The most profitable languages and how to learn them

Hired CEO Mehul Patel reveals the most in-demand and lucrative computer languages that software engineers need to learn

The popularity of coding bootcamps and computer science degrees isn't just growing because coding is fun. Whether you work in tech or not, you will no doubt be aware of what Hired's Global State of Software Engineers Report has confirmed: developers are more in demand than ever.

Salaries have also been soaring worldwide - embedded engineers earn £71,000/per annum on average, blockchain engineers £69,000 a year and data engineers take home £68,000. All of this is indicative of the growing need for modern companies to digitise their operations, which means they need to keep on top of technology trends in today's software-driven environment.

Despite the high salaries, findings from our report indicate that supply is hardly even close to offsetting demand, and in some areas is particularly acute.

Demand for blockchain engineers, for example, has soared by 517 per cent globally, following the cryptocurrency craze of 2017, and the wider implementation by businesses using blockchain as a secure ledger to store their data. There's also been a 132 per cent increase in demand for security engineers, and a 76 per cent increase in demand for embedded engineers - all just over the past year.

Although supply is hardly scratching the surface, we are most definitely seeing individuals considering these potentially lucrative careers - and organisations and governments trying to encourage people to learn to code. The British government recently announced it is now providing funding for prisoners to enhance their digital skills, too.

One of the biggest roadblocks for aspiring developers, and developers looking to upskill for a higher salary, is selecting which programming language to prioritise. It's widely accepted that developers have their favourite languages to code with, but this doesn't necessarily always translate to which language is most in demand among companies that are currently hiring. So, what languages should developers be picking up to maximise their potential in the job market?

Coder's paradise

As it turns out, Typescript and Scala are most in demand right now, for different reasons. Our findings indicate that UK companies, in particular, have a massive requirement for these two languages over many other, perhaps better known coding languages.

They both poll higher than the most sought-after language globally: Go. On our hiring marketplace, tech talent based in London with knowledge of these languages received, on average, 8.6 interview requests, compared to 8.3 for Go.

It may not come as a surprise to many that Typescript skills are in such high demand. Typescript is a subset of JavaScript developed by Microsoft, but released under an open source licence. Its popularity reflects how the use of Open Source has soared across UK enterprises.

Scala is a different story. The high demand for Scala points to a wider problem: scarcity. Scala is famously touted as one of the most difficult languages for developers to comprehend, intertwined with complicated syntax structures - so there is a very small pool of talent from which to recruit. It is precisely this scarcity that has likely driven up demand - a trend we could see accelerate further until it becomes a more well-established programming language within the developer community.

Demand aside, when developers worldwide were asked to weigh in with some of their favourite languages, 49 per cent highlighted JavaScript and 51 per cent highlighted Python. Cross-reference that against the most in-demand statistics in London, and we can see JavaScript is the fifth most sought after out of sixteen, with Python tenth. This illustrates the need for coders to be multilingual: you may be using Python most frequently during your day job, but knowledge of a more niche language will make you stand out from other candidates.

Learning the craft

One of the perceived obstacles that prospective tech talent does face, however, is learning to write new varieties of code. Like learning any language, coding is by no means an easy feat and can take years to master. This is one of the main reasons that developers are in such high demand in the workplace. So what are the best ways for aspiring and experienced coders to broaden their skillset?

To start with, you don't need a computer science degree to become a software engineer and take advantage of a growing hiring market: only 46 per cent of developers polled say that they learned to code via a computer science degree.

More interestingly, however, is that one-in-five coders professed to being entirely self-taught. Twenty per cent have a relevant degree, such as mathematics, engineering or informatics rather than computer science, and 13 per cent participated in a bootcamp program, like those offered by General Assembly.

However you pick up these new skills, companies won't be deterred as long as you can prove yourself - and the developer community is genuinely meritocratic, too. Of all polled, 57 per cent of hiring managers claimed they would be open to hiring a bootcamp graduate who did not have a university degree.

Seventy-six per cent of coders who did partake in a coding bootcamp additionally felt that it prepared them well for a software engineering job. The message here is: don't feel deterred or demotivated that you don't have knowledge of the most in-demand languages - or of any language at all. If you're motivated, there is no shortage of opportunities to improve your skills, however you learn best. And, as we've found, the pay-off is worth the hard work.

Take the leap - it will pay off

What's becoming clear is that much of the future of work will be written in code.

Budding developers now have a wealth of means at their disposal to become more involved in software engineering. Armed with more avenues to acquire skills and with more opportunities than ever in the workplace, people should not only leap at the opportunity to learn to code, but also embrace and explore its more niche elements and languages.

By coupling their skills with intelligent job matching platforms, developers can not only build a lucrative career in the software engineering sector, but also increase their chances of landing the kinds of tech jobs that provide meaningful solutions to today's problems.

Mehul Patel is CEO at recruitment website Hired. He can be contacted via the Hired website

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