Technology Sectors that are Hot or Heating Up Now?

unemployedCoder-in-retraining asks: "As a recently "leisured" programmer, I'm very interested in trying to turn misfortune into opportunity. This means using this career discontinuity to bone up on the latest-n-greatest in the hot sectors of the industry, to offer a better chance of a finding another great job. Of course, then one asks: 'What's Hot?' The Telco/Switching sector seems to have flatlined (Nortel and Lucent as examples). Cable and DSL access device and service development seems to be struggling. Wireless 3G networks seem to be having a hard time in North America. And yet, we here that a recovery is underway and that the technology sector as a whole is picking up again. So I ask you: 'Where?' In what sectors? What are the most important new technologies to learn to enhance employability? Somewhere, somebody is hiring or will be soon. What do I and other victims of the slowdown have to know to 'get back in the saddle' in the near future?"

Don't chase trends

By the time you figure out what's hot and train for it, it won't be hot any more. Just do what you like to do, do it well, and put yourself in a position where somebody will recognize you for it. Chasing trends will only exhaust you.

Re:LOL

Studying what you like doesn't work unless what you like is a current "hot trend".

Buzzzt! Guess again. Try counting up all the actual programming jobs using the "hot trends"; this number will be *far* lower than the "other" programming jobs out there (no... don't just look at Monster... I mean all potential programming jobs). There are many shops underserved with regards to the meat n' potatoes apps that a lot of "good" programmers snub their noses at, so these shops end up with money-grubbing consultants who swoop in and leave crap behind. Commit yourself to *high* quality and helping (yes, really HELPING) businesses thrive. Fix their existing systems and build quality new systems, and you'll go far. Sticking to the bleeding edge stuff (i.e., .NET) will drive you crazy and lead you off many "lemmings cliffs."

Wrong Forum

Sounds more like a thermodynamics problem

pornography

Porn has always made money, and always will. So if your morals are OK with it, go be a gearhead for a porn site or publisher.

I don't remember who said it, but I once read a quote that was along the lines of "The whole of computer science is nothing more than methods for increasing the efficiency of generating, storing, transmitting, viewing, and enjoying pornography." Heh.

Or, to update the recurrent slashjoke:

• Step 1: Satisfy people's base urges in an easy and discreet manner.
• Step 2: Open merchant account.
• Step 3: Mega-Profit

Re:pornography

The adult website market is too crowded, hard to get in an make money, and you have to deal with people stealing your photots. Other websites and users, and the gov't is more interrested in protecting music and movies than your smut, so you are on your own. Plus after 8 years of no worring about indecency, Dubya is back at tossing people in jail for fisting and such... plus the script kiddies and xxx password sites steal your bandwidth... its a tough business... and then your wife leaves you because you dicked on of your models...

No my friends, the money is in the back end, servers and such, image viewers... supply the porn indusrtry with what it needs and the money will come rolling in... only down side is you won't actually get to see/touch the naked people.

Re:pornography

Come on, give credit where credit's due.

The Step 1,2,3 joke is from a Southpark episode. Specifically, "The Underpants Gnomes".

The original joke was that the gnnomes buisness method was:

Step 1: Steal Underpants
Step 2: ??? (None of the gnomes could remember)
Step 3: Profit!!

AI

Where I'm working (large financial institution) they're starting to look into AI as a means of predicting market movement and trends. One could see this as becoming key in other areas as well. Any field that tries to predict chaos or long-term trends could potentially be looking into this.

Of course, there's the danger you'll invent a supercomputer that takes of the world and sends killer robots back in time to kill the leader of the resistance. This naturally would lead to his psychotic mother trying to kill you and you ultimately sacrificing yourself to save the future. Something to think about.

Adult Industry

Good times or bad times, the adult industry is unaffected. And they are always the first ones to adopt new tech...

Re:Adult Industry

And they are always the first ones to adopt new tech...

...especially if it vibrates.

Reason for overly sunny info

I've been reading the book Next (my father reccomended it. He's a businessman so it's at that level. It did have some interesting stuff though, like explaining the conflicts of interest that most financial advisers are involved in and how you can get more accurate estimates of profits just by reducing their estimates by 10%.

So that can help to explain why what you're hearing isn't matching up with reality.

long answer...short answer...

