It probably isn't a surprise that both Apple and Google are heavily recruiting engineers to write software for smartphones. But more media companies are looking to double their departments, too -- all leading to a dearth of engineers who can create a good application.
The problem is that the technology is so new that the average software engineer has little if any mobile experience, the Wall Street Journal reported. To compete, companies have to increase pay, train software engineers and outsource to Croatia or beyond. Gowalla, headquartered in Austin, Texas, was unable to find engineers and farmed out the creation of an Android client to San Francisco's Pivotal Labs.
Out of the big three smartphone platforms, Apple's led the way with a peak of 7,000 jobs postings earlier this year, according to data from Indeed.com. That number now is down to about 6,900. Google hiring for Android developers is peaking now at just over 5,500 online postings. BlackBerry peaked at 5,800 earlier this year, but still has about 5,200 active postings.
With so much of our technology racing towards mobile, why are there so few institutions teaching it? I think both Apple and Google (who have millions just lying around) should create an internship/academy to foster more mobile developers. They need them, they want them and they could always hire the cream of the crop. If they have any left over, the mobile academy graduates would be quickly hired by any other company in Silicon Valley.
