Joe Contractor - Java's witnesses

Agencies are predicting huge demand for Java skills. Joe Contractorasks if there is really such a sunny future ahead.

For all the attempts of the Java's witnesses to stick their feet in our doors and convert us, there's little or no Java job advertising coming through yet.

What there is tends to be stuck on the end of some already demanding requirements: 'Java/ODBC/SQL (Oracle)', for example, or 'Java/C++/Unix'. Contractors with C++ or database integration skills are likely to be far too busy pushing their rates up to have time to add another skill to their portfolio.

Agencies say that they are beginning to see a demand for Java, and anticipate that it will be big. But it's agonisingly predictable that this will result in another skills shortage, since the developers that clients will be looking for are those who are already in demand. 'Java is a derivative of C++, so the kind of people we are looking for have migrated to Java from a background in C or C++,' one agency told me.

Laurent Lachal, author of the Ovum report Java: Hype, Hope and Opportunity, is confident that developers will make the move of their own volition. 'The size, complexity and continuous revision of C++ will ensure that the next generation of developers will prefer Java. Many former C++ developers have already moved to Java and it has had favourable reviews in the C++ community.'

But the C++ vendor community is at last moving to counter criticisms of C++. The ISO and Ansi committees have more or less stabilised the standard, which should come into effect in 1998 - although vendors like Borland and Hewlett-Packard will be implementing the proposals long before then. Even without this stability, the market's appetite for C++ seems insatiable.

Nevertheless, some agencies, like Delphi Group's Computer People, have set up Java divisions. Computer People, Compass and Humana are supporting Sun's Java Certification Programme, a course for contractors who don't want to give up working time. If you fix up your training through Computer People and subsequently get a Java placement through them, they'll refund the cost of the course. Perhaps other agencies could copy this example for other skills in short supply.

If you don't want to spend #1,100 on training, you could try to teach yourself. But the task may be more than trivial. Sun itself contributed to the impression of Java as a quick and easy way of building front ends and multimedia widgets. Now that Sun and its partners are trying to push Java as a way of building serious multi-tier applications, they have an image problem to overcome.

As Lachal puts it: 'Java remains a 3GL; it is not a magic pill freeing developers from relying on good engineering practices. However, it makes code that is easier to write and maintain than older languages.'

Java on its own may not be enough. Another agency, Arena, has set up a much broader Net division. It says Net developers are not necessarily pigeonholed into the traditional analyst/programmer role, but also need a broad knowledge of technologies like browsers and Web servers, and database integration.

Lacking nine to 12 months commercial Java experience, you'll probably take a cut in rates at first, and are unlikely to get more than an initial three-month contract. Agencies expect most placements to be extended to at least a year, by which time the demand should have built up in earnest.

Joe Contractor is an extremely well-paid IT professional - so well paid, in fact, that he has asked to remain anonymous.