Jonathan Palmer, chief technology of Autometrix in Grass Valley, provides insight into how software development has shifted away from PCs and to mobile platforms. His company manufactures automated cutting equipment for textile markets and develops the computer software needed to control the equipment. For more from Palmer, check out “Tech Crunch” in our June issue. Sign up for our newsletter and we’ll email you when it’s available online.
What’s the biggest change in your area of focus in the past year?
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Finding employees ready to join our team who already have specific skills is proving to be more and more of a challenge. Especially in the world of software development — many more people now have experience developing on mobile and web platforms, but we develop software specifically for Windows. I believe that others in the industry have realized the same thing I have — that specific skills and experience aren’t necessarily the focus, and talent can come from ‘non-traditional’ places. A university degree and five years of experience will continue to be less and less important, especially to smaller employers who often compete with big names for talent.
What do you foresee as the biggest change on the horizon in the year to come?
We are in an industry that hasn’t yet been truly affected by the world’s shift to mobile platforms. Having a vision of how mobile apps and cloud-based computing can be used in our particular part of industrial automation is a challenge, and there’s no single answer. Mobile apps have moved into so many other areas of our lives, consumer pressures to move away from PCs in their work life is bound to grow. The talent is there to write the software, so the challenge will always be staying ahead of the curve as our customer’s expectations shift.
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