I had a discussion with an employer recently who is looking for a ColdFusion developer but not having much luck. This person suggested that this was due to the increase in ASP.NET projects – implying that ColdFusion developers were moving to other technologies.

However, this is exactly the opposite of what I am seeing. In over seven years I’ve never seen such demand for ColdFusion coders – everyone in Perth, it seems, is busy with their own projects, with client work or with outside contracts. Quite a few positions have come up in the past few months, advertised salaries are at an all time high, there has been quite a bit of job-hopping and I know there are a few companies who are still looking for developers.

Part of the reason for the upswing is simply that the industry is booming all round. If web development is up 25-50%, it stands to reason that ColdFusion demand would be up by a similar amount, as well as ASP.NET. But more than that, I’m seeing more demand for general CF, for FarCry CMS customisation, and also (finally) for Flex development. I’m working on a reasonably large project myself, writing CF services as the backend for a Flex-driven application – something I really think could be a big growth area. Hell, I could quite easily say yes to a couple more projects and be looking for an extra developer myself!

It’s simply never been a better time to have ColdFusion skills! Is it only in Perth that “busy” has replaced the traditional “fine thanks” as the most common response to “how are you?” (quote blatantly ripped off from BamPilot Myles) or is this Australia or even world-wide?