"Wanted Java Developer" could you be a little more ambiguous?

I have a bone to pick with the industry I associate with. The tech industry struggles to clearly define the expectations of whatever is desired. This is pretty much a universal issue with the industry. There are always hidden requirements. Job listings are no different.

The bone I have to pick is with the titles/job requirements. One of the worst offenders of this is for a Java Software Engineer. Based on the availability of frameworks, and meta-frameworks, asking for a Java engineer is quite ambiguous. This could ask for a graphics developer, API designer, web developer, Computer vision expert [CV in java is possible with native libraries, trust me!], core libraries developer, or even a micro-JVM developer. The amount of variability with the language makes a generic “Java developer” title frustrating.

As a potential candidate, it is incredibly frustrating to see the “Java Developer” title. Some titles ask for experience in Spring, Hibernate, Solr, Lucene, JAI, J2EE, etc. It’s incredibly frustrating to go into an interview, where the listing asked for all of these and then only be grilled on the minute [rarely used] inner workings of Spring RMI. Just the Spring framework alone asks for a lot. Of all of the potential avenues of spring that one could master are: Message queuing, Web services, Roo, Security, Integration, Web flow, MVC, BlazeDS, Batch, Social, and mobile. That’s not even accounting for the frameworks that you can substitute between the pathways for Spring. I’ve worked with a late Spring 2.x and early 3.0, I was not even aware of the new BlazeDS, Batch, social, or even mobile options for the framework. Things change quite quickly.

Besides ranting, what is the purpose of this article? I believe that the Java title should be a bit more specific. If you want a Java developer that knows a lot of frameworks, still label it as a Java developer position. However, don’t expect him or her to know all of the inner workings: that is just silly. If your business involves multimedia display, request a developer that knows the Java 2D and 3D graphics, and maybe the JAI libraries. There is a lot there for practically any task you want to throw at Java, given you know which library to use.

Scientific or mathematical tasks, ask for a Scientific Java Developer. What libraries should they know? Colt, EJML, JAMA, etc.

Writing a Java API? Ask for a Java API Designer. Expect for them to list their favorite APIs, what works, what doesn’t, and why.

Web applications? Ask for a Java Web Developer. Maybe they should have experience with a SOAP framework, MVC framework, Play, GWT, basic Web skills, and maybe even a non-SOAP based webservice library [REST, Hessian/Binary]. Please don’t use the enterprise title unless you need someone who knows EJB, and/or ESB frameworks.

Moreover as an employer, be more specific the first interview/inquiry on what the job is asking for. If an job application asks for the common ORM Hibernate, how much should one know about it before applying for the position? Should they be able to know how to wire up beans to their DB analog? Should they know how write their own dialect for a new data source? With JUnit, should the applicant be expected to transition your current development methodology to TDD? Should they know how to extend the JUnit framework?

At this point, you should be getting the picture. Different tasks demand different skills. Specify what you’re looking for. Find people that can learn new skills and that are interested in the same problems you are. People who have an active interest can learn what is needed to get up to speed. If you go to a butcher and ask for meat, you’re always going to get what you asked for, but not what you were craving.

Addendum: This can apply to an Erlang, C++, Python, and most other developers. The role of Java currently has such a great demand, and such an ambiguous title, making this article a little easier to communicate.