Short one: If we knew, we'd be doing it.
Longer one:
I can't tell you what...but you can start using your imagination trying to find something that people would use frequently.

And now for some brainstorming:

Whatever you do, a good marketing dpt. will make it look better. This is sad.

Not "one" thing there is. Ok, yoda speak, but what i want to get to is that people need to fill gaps in the business...some people do this...some people do that... coding is fun , ok, but if everone only coded, it'd be dull.

Look which /. subjects seem to get most attention. I consider these subjects "hot". Do this with various other publications, and since we all have seen how satire foresees reality, start with the onion ;)

storm's out.

Biotech is the future.

Just look at the stock market. Biotech is the future, my friend. In the new annual ranking of the Nasdaq 100 index--made up of the 100 largest nonfinancial companies ranked by market capitalization--seven of the 13 companies added were in biotech. The new entrants include such familiar names as ImClone Systems (IMCL ), Cephalon (CEPH ), Sepracor (SEPR ), and Invitrogen (IVGN ); they replace 13 faltering tech, telecom, and Internet outfits, including onetime stars CMGI (CMGI ), 3Com (COMS ), and Palm (PALM ). All told, biotech companies now represent 12.7% of the market capitalization of all the companies in the index, nearly triple the share they held only two years ago.

Sounds an awful lot like the Internet bubble all over again, I know. And in one sense, it is: The high market capitalization of many of these stocks suggests that investors are paying a lot in anticipation of future earnings that may never materialize. It costs tens of millions of dollars and can take five to 15 years to get a drug from the test tube to the clinic--and many drugs simply don't make it.

In several ways, however, this boom is different. The industry is more mature than it was a decade ago, when it last rose and fell. New alliances, new products, and new financing should combine to produce lasting growth in this once-turbulent field. There are some 300 biotech products in Phase III testing, the final stage of human experimentation before seeking Food & Drug Administration approval. The FDA issued 32 approvals for biotech drugs in 2000, a 45% increase over 1999. Sales of biotech products rose from $16.1 billion in 1999 to $18.1 billion in 2000, an increase of 12%. And there were 22 profitable biotechs in 1999, up from 17 in 1997. In addition, there is a distinct lack of bearded linux hippies in biotech, making it a much more attractive market segment to the general public.

Furthermore, unlike many Internet companies, the biotech companies are targeting clear and existing markets. Many Internet companies devised products without knowing whether there were markets for them. Others, such as Yahoo!, aimed for ad revenues that proved far smaller than hoped. Biotech companies don't have that problem: A drug for arthritis or cancer, say, has a huge market. If their drugs work, the biotechs will make money.

Excitement in biotech will likely get another boost when the climate for initial public offerings improves. There are 50-100 biotech companies waiting to go public, says Oronsky. That's where casual investors should be especially careful. Some of today's most promising biotechs will undoubtedly fall short of the hype. Unfortunately, that's one way this boom won't differ much from the last.

Re:Bio-informatics

Biotech is increasingly an IT-intensive industry. Some of the biggest iron in the world exists to crunch biotech problems, mostly related to protein folding and drug interactions. They also generate huge amounts of experimental data that has to be managed and mined. Finally there is a lot of automated lab equipment for parallelising those bits of it that still involve real chemicals and real biology.

The field here is wide open. Lots of university biology departments are spinning off companies to make innovative new sensors, so you can get involved there. Or you can go and manage a Beowulf cluster for a big drug firm. Or anything in between.

Paul.

web services

web services.

i know it sounds like a trendy buzz-word but i think it's here to stay and some seriously cool stuff will start to happen soon (look at Google).
at any rate, if you can walk into a potential employer and say 'I can convert your current software into a remote API for access by your clients in a multitude of languages' I think you have a pretty good shot at a job. at least, this is what I would be trying to learn if I had time.

Oh, and being able to throw around 'SOAP' and '.NET' a lot doesn't hurt too much either ;)

Re:web services

i know it sounds like a trendy buzz-word but i think it's here to stay and some seriously cool stuff will start to happen soon (look at Google).

The web is dead [xwt.org].

