Want a programming job in 2024? Learning any language helps, but only one is essential

Over the past few months, we’ve taken a comprehensive deep dive into the popularity of programming languages.

Also: The most popular programming languages in 2024

But how do you measure popularity? That’s been a big part of the question. Is it the number of GitHub projects? Is it the number of posts on popular programming forums? Is it based on surveys? What really determines the popularity of programming languages?

Also: The rise and fall in programming languages’ popularity since 2016 – and what it tells us

Today we will look at the one factor that ultimately matters the most to people: Where are the jobs?

Research methods

My research methodology was pretty straightforward. I went to the most popular job boards and searched for each programming language by name. This analysis reflects a snapshot of language demand in early November 2024.

Several job sites don’t provide a total for search results, so I skipped those. I settled in on three sites that provided good counts of the number of job listings based on the terms I searched for. Those sites were Dice, Indeed, and LinkedIn.

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It’s important to understand what our search data tells us. When I search for a term like SQL, the job site’s search engine returns every job offer that contains the word SQL in its listing. Those results might include a Python programming job where they list SQL, too. The results might also include a basic web admin job with SQL in the job listing.

So, in this article, I’m not saying that the sites show a specific count of job openings for SQL programmers. Instead, I’m saying SQL has shown up in a search result, indicating how important hiring managers think it is for you to know this language to qualify for a certain job in their organization. That interpretation of results applies to every language in this article.

And yes, I know some people don’t believe SQL is versatile enough to be classified as a true language (yes, I read the comments), but it’s certainly commonly listed in job requirements. Regardless of how it should be classified, you’d better ensure you’re conversant in SQL if you intend to land a programming gig.

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I also had some challenges with my search terms because some popular programming languages have incredibly generic names. I had to add “developer” or “programmer” after these terms to identify that I was searching for a language and not just a word. That approach means I probably missed some listings. However, none of the languages with super-generic names are in the “opportunity zone” of top skills that hiring managers desperately seek.

About the job listings

Let’s talk about those job listings. Keep in mind that not all listings are created equal. Some job listings are posted by companies trying to collect resume data, so if or when a requisition becomes open, they’ll have people to chase after to fill it.

Some job listings have already been filled and are still running on the job sites. Infuriatingly, other job listings may well be fronts for scams.

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Keep your wits about you, especially if any company asks you to spend money before you get a full paycheck. ZDNET has a whole series of articles about job scams. Take the time to read them.

For this article, we’re simply looking at the overall scope of job listings for specific languages.

So, what does this data mean for your programming career? If you’re starting, it should help you understand what languages you should focus on learning first. If you’re a pro, it will show you that there might be some demand for the languages you already know, but it might also indicate the languages you need to know.

Examine the aggregate data from this study (in the main chart I showed at the top of this article) and use it as a guideline for the languages you need to know.

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These are the languages you need to know well, so when you’re looking for a job, you can put them on your resume and, hopefully, get a job using these languages because they’re the ones in demand.

Popularity weight based on job site

Not all job sites are the same. LinkedIn has vastly more jobs on offer than either Dice or Indeed:

The model initially weighted each of the smaller sites to bring their values up to match LinkedIn. But that approach resulted in a wildly disproportionate representation of some smaller languages. So, I chose to add all the jobs and provide a total rather than a re-weighted aggregate.

That approach naturally gave LinkedIn an outsized influence. However, that result reflects how LinkedIn actually does have an outsized influence. LinkedIn, for example, ranks SQL as the top language, while Indeed shows it near the bottom. If you want to see how the three sites compare language popularity, I have more charts.

Here’s LinkedIn:

Here’s Indeed.

And here’s Dice.

The languages to know

So, there you go. The key takeaway from this research and our previous language popularity studies is to ensure you know Python.

It’s clear that if you have skills in the languages within the “opportunity zone” (i.e. Python, SQL, HTML, Java, C++, and JavaScript), you’ll be very well positioned in your job hunt.

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While there’s not a huge demand, if you have skills in the “moderate demand” languages of Swift, C#, PHP, TypeScript, and Go, there are jobs for you as well.

As for the “declining demand” languages of any shell scripting tool, Ruby, Kotlin, C, R, Rust, Lua, or Dart, it’s clear that you should list them on your resume if you know them, but don’t spend time learning them unless you have a paying gig where they’re required as part of the job.

Where do you see language demand? What languages do you code in, and what are your favorites? Let us know in the comments below.

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