As Jobs Come Back, Talent is Sparse

The good news is that the economy appears to be slowly rebounding, and as a result companies have begun hiring again. The bad news, from a corporate standpoint, is that the overall available technical talent is not what one might think given the severity of the recession. This article discusses the challenges companies are facing in their recruitment process. It does a good job of putting it into perspective. A lot of the challenges that are discussed throughout the piece have been experienced by us.

Ultimately, we did not witness a lot of open source software based engineers being laid off during the downturn. Companies realized how difficult it was to recruit them prior to the recession, so they held on to them. As a result, the thought that a search that is conducted today will result in a greater number of qualified applicants is a farce in most instances. With that being said, there are still a number of good engineers that are willing to make a move, but they have continuously been employed. There is not a glut of open source software engineers walking the streets looking for a job.

Even though challenges persist, we are happy to see that hiring continues to increase at a number of companies. The climate is a good one for a talented open source software engineer.

Article by Ubuntu Community Manager

Here is a career based article written by the Community Manager at Ubuntu, Jono Bacon. It is a good read. It covers a lot of the topics that we have written about in past articles. It runs the gamut from getting initially involved in open source software all the way to the interview stage. Enjoy! If anyone has any specific questions about their careers, you are welcome to email me at brent@hotlinuxjobs.com.