Shortage of ASP.NET developers in Ja ?

[RobyG]

Is there a shortage of ASP.NET developers in Ja (especially those who freelance) ?

This is what I am hearing and proving to be true.

[Gnostic]

The Silence is so loud.

[Satanforce]

Damn right!!! Niggaz is loving that PHP!!!

[Utech22]

ASP.NET VS PHP - that's where it is..

[gW33Zy]

PHP win.............

[nichodre]

All people want is PHP so people who know asp.net switch to php to get money

[Goucham]

A preference for PHP in Jamaica should surprise no one, especially in our price sensitive market. Forget the technical merits, .NET application/website hosting carries a premium because of the costs attached to running Windows servers**. Justifying that built-in premium can be an uphill battle... especially when all the PHP guys come in with lower bids.

** yes, there is the 'Mono' project for running .NET code on Linux [Apache] but you don't get access to all the APIs

[gW33Zy]

The cost (its lack thereof) and the open-source-ness of PHP are the very good reasons why it is more preferred.

[Mixmasterxp]

There is a shortage of software engineers in general around the world. Most programmers don't know how to write well structured and maintainable systems. Companies are looking for engineers with experience in SOA/n-tier architecture, very well established OOP principles and patterns, when to use them and why. Also Build, Release, Test automation, good teamworking skills and using code-review tools, agile/scrum tools, bug tracking systems, etc. I'm just rolling these things out of my head from what I've heard from recruiters, management and myself when looking for software engineers...in jamaica. Look at all tools provided by companies like Atlassian, Microsoft ALM and Jetbrains, learn what they do, the problems they solve and choose that or a similar tool to gain some experience with.

In regards to .NET engineers, there is a high demand out there for them. Especially in the Enterprise Systems area. Startups in Jamaica are also using .NET, since the BizSpark program by Microsoft. I know both Enterprise and Startup companies with problems finding good software engineers much less .NET engineers. (Both general .NET and ASP.NET) I also know freelance .NET engineers who has so much work to do that they are stretched thin, people are fighting to hire these people out here.

Re PHP VS .NET, this is an argument that is held among high school and university students and should be done away with. When recruiters see a resume or title of someone that says PHP or C# developer, we get turned off. It gives off the impression that you are just a regular person who only writes code. A well seasoned software engineer uses the right tools/languages for the job and should be able to adapt.

[Satanforce]

A preference for PHP in Jamaica should surprise no one, especially in our price sensitive market. Forget the technical merits, .NET application/website hosting carries a premium because of the costs attached to running Windows servers**. Justifying that built-in premium can be an uphill battle... especially when all the PHP guys come in with lower bids.

** yes, there is the 'Mono' project for running .NET code on Linux [Apache] but you don't get access to all the APIs

The innate security flaws, as well as the usual cock-ups, negate any (minor) cost advantages to be gained from using PHP. Plus, there is the fact that BizSpark for small businesses give access to cheap software.