Not enough tech talent

The global shortage of software developers and IT professionals

It has not been news to anybody involved in the tech world that there isn’t enough talent to go around. As demand for digital solutions continues to grow, universities, extension courses, online courses, and good-old self-training haven’t been enough to match the need for people who can create them.

The coolest jobs are always in the companies creating new technology or with the best-known brands. This situation has left even large companies that are not-so-well-known in a bit of a spot. Many times they can’t hire first-class talent, regardless of how much they are offering. Many young software developers or system administrators will opt for what they consider to be the “coolest” job offer.

This chronic shortage of tech talent went into overdrive in 2020 as the pandemic made it abundantly clear that most people that work with computers can work remotely. In the blink of an eye, remote work became a de facto standard practice for software developers. As a result, we find ourselves with an extreme shortage of personnel for some companies that require that support staff be present at their installations by the very nature of their operations.

A continuously growing number of initiatives attempt to teach youngsters programming skills and retrain displaced workforce members. While these initiatives are certainly laudable, they are also impractical, as actually training a person to be productive as a software developer takes a long time.

What this means that while it is desirable to increase the number of available software developers, we will not be able to do so in quantities that allow us to close the current gap between demand and supply.

We must change the rules of the game and allow people to create digital solutions through other means than traditional software development. That was the conclusion that I reached with my partner a couple of years ago, as we looked into the implications of a world with exponentially evolving technology.

NOCODE tools represent an enabling technology for creating startups in the tech space when doing so without being a software developer is increasingly difficult and expensive.

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Picture by Tumisu on Pixabay.