The Jobs
When he looks at the market, Wood sees two types of developers: those who work on Android or iOS devices, and others who develop websites and applications that are “platform-functional,” meaning they’ll look basically the same whether accessed from a laptop, smartphone or tablet. In the Kansas City area, at least, the bigger push is for developers who know how to create mobile-enabled websites, he says. That fits with wider expectations for growth in development of such sites, especially as the technology behind them continues to improve. “The companies I talk to are very interested in having people full-time,” says Daichendt. “In the absence of being able to find that, many of them are having to outsource to mobile development firms to get immediate work done and they’re still looking to hire their own internal employees.” That’s all well and good, except, according to Wood, the best developers aren’t interested in full-time work. “They don’t want to go somewhere their skill set will be in high demand for a period of time, and then underutilized after that period,” he says. “Once they build the application, they want to leave because then it goes into maintenance mode. While enterprises tend to look for long-term workers, the developer says, ‘I want to go where I can build really cool things, and when that’s done, I want to go do it again.’”Mobile Shops
Of course, there are developers out there who want stability along with the variety and constant challenge. For them, vendors that specialize in mobile-app development may be the ideal employer. In fact, that’s the dynamic that led Matthew Chartier to start eyeWyre Software Studios in Mt. Clemens, Mich. “One of the things that brought me to starting the company was that I could be working on whatever projects came along … they’d be a month, nine months, two years, or whatever,” he says. “It was always changing.” That variety is key: “Clients come and go, so you never get that feel that you’re stuck on a single project,” he says.Salaries
Wherever they’re working, mobile developers can command good pay. Android developer salaries range from $110,000 to $155,000, according a salary survey from staffing firm Mondo, while the range for iOS developers is $105,000 to $155,000. Developers skilled in Objective-C, commonly used in iOS work, earn more than $102,000 on average, according the most recent Dice Salary Survey.Upload Your ResumeEmployers want candidates like you. Upload your resume. Show them you're awesome.
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