How To Be an "In Demand" Java Developer

a result you will be able to get more comprehensive opinion in order to determine what Java skills would be in demand.

Retrospective

Firstly, let’s make a conclusion what has became true from the previous post about an ideal Java developer in 2015. I created a table with 3 columns:

1. The ‘Prediction’ contains my forecasts (2014)
2. The ‘Comments’ contains my remarks (2015)
3. The ‘Result’ contains overall impressions (2015)

PREDICTION	COMMENTS	RESULT
Up-to-date knowledge	It’s almost obvious, you need to keep your knowledges always in a ‘fresh’ state	true
Not only Java	I suggested that Java developers should to learn functional programming languages. I think I was wrong, because in 2015 ‘Not only Java’ is rather meant – different architecture approaches, DevOps, etc.	false
Community life	It’s always useful to communicate with professionals who work in the same area with you. This is one of the most efficient ways to exchange experience.	true
Trends, science and education	Big Data wasn’t the single leader. I think that it shares a throne with microservices. But for sure developers need to keep finger on the pulse of trends.	true
Pet projects	A role of pet project can play not only an application, but also a book or e-learning course. Everything you create out of work is a pet project in some sense. And yes, it’s useful to work on such stuff.	true

As you see 4 from out 5 predictions more or less have became true. Unfortunately, my 2015 prediction was pretty far from the portrait of successful Java developer, but I tried my best. What about you? Do your skills and abilities match to the portrait?

Predictions

What is waiting for Java developers in 2016 and what skills will be in demand? We can make some predictions based on information and facts which we already have. The infographics below demonstrates which Java web developer skills are needed in 2016.

Of course I need to explain in details what means each of topics. But if you totally agree with the infographics above, you can simply skip the rest of article and share it with your friends.  Just kidding!

Regarding infrastructure, web-frameworks and tools:

No doubt, a back-end architecture has an influence at an infrastructure design where it should work. Microservices, microservices, microservices.  A total migration from a monolithic architecture to microservices brought exciting news – we should know how to work with containerisation, clustering and new way of deployments. Everything is moving into the cloud and becoming smaller and well-grained.  This is a trend.
All these circumstances dictate new requirements to web-frameworks, tools and deployment process. It is extremely valuable to learn Docker, AWS, Mesos, Spring Boot, Play and AKKA in 2016.

Business Intelligence, Internet of Things:

Have you ever heard these words before? This is pretty new direction of technology development. Both of them require usage of Big Data. Hence 2016 is a good time for jumping into the “Big Data Train”, because it starts a trip to high demand exactly 1 second ago. Hurry up! Spark, Flink and Storm are waiting for you.

There are several not so optimistic thoughts:

Regardless of technical progress and pressure of new trends, a developer has to do his job well. This is all about routine – a code development, refactoring and a review.  In order to stay in good form and be productive, you need to use a convenient IDE, efficient engineering practices and improve programming skills. This should be considered a routine.