I didn't create this tech but I am using it to replace shitty HTML+Jscript+prayers+sacrifices web-based interfaces. There are some other guys like XWT too but XWT is simple, straightfoward and fast. It essentially projects UIs -- do you forms locally (on the client machines) but all your business logic sits on a server where it belongs. Talkes XML-RPC and SOAP. Very cool. Way way way better than what I would call traditional "web services."

Novely Websites, The Trend of the FUTURE....

IsMyJobHotorNot.com

One word

Security, this is the big one now

Biotech?

This may be the next big thing, but right now most of what the usual geek could get into seems mostly hype. What I am talking about is the field of Bioinformatics. From what I understand, Bioinformatics is basically "data mining of biotech databases" - more or less. I know there are a few books available on the subject (including one by Oreilly). The main problems with "breaking into the scene" is most positions, when offered, require you to have some kind of science degree (biology related, generally) - even though it is just data-mining. I tend to wonder if it is because you really have to know the terminology behind the data you are looking through (maybe), or if it is just such a young field that the employers thinks they need such people right now.

It is something I would like to get into: I live in Phoenix, and the city is trying to get something going here called the "International Genomics Commission" (IGC - the "C" part I am hazy on) - basically a huge research lab for biotech, etc - so far, it is seemingly being sucessful. Anyhow, I haven't got a chance in hell of possibly getting onboard "early", so to speak, because not only do I not have a degree in any bio science area, but I don't have a degree at all (ok, I take that back, I do have an Associates, but from a tech school - read: Near Worthless). All I do have is 10+ years of professional experience in software development and database applications - but I am not sure that will count for much, at least at this point in time.

Another area to consider: Alternative Energy Research - I am not talking solar, etc - but more on funky engine and prime mover designs, etc - I am seeing more of this stuff crop up all over the place.

Defense is way up

Try Northrop Grumman / Lockeed Martin / Boeing, etc

as for the pure, pure computer area -- i think people are returning to the "core business". (chip wise)

LCD is another area;

wireless is picking up a little steam (look at how many DSL routers there are!), as well as other marginal stuff -- HDTV, PDA, etc...

cellphone and pda integration is considered to be inevitable by some -- so cellphones are not "flatlining", they are just not exploding as they were before.

at the same time digital imaging (cameras / miniDV camcorders) are sparking a huge thing within flash market -- look how the size have doubled time and again: imagine how much $$ of R&D / engineering went into that

home entertainment (xbox / ps2 / cube) is also kinda hot -- sony expect to sell a LOT of ps2s by christmas -- and ppl are gearing up for that too.

there are a couple more -- can't think of them off the top my head though

Small Business

I would argue small business, based on what I have seeing. Big business has jumpe on the e-commerce bandwagon, but for the most part small busniesses have not yet really touched its potential.

I am not in the consulting industry, but I believe there is quite a lot of business to be had by aproaching the right small companies with the right plans. If I were "leisured" at the moment, which I am not, in addition to looking for a real job, I would aproach some small businesses in my area with "solutions" to get started in e-commerce, or e-customer service. My mechanic, who can barely use a mouse has just setup a site, and plans to offer information about his high quality used car inventory. If you had a simple turnkey site for a market like that, there is a decent living to be had. Now kep in mind, you probably cannot charge the $95 an hour you used to get. However, there are many low end turn key systems to be sold. 40 dealers/mechanics at $1000 a site would be the equivilent of an entry to mid level programmer in my market. How many small mechanics, or used car dealers are there in your area? Used cars are just an example, I am sure you can come up with more on your own. It helps if you have an "in" with at least one business of the type you intend to go after to get your foot in the door.

Anyway, if I had a few weeks ahead of me where my employment was uncertain, I'd identify a market like that, and go after it. This is also a market where open source can be used to your advantage if you approach the situation correctly.

Hope I have gotten some thoughts going,

-Pete

Web services.

I see lots of growth in Web services and entertainment. There are lots of companies transitioning to membership based models now, and that generates a lot of work to build those subscription systems and management tools.

I just hired four new developers at my company, so I will give you some pointers for actually getting in the door once you have found a company to interview for:

#1 - Accept the fact you'll most likely make less money than your last position. Times have changed in most markets. I hired for four positions and had 150 resumes (not counting the throw them in the trash right away kind). Lots of people I interviewed were looking for salaries that were gone with the 1999 dot com frenzy. Don't mentioned your MBA or Masters in CompSci fifty times, either.

