As most of us already know, we are at the age of Big Data, Software Engineer jobs are becoming more and more competitive. This means that expertise in a single programming language might not be sufficient enough to land us a Software Engineer job. We need to be “Jack of all trades”, having the knowledge and ability to learn multiple programming languages is a must.
There are over 600 programming languages out there, we simply cannot learn all of them. Therefore when it comes to choosing the programming languages to learn, there are a few different criteria that we need to consider:
- whether this programming language is useful, is it already well established in the software development industry?
- Top ranked programming languages according to the online programming ranking website. Is this language in high job demand market? Which companies are hiring Software Engineers with expertise in which programming language?
- Programming language with large sets of libraries, frameworks, tools support, and active users community. Is this programming language currently in a stable or increasing popularity?
Now that we have discussed some criteria to define some top learning programming languages, I would like to introduce the most popular front end programming language and it is none other than JavaScript!
Today, JavaScript is one of the most widely used programming language in the world, it runs on: Browsers, Servers, Mobile Devices, Cloud, and etc. It is a front-end driven programming language that has two of the most popular frameworks: Angular and React! JavaScript is simply the king when it comes to front-end development programming language, and there is no other programming language to compete with it. It is commonly used along with HTML/CSS for Front-end developers and those are some of the fundamental front-end programming languages that needs to be learned in order to land a job in the Software Engineer field!
In the USA Job market, Indeed has ranked JavaScript as the third most demanding programming language with 57 K Job posting in January 2020. With $114 K average yearly salary, JavaScript ranks 4th in terms of salary, Stack Overflow Developer survey also mentioned that JavaScript developers can earn a modest salary with relatively minimum experience!
By now, most of you probably already guessed the other programming language to learn is Python! Yes, Python is currently on the most up trending programming language out there in the industry!
It was a programming language designed at first to help out and focus on developer experience, lower the entry barrier for beginners to learn programming and it is mostly used for Back-end development support. Today, Python is omnipresent and used in many areas of software development, with no sign of slowing down.
The above chart mentioned by Google Trend showing that Python has already surpassed JavaScript in terms of popularity and number of searched times when it comes to the different programming languages. Not only that Python is highly productive, elegant, simple, and powerful, it has set the gold standard in terms of developer experiences. Python gives powerful tool-set for Mathematics, Statistics, and Computational Science with various libraries like NumPy, Pandas, SciPy, Scikit-Learn. As a result, Python dominates the Machine Learning/Deep Learning/Data Science landscape and other Scientific domain.
According to Indeed, Python is the most demanding programming language in the USA job market with the highest 74K job posting in January 2020. Also, Python ranked third with a $120K yearly salary. Also, Stack Overflow developer survey has shown that Python developers earn a high salary with relatively low experience compared to other mainstream programming languages.
The other programming language recommended to learn is Java. Yeah, it is a language originally developed in the 90s when the industry was heavily using C++. Java is a much simpler , object-oriented, interpreted programming language that also supports Multi-threading programming. Java has achieved Platform independence by developing Java Virtual Machine (JVM), which abstracted the low-level Operating System from developers and gave the first “Write Once, Run anywhere” programming language. Also, JVM offered generation garbage collection, which manages the Object life cycle.
In recent years, Java has lost some of its markets to highly developer-friendly modern languages and the rise of other languages, especially Python, JavaScript. Fortunately, Java is working on its shortcomings and trying to make Java fit for Cloud via the GraalVM initiative. Java is currently still number one programming language for enterprises and back-end development support.
According to GitHub, Java has been the top second repository contributions from 2014 to 2018, has fallen a little bit in 2019 due to the rise of popularity of Python.s
According to Indeed, Java is the second most demanding programming language in the USA with 69K Job posting in January 2020. Also, Java developers earn the 6th highest annual salary ($104 K). As per Stack Overflow Developers survey 2019, Java offers a modest salary after few years of experiences.
In conclusion, JavaScript is the most popular and must learn front-end developer programming language. Java is the most popular and widely used back-end developer programming language. Python is the super nova programming language that is easy to learn and offers lots of Mathematical and statistical tools which makes it the go to programming language for Machine Learning / Data Science. Of course, there are a lot more programming languages that was popular but not mentioned such as: Swift, SQL, C#, C++, PHP, Ruby, and etc.
For more information, please see the following articles!
