Where are all the jobs gone???

[Sam Tilley]

After reading the huge thread below i ended up a tad depressed about the job market in IT despite the fact that i live in the UK. I too have seen all the jobs on the websites but was just told that IBM is laying off thousands and the market is really tight and have also applied to these websites with not much success (admittedly last year)
So my questions are
Are there too many prograrammers in Java and not enough good ones??
Is the language sufficiently in demand / robust to stay in vogue for a while yet.. The demand for C and C++ still seems to be quite robust after all these years, I am assuming Java will be the same..
I noted that Thomas Paul has almost given up on Java and is now doing C#/.Net, how is the industry in these areas?? Are they undermanned, is there a gap in the market
What (if any) are the hot job areas in java...J2EE, servlets, JDBC etc etc.
What are the hot areas at the moment in the IT world.
After doing the SCJP is SCWCD a sought after qualification in the jobs market or is it best just to go straight onto the developers??
I ask because i jumped on the java bandwagon 18 months ago, got certified and got some work in-house developing futures tradings systems, but it would be interesting to know what is the real undercurrent of the jobs market,...
Cheers

[Mark Fletcher]

Are there too many prograrammers in Java and not enough good ones??

Cant answer that directly but where I am (Scotland) its not a case of a sudden oversupply of Java programmers but rather that so few companies here use it! Most of the people I know working in IT in Scotland are developing mostly in Visual Studio (myself included)
I decided to concentrate on Java because I enjoyed it during my MSc Course and Im looking at breaking into it in the future. But I first want to get a grounding with some solid C++ experience that I can fall back on, hence Im still working with the same company.

After doing the SCJP is SCWCD a sought after qualification in the jobs market or is it best just to go straight onto the developers??

Im currently SCJP. Im planning on getting my SCWCD next. I then plan on creating a portfolio based on these technologies. Its only after this point that I would consider that I have a chance of landing an interview for a Java Job.
If youre still programming in Java, Id stay where you are right now and build up experience. Cant do you any harm.
Despite the current uncertainties in getting work in Java, bear in mind *this* fact. The market will pick up, and when it does thats the best time to go for it. Let the market shake itself out of the kind of person who called themselves a "developer" because they could write some Javascript and HTML.
Best Regards and good luck,
Mark

[Rufus BugleWeed]

I might get flamed if I suggest Pune and Mumbai.
While that's part of the equations it's not the whole equation. Systems written in Java are going to be the new stuff. At the moment it seems, businesses are not investing in new stuff. They are making do with their old stuff.
Sooner or later, those old systems will look like warts with warts on them. Or somebody will want a new aplication because they think they know a new way to cut costs or make a profit.
Business will have run off or scared off too many people and Java Developers will be in short supply.