Software industry lacks talented people

By Yoon Ja-young

Once an aspiring software developer, Lee Won-jae opened a billiard hall in central Seoul instead. “I’ve never considered being a software developer to be my life time job though I worked overtime every day. It’s not worthwhile,” said Lee, who quit after a 10-year-career.

Due to poor compensation and lack of vision, talented computer geeks are shunning the software industry. It is seriously threatening the IT future of the country, as the axis of the global IT industry is shifting from hardware to software.

Transition to software

The power shift from hardware to software is evident. The ratio of software companies among the world’s top 100 businesses in terms of market share grew to 34 percent in 2010, from 17 percent in 1990. Despite unrivaled achievements in hardware, Samsung Electronics is behind Apple as it lacks competitiveness in software.

The country ranked at 14th among 19 major OECD member countries in terms of software competitiveness, and it fell below the OECD average in industry size, research and development (R&D), and effectiveness. The sales of Ahn Lab, the country’s top Internet security company, and Hancomm, the major software company, was around 0.1 percent of the total software sales of MS.

“Korea lacks competitiveness in software as it lacks qualified people…as software is applied in diverse industries such as electronics, automobiles, and medicine, software human resources are key to enhance longevity in the industries,” said Ryu Ji-seong, a senior fellow at Samsung Economic Research Institute, in a report.

Samsung Electronics recently announced that it will pull up the ratio of software experts in its R&D workforce recruitment to 70 percent from the current 50 percent. The announcement came after Samsung Electronics’ Chairman Lee Kun-hee stressed on a series of occasions that Samsung should bolster software power.

Drainage of talent in software

Despite such efforts, the country has been suffering drainage of talented workforce in the software industry. In the country’s top five universities of Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Seoul National University, Yonsei University, Korea University and Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), the number of students majoring in software fell by 24.7 percent in 2011 from 2009. It contrasts with over a decade ago when the smartest high school students chose IT over medicine as their future major.

Ryu points out that the surge in mobile and cloud services led to an expansion in package software and software for Web service, which means the demand for software developers is also changing. “The developers with creativity to come up with products that lead consumers are substituting the mediocre developers who do only simple tasks,” Ryu said.

Korea, however, is seeing a mismatch in the software human resources market. Among the total software majors, only 70 percent are getting jobs, and less than 50 percent are working in the software sector, while the industry is always short of the most skilled top professionals.

In an earlier press conference, Song Jung-hee, an executive at KT, pointed out the inadequate remuneration system of the country’s software industry. They are paid hourly wages, and even a genius IT expert is paid according to how many days of work, not by how much value they create. “If Steve Jobs was working in Korea, he would be nothing more than a top class technician being paid 12 million won a month,” she said.

Incentives to lure developers

Experts say that students of software majors should be given a vision for success. Ryu points out that a systems architect was chosen as the most promising job in the United States last year. Software companies _ Microsoft, SAS, NetApp, and Google _ ranked number one to four in the best workplaces list. He added that better training and education at college are necessary as well as bolstering cooperation between schools and the industry to quickly cope with the rapid changes in the software sector.

“The capability gap between individuals is evidently huge in the software sector,” he concluded, adding that there should be huge incentives for achievement so that a genius won’t quit.