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Disturbing Statements Regarding ColdFusion Hiring

posted Feb 5, 2008 at 12:00:00 PM by Doug Gibson.

In my recent job search, I heard two separate statements that don't bode well for ColdFusion as a whole. On one occasion, a recruiter at a large staffing firm mentioned that there are a lot of ColdFusion developers, but not a lot of experienced or senior ColdFusion developers (in the Baltimore/Maryland area specifically). Who knows why that might be the case. Obviously, that's good for me, having 8 years experience in ColdFusion and a broad and deep knowledge of its capabilities, but it is somewhat disturbing to hear overall.

In another instance, I was interviewing for a position and I inquired as to why the job posting did not mention ColdFusion specifically, yet the company's flagship application was built on ColdFusion. The interviewer proceeded to tell me that in the past if they include ColdFusion in the requirements, they get inundated with poor quality resumes and developers. So the company had included a number of requirements in the job posting, but omitted ColdFusion. The interviewer also commented that they don't necessarily need a CF developer, as they would consider hiring someone with other server-side programming experience since ColdFusion is easy to learn.

Poor quality of resumes/developers is nothing new. I assumed it is par for the course in hiring, but I have heard similar statements from past employers as well as companies that friends work at regarding ColdFusion positions. I've just never heard of outright not listing ColdFusion as a requirement in the job posting as an alternative or remedy to the situation.

Now I've banked my future on ColdFusion. There are too many other technologies and facets of web development to learn and I'd rather focus on learning those than learning a new back-end language and the ins and outs enough to become truly proficient. Plus I believe in the direction ColdFusion has been headed, even if I don't totally buy into the Flash an Flex stuff. But hearing these statements from people in hiring positions does raise some concerns for me over the future of CF. Certainly there are a lot of talented CF developers out there, but it sounds as if the talent pool is not large enough to support the infrastructure of clients who use ColdFusion. Or perhaps it's simply "watered down" substantially with inexperienced developers. It's definitely food for thought.

6 Reader Comments

1. John Bliss writes:

Wow. Only one comment comes to mind: "OUT OF MY HEAD, YOU!" I agree 100%.

# Feb 25, 2008 @ 10:53 AM ET | IP Logged
2. dgibson writes:

So why is this the case? Because so many people (like many our past coworkers) have moved on from CF to newer technologies like .NET or Java or Ruby on Rails, leaving primarily the procedural coders and newbies to support CF with the rest of the CF-holdovers?

# Feb 26, 2008 @ 2:05 PM ET | IP Logged
3. Nate writes:

Heh, "newer technologies like...Java". Funny stuff. :) I don't know who these people are that look down at CF. It's actually gotten quite nice now with CFCs and prevalence of MVC frameworks out there. I was totally down on CF Fusebox developers until I'd seen what's happening with Mach2 and MG. I had been trying to convert to .NET for a few years now, but just couldn't find a place that would maintain my senior CF salary while allowing me to learn .NET. Now that I'm seeing a lot more maturity in CF I'm thinking that I might not need to go cold turkey with CF.

# Mar 5, 2008 @ 11:23 AM ET | IP Logged
4. dgibson writes:

Heh, yeah Java is not new, but the demand for Java web developers is a little more recent than the technology itself I guess.

I'd still like to have the chance/find the time to try out Model-Glue, but just don't see it happening any time soon, unfortunately. CF has definitely matured and has everything I need to build robust apps and sites, so I don't see any point in leaving.

# Mar 5, 2008 @ 2:58 PM ET | IP Logged
5. Mary Beauchamp writes:

Doug,
Sorry to hear of the negative comments made regarding ColdFusion. I guess in the past it has been looked upon as "that other language" but such is not the case at my company (AboutWeb). We are totally dedicated and committed to Adobe products and have several openings for ColdFusion professionals. Additionally, we have sponsored the newly created Baltimore Adobe Users Group. The first meeting will be held on March 26, 2008 and I will be happy to provide details to interested Adobe professionals.
Thankfully, ColdFusion is definitely alive and well in Baltimore!

# Mar 7, 2008 @ 5:27 PM ET | IP Logged
6. John Bliss writes:

> I had been trying to convert to .NET for a few years now, but just couldn't find a place that would maintain my senior CF salary while allowing me to learn .NET.

Concur. At this point, when I "move on" from CF, it's going to be a move into project management (looking to earn my PMP), tech sales (already writing proposals), MBA (got 96th percentile on GMAT) -> management/exec.

# Mar 10, 2008 @ 9:11 AM ET | IP Logged

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