IT professionals/experts believe that Java EE has a bright future

In the annual popularity contest organized by TIOBE, a Netherlands-based provider of software quality assessment services, Java came a close second among the languages used in GitHub. The language, in spite of turning 20, is going strong with its popularity growing by 5.94% last year. There is no doubt that Java as technology is here to stay. Its presence is in demand so much that it is currently the #1 in the enterprise backend domain and seeing mammoth growth in mobile application development.

Delving further, let’s see how the enterprise edition of Java fares in the IT job market along with AngularJS. Let’s dig a little deeper into each of them and understand their job prospects.

While answering to a Java EE oriented question on Quora, a fair number of IT professionals/experts believe that Java EE has a bright future and is least likely to become obsolete in the next couple of years as Java EE has become the standard on which many enterprise deployments are built. They are also predicting that Java EE will continue to evolve by amalgamating with other technologies, features and languages.

J2EE will continue its pursuit of becoming stronger with the introduction of frameworks like Spring, Struts etc., along with the fact that Java is open source with numerous communities that allows it to solve enterprise-level issues.

Some even consider J2EE to be the holy grail of enterprise development. ‘Holy grail’ may sound like a stretch to some; however, the proposed release of EE 8 in 2017 only suggests that J2EE is moving forward.

Amidst the rumors that J2EE is declining, Oracle has decided to go ahead with Java EE8, showing that they are all set for the future. During the keynote speech at JavaOne 2016, Oracle did announce that they will be changing their focus and modernize enterprise development by adding support for virtualization and microservices.

When looking for a job in IT sector, you usually find out how the technology as such is doing, the rate of implementation in the real world and how much the skilled professionals are paid. Let’s look at these factors and decide if Java EE is worth spending time and money on it.

        Image: Java EE-job trends

Some might argue that Java is on the decline and the above graph seems to be supporting this as well. However, the actual scenario is evident on looking closely and comparing the percentage of job postings and the percentage of job seekers for Java EE found on Indeed, a popular job portal in the U.S. The ratio or the gap between the number of job openings and number of readily available skilled professionals is huge.

Image: java-jobseeker

ItJobsUK, a popular job portal in U.K has also reported gradual yet steady growth for Java EE related jobs. There is a definite growth in the demand for Java EE and related jobs year-on-year.

Image: java-jobtrends-itjobsuk

Considering the above interpretation, it is clear that there is still a big demand for Java/ Java EE skill.

The hiring trends or the job trends changes rapidly. One needs to understand that with so many languages and frameworks out there one cannot expect a smooth sailing or that perfect graph when it comes to job openings, as new technologies are often introduced and tested.

Java EE Salary Trends:

The salary aspect is the next crucial factor when it comes to deciding a job or a career. According to the 2015 Salary Survey by Dice, a technology company that provides specialized insights, the salary for Java/J2EE skills was 109,245 USD per annum and in 2013, the salary for the same skill was 96,955 USD per annum. Now, you might wonder why we are comparing old numbers here; this is just to prove that the remuneration for Java skill is on the rise and the expected pay package for this skill in 2017 guarantees to be on the high as well.

Let’s look at the latest numbers from Indeed. You can see that the salary is estimated to be 107,000 USD per annum.

Image: java-salary

Keeping the numbers aside, the below salary trend graph from ITJobsUK portal shows a steady and positive growth. This graph indicates that this growth is not a temporary phase.

Now that we know how Java EE skill fares in the IT job market, let’s see how the job prospects are for AngularJS.

AngularJS – One of the Hottest JavaScript Framework:

When it comes to JavaScript frameworks, Angular is definitely one of hottest and widely used framework. AngularJS is best known for developing Single page applications and considered to offer lucrative jobs. Considering its huge demand, positive forecast and awesome features, AngularJS has become the future of enterprise web application.

With features like two-way data binding, Dependency Injection, Directives etc., big support from Google and the ever-growing community, AngularJS has become the top choice for data-driven enterprise applications.

As a framework, AngularJS is great but how does it translate to the job market?

AngularJS Job Trends:

The job trends graph for AngularJS from IT JobsUK is spectacular. The percentage of AngularJS job postings goes up so smoothly, if I might add, beautifully over the years.

Image: java-salary-trend

The IT job trends predict that 2017 will be a great year for freelancers. Meaning, full time/ permanent and contract aren’t the only who can land well-paid AngularJS jobs. According to a study by Upwork Skill Index, freelancers are in demand and AngularJS is one of the top 20 skills that grew fastest in Q2 2016. On an interesting note, in this study, it was also found that development skills in mobile development and user experience design accounted for one-third of these fastest-growing skills.

Let’s see what Google Trends have to say about AngularJS job trends.

Image: angularjs-itjobsuk

From the graph, it is clear that the job trends for AngularJS had reached its crest in 2016 and predicted to have an upward momentum.

AngularJS Salary Trends:

Making similar comparison like that of Java EE, according to the 2015 Salary Survey by Dice, the salary for AngularJS skills was 109,542 USD per annum and in 2013 it was 101,208 USD per annum.

However, Indeed job portal gives a different number of 105,000 USD per annum as of Jan 2017. Still, the difference is not too large.

Image: Angular-google-trend

On the other hand, the salary trend from ITJobsUK portal appears to be steady, meaning, the need for AngularJS skills is not short lived.

Image: angular-salary

Now that we have an in-depth insight of the individual job prospects of Java EE and AngularJS, it is essential to know how these two skills go hand-in-hand and how it can benefit your career.

AngularJS & Java EE:

Let look at why you should consider combining AngularJS and Java EE skills together:

• Kick start your IT career.
• Create more job opportunities.
• Pays the highest salary in the programming sector.
• Java is widely chosen by most of Fortune 500 companies.
• Angular is one of the hottest and in-demand JavaScript framework.
• Organizations/employers are looking for these combined skills.
• Combined skills get better pay package.

• According to the latest 2017 Salary Guide for IT Professionals, Java skills provide up to 8 percent increase in their salary.
• The same guide also indicates that senior Web developers will draw salaries ranging from $116,250 to $161,000, and Front-end Web developers will see the largest hike in salaries of 6.2 percent increase in their pay package.

Image: angularjs-salary-trend

Looking at their job trends together, we can observe that the current growth/skill requirement seems to be concurrent. This goes well with the fact that employers are looking for professionals with these combined skills.

And, what about the salary? Does this combined skill make a difference?

 Yes, it does!

These combines skill will definitely provide bigger remuneration than the individual skills in the long run, as the demand for these combined skills is only bound to increase. The salary trends of these combined skills from Indeed also supports this.

So, what kind of job titles requires both these skills? Well, the job postings on Indeed can give you a clear picture on this.

Job Profiles that Require Both AngularJS and Java EE Skills:

• Java Developer
• Full Stack Developer
• Senior Software Engineer
• Web Developer
• JavaScript Developer
• Full-Stack Java Engineer
• Big Data Technical Lead
• Technical Success Principal
• Software UI Engineer

The popularity of AngularJS has led to widespread usage across the globe and Java seems to be an immortal in the IT sectors, making both these skills a great match. The demand for these combined skills needs and smart professional must leverage this trend in order to take advantage of the market demands.

If you are interested in joining this exciting field, check out ZaranTech’s Java JEE Angular JS training program,  you can gain a strong grounding with this course. For more information feel free to visit our website.

If you are interested to learn Java JEE from the scratch check this out: Introduction to Java| Java tutorial for beginners