#2 - Don't accept less money than you're worth. With #1 being said, don't short sell yourself either. Companies are getting away with murder when they hire right now because the market is so bad for those out of work. You want to come across as someone who is WORTH every penny you ask for. How to do this? Focus on things at your previous jobs that increased efficiency or saved your company money. As an example, someone I hired told me about how they cut their company's bandwidth costs by 30% by installing a proxy that used mod_gzip on everything going out. Companies will pay for people who will not only save them money, but FIND them ways to save even more money.

#3 - Be assertive, but not forceful. People who call me every two days to follow-up annoy the heck out of me. It sends a signal that you're desparate and don't have other options. Definately send an E-mail thanking the person for an interview with a couple BRIEF thoughts. If you call back more than once and don't hear back, don't waste your time chasing the job.

#4 - Focus on MY needs, not yours. I don't want to hear about how you are really heavily involved in open source, or have this web site you help maintain on the side that gets uber traffic. Things like that spell distraction to me. Review the Web site or product catalog of the company you are going to interview for. Do a Google search and read recent press on the company. Try to get an idea of what challenges the company is facing and apply your past project experience directly to that.

#5 - Dress and act appropriately. Don't show up in a suit unless it's an executive position and you're in an area of the country that requires it. Being overdressed makes you look out of place, and tells me you haven't been in circulation or interviewed much. Comb your hair, take out those nose rings (unless you're a graphics person, haha), and ask questions. If you don't understand something you're asked, say so. Nothing is worse than watching someone try to fake their way through an answer.

#6 - Base the business on the numbers and the market, not the Herman Miller chairs. Our office isn't super deluxe. It's pretty spartan, just a couple floors of cubes and Costco desks, tables, etc. But we're profitable for over a year, have over three million users, have positive growth, and have been in business on the net for over six years. You won't find a good job that will last if a company spends more on their office than their payroll.

#7 - Avoid the startup...This one is more of my personal experience, but most people I know are sick of hearing about startups. Hearing someone works at a startup in most cases sends up warning signs. You're better off working for a smaller, established company that is challenged by it's growth and needs quality people. You'll learn a lot more when you don't have to worry if your paycheck will be coming next month.

Just some thoughts from the front lines of a smallish Internet company in Seattle...Hope this helps!

Case

This one's heating up real hot...

Bioinformatics.

Just north of Washington DC area there are almost 200 companies that are working in the bioinformatics area s. Subject knowledge is good of course but even better is knowledge of Perl. O'Reilly even has 2 books Beginning Perl for Bioinformatics [oreilly.com] and Developing Bioinformatics Computer Skills [oreilly.com]

Then there are companies that are doing lots of work regarding facial recognition.

Hope this helps.

Wireless Broadband Internet

People are starving for inexpensive, easy to setup, wireless. Some day we'll be able to just slap a $20 antenna on any suburban rooftop and log onto a network. Until then, there are a lot of people looking for "solutions". Move fast if this excites you. Entrepreneurs [geekspeed.net] are already moving on it.

If this doesn't turn you on, exploit fears of terrorism. That could include surveillance, security, privacy issues, encryption... anything spook-related.

Of course, you'll be lucky to get something you actually like in this economy.

Work on up-and-coming Big Free Software Projects

...like GNU Enterprise [gnue.org].

As people continue to see the light and increasingly prefer Free Software, and want to keep their data in a more open system, projects like this should skyrocket in use, and people that know them well should be more valuable.

Take the advice of Dogbert:

Ratbert: "I'm going to interview successful people and write a book of their tips. I'll start with you, Dobert."

Dogbert: "Set your alarm clock to go off every hour. Keep a big vat of 'Jell-O' by the bed. When the alarm clock goes of, stick your head in the 'Jell-O' and yell, 'Boy, I'm tired!'"

Ratbert: "Thanks!"

Dogbert (thinking): "Beware the advice of successful people; they do not seek company."

Seven Years of Highly Defective People, p. 137.

Do Some Open Source & Brag

Find a subject or area that interests you, and follow up on it by finding an open source project (see Sourceforge.net [sourceforge.net] for good ideas).

