A Documentum developer recently sent "Documentum Guru" Johnny Gee an e-mail asking which technologies he should learn to insure his job security for the future. Johnny wrote a blog post answering the question from a technical perspective and thought that I might have some ideas from a career perspective.
Before I get into too much detail, I think it's worth mentioning that the answer, in part, depends on whom you work for now and whom you envision being employed by in the future. If you are/see yourself working for an EMC Partner systems integration/consulting firm, like most Documentum bloggers (e.g. Johnny, Laurence Hart, Lee Smith, Robin East) are, then a future in Documentum development may remain a strong option. After all, EMC has resurrected its commitment toward empowering and encouraging integrators to build business specific solutions using its xCP platform, so it follows that opportunities at those companies should grow. (CAUTION: Those in the USA and Europe should note that many of these integrators are developing their solutions offshore, though they aren't always open about it.)
If you are a developer who does not work for EMC or an EMC partner firm, then I'd encourage you to not only look at EMC's Documentum strategy, but also beyond it- what other languages/platforms/skill sets are growing at your company and in the vertical marketplace in which you work?
I say this because job growth for Documentum professionals has pretty much flat-lined, so you're going to have to really stand out in a crowd if you want your choice of Documentum-related opportunities. If EMC succeeds in delivering and wow-ing its customers with its new offerings (I'm kind of bullish that they will) get into those.
If EMC's sales and marketing leadership fail to re-excite the marketplace with their offerings, EMC's new Documentum strategy should inherently draw a developer's skill set into a more marketable position than it is today, nonetheless. At EMC World we learned that Documentum is moving toward using a Spring framework. The lack of strong Spring experience among Documentum developers has caused many of my Alfresco hiring managers to categorically eliminate Documentum developers as potential job candidates. (I think it's interesting that Alfresco employers favor JAVA+Spring+Hibernate developers with no ECM experience over Documentum/Java developers with 5+ years of Documentum experience.) This could now change.
In addition to that, Johnnie says that the next version of Taskspace is going to be rewritten using Spring and ExtJS, and there is definitely a growing demand for developers who are experienced with ExtJS libraries. Documentum developers should note that they can download and gain exposure to the non-commercial GPLv3 Version of ExtJS for free. (This could position them to win a Documentum ExtJS projects/jobs over other Documentum developers).
All of that being said, if a die-hard Documentum developer would come to me and ask what part of Documentum to learn for job security and marketability in the near term, xCP might be the answer. I say might because it depends on how much of it EMC is able to sell (it is what its Sales and Marketing folk are promoting.) Because not much seems to be have sold thus far (at least in the USA), not many people know it yet, so the skill set is in demand. I recently did a search for a well-paying job and had trouble finding people who had completed a project using it. I'm working on a second one now, so if you know it, contact me.
Finally, when it comes to adding a .Net skill set to a strong Documentum base, I wouldn't recommend it; not only because the combo doesn't seem to play in EMC's future Documentum platform, but also because the demand for the skill set has flat-lined, meaning that no/few new jobs are being created for the profile.
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