Galway is a great place to live and work.

When I arrived to Galway from British Columbia in 1993 both Linux and Java were in their infancy. I had heard of neither - and why should I have - I was a carpenter.
Engaged to a Galway girl (there ain’t nothin’ like them, lads!), I was at that time entitled to a work permit, and went down to the Mill Street Garda station to get one. The conversation with the garda went something like this:

me: Hi, I am engaged to a Galway girl and I’d like to get a work permit.
garda: Where are you from?
me: Canada.
garda: What do you do?
me: I’m a carpenter.
garda: Go back to Canada, there’s no work here.

The following year I traded hardwood and softwood for hardware and software. Wow that was almost fifteen years ago.

The job situation is different here now. There are jobs for Java developers in Galway, and yes foreigners are welcome (permission to work in Europe is required).

Some of the companies I am aware of who have recently been hiring Java developers in Galway include:
Applepie Solutions (us)
ATFM Solutions
Celtrak
Cisco Systems
Duolog
Fisc Ireland (Fidelity Investments)
Nortel Networks

Know of other companies looking for java developers in Galway? Let me know and I’ll add a link here.

RTE reported yesterday that there has been a doubling in IT job vacancies over the past two years. The report is based an IT survey by DCU which has been conducted in an ongoing basis since 2005.

According to the survey there are currently 17,400 IT job vacancies in Ireland; two years ago there were 8,000. With a continued shortfall in IT staff it looks like Ireland is a good place to come and live and work in IT. If you left Ireland in the 80’s or early 90’s to find work abroad maybe it’s still a good time to think about coming back?

The shortfall of IT skills had already been predicted in 2003 by the Expert Group on Future Skills Needs who reported at that time:

The ICT sector downturn has caused an excess of supply over demand for graduates, but the expected recovery in demand may lead to a shortage of graduates in the medium-term. Supply and demand are reasonably well balanced for computing degree graduates up to 2006. Thereafter, the analysis shows that demand is likely to overtake supply, and eventually exceed it by a substantial margin.

I expect that the the growing competition for talented software engineers will increasingly lead businesses to outsource and subcontract their software projects. Weighing against the benefits of outsourcing or subcontracting software projects, astute buiness managers will acknowledge that the overhead of recruiting and retaining skilled software engineers in-house often simply doesn’t make business sense; using the services of a trusted and reliable supplier does.

I also expect that the most talented and enthusiastic of young software engineers will increasingly choose to begin and continue their careers with companies who value software engineering as the core of their businesses. This is where they will find the most opportunity to do what they like best: use software to develop innovative and reliable solutions to business problems.

Applepie Solutions is looking to hire a keen java software developer with a couple of years experience; the successful candidate will be involved in designing and implementing software solutions for business.

Galway is a good place to live and also a good place to start or continue your software career. There is a good mix of indigeneous and international companies involved in the software industry, and a healthy technology community. Here is a list of some of the multinational software companies based in Galway and what they are doing here:

HP (USA) Software and software services
Nortel (Canada) Research and development of telephony software.
Cisco (USA) Research and development of voice technology
SAP (Germany) Sales and customer support for SAP business software.
IBM/Vallent (USA) Telecoms software development
Siebel/Oracle (USA) Siebel CRM software development and support
Intec (USA) Telecoms software development and support
NetIQ (USA) Software for e-business infrastructure management
Micros Fidelio (USA) Applications for hospitality and specialty retail industries
Graham Technologies (UK) Contact centre CRM software
FotoNation (USA) Imaging and connectivity software for digital photography
FISC Ireland (USA) Software solutions for Fidelity Invesments.
Lion Bridge (USA) Translation, Localisation and Outsourcing

Please add a comment if you are aware of others that fit into this category.