A decade or so ago, open source was still a taboo topic among most big companies. Today though it is becoming a priority. Job opportunities are a clear indicator of this.
According to the 2016 Open Source Jobs Report released recenlty by IT hiring platform Dice.com and The Linux Foundation, 65% of hiring managers say open source hiring will increase more than any other part of their business. This is just for this year at that. And 79% of hiring managers have increased incentives to hold on to their current open source professionals.
The cloud and the network lead the way
The report included a survey which was done in March 2016. It asked about 400 IT hiring managers and more than 4500 open source professionals. It shows that open source is quickly becoming a major part of many company’s platforms and infrastructure. As such, they need skilled professionals.
A total of 59% of managers say they will add at least some open source job positions this year. 74% of them are saying they need skilled open source developers the most. DevOps comes in second. 58% of managers say they need DevOps specialists by the end of the year.
“As more and more open source projects are developed, open source professionals will need to update their skillsets with knowledge and experience. They include DevOps and networking. As businesses undergo digital transformation, they are more reliant than ever on open source code and projects. And they need the talent to integrate it with backend cloud services. And also to transform hardware-centric solutions into ‘software defined’ technology,” says Jim Zemlin, executive director of The Linux Foundation to ComputerWorld.
Which open source platforms are in highest demand? That would be OpenStack and CloudStack. As a whole cloud-centric platforms are the top goal of 51% of hiring managers. Networking comes second with 21% of managers seeking suitable talent. This follows nicely the prediction made a few months ago by one of the top trainers CourseDot has the pleasure of working with. In an interview Johannes Norz said that the network will need much more qualified employees as it is lagging behind. And surprise, surprise, few months later and his prediction is now coming true.
Finding top talent can be tricky
And how can you find these qualified people? With big salaries and perks? Nope. Not at all. The survey shows that only a mere 2% of professionals say the pay is a key factor for them to consider a new job opportunity. Instead, 31% say what matters to them most is working on interesting projects. 18% want to work with the latest cutting-edge technology challenges. Finally, 17% say they love collaborating with the global community and view this as the best part of their jobs.
“It can be challenging, but we find success in emphasizing these factors to potential hires. As we’re hiring for a number of roles across sales, marketing, engineering and research and development, our global reach and flexibility make us special and differentiate us in the market as an employer. We are seeing increases in the number of candidates who want to work with a global team like ours, to contribute to the open source community. We know open source can help solve many business challenges, and we need top talent to do that,” says Marie Louise van Deutekom, global head of HR for SUSE Linux.
So, there you have it. Open source is now the way to go. Happily a few big names didn’t get their way with closed platforms. Open source is here to stay and it will only become bigger. This opens the door for great innovation which is also a great way to attract top talent. And also, don’t forget to invest in your current talent in order to keep it. Finally, provide them with up-to-date trainings which is a great way to keep them on top of their game and motivated to tackle all challenges. Happily today top trainings are only a few clicks away.
Image credit: Flickr (CC) opensource.com