excel Technical Services Inc.

[email protected] or

949+240-0438 Excel Technical Services, Inc. – IT Staffing and Contract Services www.excelsearch.com - 2016

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