If you are having a tough time finding the developers your organization needs, you may want to try another approach to hiring. The demand for expert programmers is on the rise, as are salaries, but maybe what you really need is "journeyman coders," suggests Neil McAllister at InfoWorld.

McCallister notes that most U.S. companies probably would prefer to hire domestically than offshore a job, but the immediate cost-savings in offshoring is sometimes irresistible. Part of the problem is that American software developers are often over-qualified for the job at hand. "Not every software development job requires a master's degree in computer science," McAllister writes. "Most entry-level positions involve little more than rote programming and code maintenance."

Job candidates for a developer position typically have completed at least four years of college, and entry-level wages don't look like a very appealing return on the investment. Teenagers, on the other hand, who "are steeped in computing and the Internet," might find those wages quite alluring.

"Learning to write software isn't like training to become a pharmacist, a dental assistant, or an HVAC technician, where students need access to expensive, specialized equipment and must pass government certification exams before they can practice their trades," McAllister writes. In fact, it's relatively cheap to get an education in computing these days. "Where once budding programmers studied from books that cost $40 apiece or more, today the equivalent material is available for free online."

The trick to get high school kids on board is to encourage their interest in computing and hold out job opportunities for them down the road. The Academy for Software Engineering, which will open in New York City in the fall, may offer the right incentives. There are no academic pre-requisites for attending the academy, McAllister writes, which "puts the lie to the idea that software development is something for the academic elite and that only the 'best and brightest' need apply."

"The vision of the Academy for Software Engineering is to help create a new breed of IT professional, one that's better acclimated to the realities of today's jobs market. It's up to U.S. companies to have vision enough to hire them," he concludes.

For more:
- see Neil McAllister's article at InfoWorld

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