Software developers are in heavy demand in South Africa

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Jamie McKane

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Software developers are in heavy demand in South Africa

Current economic conditions in South Africa may not be too favourable for new job seekers, with unemployment still high and companies running on tight budgets.

However, the flood of skilled workers leaving the country presents a unique opportunity for young professionals with marketable skill-sets.
 
The CareerJunction Index for June 2019 shows that software developers are the most in-demand professionals on the South African careers platform.

Uptake of 28% in software development jobs was evident over the last month, the company found.
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It's an illusion built on sand sadly.

What you have is dozens of IT employment agencies flooding the market with thousands of fake job postings every month. When you contact them for these fake jobs they then ask you for everything just short of a blood sample, then add you to their big pot of other fish *cough* candidates who took the bite and then and only THEN do they see if they can find you something that matches the advert.

The advert itself is just the bait and like I said they have been fishing like this for years without being noticed. Many of them have 1 or 2 dedicated staff members who doctor up fake job postings and keep spamming them out all day in order to bump them up on JobMail, Gumtree, Careers24, PNET.

What you then have as a result is an ill-informed article like this making you think there is a major skills shortage in the I.T market and you may find yourself as a hopeful prospective candidate with stars in your eyes thinking the world is your oyster with all these vacancies when the horrible truth of it all is that you are nothing more than collateral damage in an on-going and bitter rivalry between the IT employment agencies in SA.
 
Got my Software Development Degree in my back pocket. 2 years exp in the front. Marching straight out of here.
 
Solarion said:
It's an illusion built on sand sadly.

What you have is dozens of IT employment agencies flooding the market with thousands of fake job postings every month. When you contact them for these fake jobs they then ask you for everything just short of a blood sample, then add you to their big pot of other fish *cough* candidates who took the bite and then and only THEN do they see if they can find you something that matches the advert.

The advert itself is just the bait and like I said they have been fishing like this for years without being noticed. Many of them have 1 or 2 dedicated staff members who doctor up fake job postings and keep spamming them out all day in order to bump them up on JobMail, Gumtree, Careers24, PNET.

What you then have as a result is an ill-informed article like this making you think there is a major skills shortage in the I.T market and you may find yourself as a hopeful prospective candidate with stars in your eyes thinking the world is your oyster with all these vacancies when the horrible truth of it all is that you are nothing more than collateral damage in an on-going and bitter rivalry between the IT employment agencies in SA.
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This!

"So tell me what kind of languages you want to work on?"
"Do you want to work on greenfields stuff or prefer existing projects?"
"What team size is ideal for you?"
"If you have to learn a new language, is that an issue?"
"How far would you be willing to commute?"

Thanks for answering my 1024 questions. If you could just complete this skills matrix and send it back to me, I'll see what I can do.

Then the skills matrix will have stuff like:
Microsoft Classic ASP
Visual Basic 6
Visual Source Safe
TurboPascal
Microsoft Word 97
Windows 98 SE
Microsoft ASP.Net
Microsoft ASP.Net MVC
ASP.Net MVC

Then you get a call:

"Thanks SOOOOO much for answering my questions and filling out the skills matrix. Unfortunately we don't have any positions that you would be suited for right now, but I'll give you a call as soon as something comes up."

Two years later - Hi are you still looking?
 
Ancalagon said:
This!

"So tell me what kind of languages you want to work on?"
"Do you want to work on greenfields stuff or prefer existing projects?"
"What team size is ideal for you?"
"If you have to learn a new language, is that an issue?"
"How far would you be willing to commute?"

Thanks for answering my 1024 questions. If you could just complete this skills matrix and send it back to me, I'll see what I can do.

Then the skills matrix will have stuff like:
Microsoft Classic ASP
Visual Basic 6
Visual Source Safe
TurboPascal
Microsoft Word 97
Windows 98 SE
Microsoft ASP.Net
Microsoft ASP.Net MVC
ASP.Net MVC

Then you get a call:

"Thanks SOOOOO much for answering my questions and filling out the skills matrix. Unfortunately we don't have any positions that you would be suited for right now, but I'll give you a call as soon as something comes up."

Two years later - Hi are you still looking?
Click to expand...


Yes exactly this. I was told to call in occasionally to "keep my profile in mind" for any possible applications. Then a solid year later.

"Hi *****, are you still looking for an opportunity?"



Recruitment agencies are the worst. The only good one I have ever worked with was Offerzen. Within a few days had 5 interviews lined up, within two weeks had an offer I was happy with. Haven't looked back, and never replied to that particular recruiter.
 
TheSlinger said:
Yes exactly this. I was told to call in occasionally to "keep my profile in mind" for any possible applications. Then a solid year later.

"Hi *****, are you still looking for an opportunity?"



Recruitment agencies are the worst. The only good one I have ever worked with was Offerzen. Within a few days had 5 interviews lined up, within two weeks had an offer I was happy with. Haven't looked back, and never replied to that particular recruiter.
Click to expand...

eMerge is good. Used them a few times. Some of the recruiters there know their stuff.

Then you have muppets like the one lady. I have her name but won't disclose. I was looking for contract work, with a rate of R300 per hour. I had like 5 years of experience at the time, with something like 2 years of ASP.Net experience. She was like, nah, client won't pay R300 per hour for someone with 2 years of experience. Tried explaining the difference to her - made no sense.

I got two offers from different companies each for R300 per hour. I think I even told her via email that I'd got a job at my rate, she was like congratulations. Went completely over her head that she had missed out on comm.
 
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