Basically, find a module on CPAN that is neglected, or look for some idea that hasn't been done elsewhere, work on it and post it to the web, and get your claim to fame!

Another great idea is to help out with the CJAN (sourceforge has the project) and bone up on your Java skills, converting ideas from CPAN into Java and posting them on some kind of CJAN site. You'll

• get Java experience,
• help the community,
• prove you can program well,
• prove to a future employer that you know something, and
• prove you're motivated to do good work you're not afraid for other programmers to use/read.

Some other ideas:

• Don't be afraid to brag on the resume,
• practice answering the top 50 interview questions believably, with good and truthful answers,
• post your resume on lots of job boards,
• create a kickin' homepage,
• find old documents like howto's that you've written that are generally usefull to everyone and post them on your page,
• don't forget to wax your car! It's summer!

-- Kevin

The Problem with "Hot" Jobs

is that they tend to cool off, and the hotter they are the faster (and farther) they cool. I would really recommend a more "tempid" area for work, as those jobs will be around for a while. Network administration may not be sexy, but I have yet to see a network that can manage itself.

I personally work in embedded systems development. While the pay may not be at the top of the curve, you will not find a more challenging area nor will you find a brighter group of developers. The best thing is that your skills are kept sharp for when the industry heats up again (i.e., You can do what on a 486 with 128K of memory?).

Copy protection

Copy protection seems to be a growth industry at the moment.

john

Computer Games

The computer game industry is worht more than the film industry worldwide, it is predicted that it will grow year on year for the next five and there is a specific lack of people who have experience or specific training (cause none really exists).

Downsides are that it is very competitive, only 10% of games released make money. It is very difficult to make headway in the industry unless you work for a publisher or a well established software house.

Ideas (good ones!)

1. Local and state law enforcement agencies out there need a really good, common, mobile and intercommunicating records management system. There's nothing on the market today that's close to being decent.
   
2. Someone needs to solve the problem of "a different data collection/review/production system in every shop". This area needs standards (based on best practices) like a newly birthed baby needs oxygen. Yes, this solution will put many crap consultants out of business, but at least you'll get their money and can laugh all the way to the bank. Also helps the overall economy like a mofo.
   
3. Somebody needs to write a really good P2P mechanism for collaboration on document/code review.
   

My personal hope is that all the above will be developed as open source projects, but certainly, a good programming group with drive could make some very good money off these ideas as well.

Best job security

My grandfather once told me:

"Be an undertaker, kid. No matter how bad things get, you will always have customers."

A better question...

Where can I get an IT job in the U.S.? Anyone? I have applied for EVERYTHING here in the Midwest (meaning ALL IT jobs I've come across and anything else in the newspaper, even bank tellers, secretary positions, retail stores (damn college degree), and I can't get anything).

I'm quite aware the Midwest is years behind the rest of the planet in everything except antique automotive storage techniques, but I am willing to relocate. Where should I go?

Wrong question

I see that others share my sentiment about this. The question is the wrong question. Learn and master the fundmentals. If you are into hardware, learn your electrical engineering. Master it. If it is software, learn the fundamentals of programming, systems design, algorithms, threading, etc. Learn a few fundamental languages (for the *nix world I'd say C, C++, Java, perl, shells, and then maybe some others that extend your world-view, such as lisp, scheme, and smalltalk). Learn how to express solutions for common problems in each of these languages.

I see so many programmers coming up these days whom I describe as "tool-junkies." They are programmers who know how to solve problems with one library collection, one integrated compiler suite, and nothing else (and, yes, I am referring mainly to Visual Studio, but there is a Java "tool-junkie" culture too -- Java programmers who can't work outside of their only IDE).

If you find yourself using a library without the slightest inkling of what must be happening in that library it should send warning flags up in your head. You should be able to write anything any other programmer could write. If you can't imagine how to even begin, you may be a tool-junkie. (Note that I am not saying you would have to write it as well as any other programmer -- obviously skills vary -- but you should have some idea how to tackle the problem, because you should have seen and solved something like it before. Genuinely new techniques are extremely rare. For the most part in programming you are making a symphony of familiar tropes, not breaking new ground.)

Learn fundamentals, not buzzwords, and maybe you won't find yourself looking for another job involuntarily.