[besson3c]

According to your perceptions, how has the Mac-based job market changed over the years?

I'm sure content creators have always had a fairly easy time finding a job in a Mac-centric environment, but if you are into other computing areas (e.g. systems administration, web development, security, etc.) how has this scene changed? Browsing through a site like Monster.com, I see that there is a ton of work for users with Unix/Linux and Windows skills, but I don't see a whole lot of Mac stuff. Has this been increasing in demand, or has it stayed about the same?

How have you guys who aren't into content creation gotten into Mac-centric jobs? I'm not really interested in a Mac-centric job myself necessarily, I'm just curious...

Perhaps a lot of this depends on your locale and environment? Around here, there is an abundance of Unix-centric work, but I would imagine that many other locales would be heavily Windows dominated..

[typoon]

Not sure about the overall Mac Job market. I've been fortunate enough in my last job and my most current one to find a company that uses Macs in some capacity.

[Hawkeye_a]

Apart from doing Computer Science(BS) and Software Engineering(MS), i was part of the ADC through most of my caollege career, having attended WWDC as well. Primarily i consider myself a Mac programmer (Cocoa, OpenGL, Java)...but i have yet to find a job here in Australia that needs these skills. i gave up looking for a Mac centric job and am now working on Windows at work. The only time i was contacted regarding a mac specific role was by the guys at the genome project, who wanted to interview me at WWDC, unfortunately it was my final semester and i couldnt miss finals for the "chance" to find a job.

Maybe i was looking in the wrong place, but i spent quite a few month looking for a Mac programming job while working at an Apple center to no avail what-so-ever.

My opinion....if you are a mac programmer and have a job working on the Mac...ur one of the few.

[DKeithA]

I am part of a team at UNC Chapel Hill that administers the data center operations (various locations) and network and system monitoring for the campus (to name just a couple of our endless duties). Everyone on our team has a personal Mac (mostly MacBook Pros) and all our monitors and tools run on Mac Pros or Mac minis - Everything is Mac-based. Visitors are always so surprised that everything we have is Macintosh in our Operations Center (except for the stray Windows box that sys admins come in to use occasionally because they won't/can't use a Mac). I realize on a regular basis that this is an awesome place to work.

[macroy]

I think of the 3 positions you indicated (security, web dev, and SA), the first two are more infrastructure/enterprise wide positions as opposed to "OS" specific. I also think SA's are mostly either Unix or Windows. Most companies are typically predominantly Unix or Windows at the core. Not to say there aren't any OS X centric shops... but my guess is that they don't really have a hard time finding someone to fill that role. I'd also think if you only have a few OS X boxes.. you can have an unix admin manage it.

[besson3c]

Originally Posted by DKeithA 

I am part of a team at UNC Chapel Hill that administers the data center operations (various locations) and network and system monitoring for the campus (to name just a couple of our endless duties). Everyone on our team has a personal Mac (mostly MacBook Pros) and all our monitors and tools run on Mac Pros or Mac minis - Everything is Mac-based. Visitors are always so surprised that everything we have is Macintosh in our Operations Center (except for the stray Windows box that sys admins come in to use occasionally because they won't/can't use a Mac). I realize on a regular basis that this is an awesome place to work.

How much of what you do is simply running clients that are also available under Windows? I'm not saying that nobody uses Macs in the business, but I would assume that job descriptions would only require Mac qualifications if the environment was completely dependent on a Mac infrastructure... I'm just wondering how common this is.

Perhaps I should have excluded Universities though, because if your Uni is anything like mine, there is Mac-based support infrastructure available for the University at large (and, in many cases, for the departments that have made the Mac their home). I would assume that it's a given that Universities have this.

What about private business though?

[besson3c]

Originally Posted by macroy 

I think of the 3 positions you indicated (security, web dev, and SA), the first two are more infrastructure/enterprise wide positions as opposed to "OS" specific. I also think SA's are mostly either Unix or Windows. Most companies are typically predominantly Unix or Windows at the core. Not to say there aren't any OS X centric shops... but my guess is that they don't really have a hard time finding someone to fill that role. I'd also think if you only have a few OS X boxes.. you can have an unix admin manage it.

They were just examples off the top of my head... Maybe I should have simply said "anything not content creation based in the private sector"?

I guess whether you do web development on OS X or Linux is not terribly important, but there is a reason for breaking up web development into Mac/Windows though, since there is a lot of Windows development that centers around languages not available (or popular) for Unix, and sometimes tied to IIS.

Security, same thing... Is it common to find people that are rock solid with both Windows and Unix security, or is this usually a more specialized field?

[DKeithA]

Originally Posted by besson3c 

How much of what you do is simply running clients that are also available under Windows? I'm not saying that nobody uses Macs in the business, but I would assume that job descriptions would only require Mac qualifications if the environment was completely dependent on a Mac infrastructure... I'm just wondering how common this is.

Perhaps I should have excluded Universities though, because if your Uni is anything like mine, there is Mac-based support infrastructure available for the University at large (and, in many cases, for the departments that have made the Mac their home). I would assume that it's a given that Universities have this.

What about private business though?

Yes, we are building most of our apps to be web-based, so they could be run under any other OS, but we find we can do our job more efficiently on OS X. UNC has lots of Mac users, but very very little Mac support. In fact, if you were to call the main help desk they would state that "We offer limited support for Mac [sic]." 90% of the systems on campus are Windows-based machines.

Also, when we interview new employee candidates proficiency with Mac OS X is essential.

[Hawkeye_a]

hehe... while doing my BS, i was the only 'Mac guy' at the help desk at a uni with 20k+ students, for warranty claims they had a AASP but for all help desk issues, it was just me.

[macroy]

Originally Posted by besson3c 

They were just examples off the top of my head... Maybe I should have simply said "anything not content creation based in the private sector"?

I guess whether you do web development on OS X or Linux is not terribly important, but there is a reason for breaking up web development into Mac/Windows though, since there is a lot of Windows development that centers around languages not available (or popular) for Unix, and sometimes tied to IIS.

True. I'm no developer.. but I'm assuming that is still based on the application? i.e the skill set there is asp, java, .net or whatnot... so its based on the expertise in the code.. not necessarily the OS its being viewed on? Not sure if that makes sense.

Security, same thing... Is it common to find people that are rock solid with both Windows and Unix security, or is this usually a more specialized field?

Yea - security is typically something folks get into AFTER they've been experienced with network engineering or sys. administration (or at least you'd be more desired). Many security analysts do have more of a Unix background because many of the tools were originally developed there. But its becoming less and less OS centric... Networks security is even less OS centric since it primarily deals with network appliances (firewalls, IDS/IPS, NAC etc...) and protocols.

I guess I'm lucky. I have a Mac dev job. But anyone who is looking for a Mac dev job, I would say to them "create your own".

Take a Windows job in the day, create your own Mac software at night. If you don't want to sell it as shareware, sign up with Kagi or someone else. If you want it distributed commercially, find a publisher/distributor - there are a few around.