Many people are finishing coding bootcamps and ready to get new jobs.

These positions are highly competitive, so how are you supposed to compete?

Here’s our advice on the programming skills you need to get a job.

The Impact of COVID-19 On The Programmer Job Market

Until COVID-19 hit, it seemed like the ticket to a new high paying career was to become a programmer. And the fastest way to make that change was to attend a coding bootcamp. In the current job market, does that still work? While programming jobs are recession-resistant, companies hiring coding bootcamp graduates are being more selective.

When the economy was roaring, companies were willing to hire entry-level programmers from coding bootcamps who had very few programming skills. Companies hired programmers with some knowledge of programming and invested time and resources to train them. This lead to the rise of coding bootcamps, which provide basic programming skills and job placement help.

How has COVID-19 affected coding bootcamps graduates? With employers slowing down hiring, there are more coding bootcamp graduates available. This imbalance allows employers to be more selective about which graduates they hire. A recent survey by DICE illustrates the change in hiring resulting from COVID-19.

Source Dice.com Tech Job Report

What Programming Skills are In Demand?

The biggest change in demand is for front-end developers, which dropped by 25%. This may be indicating companies are investing more resources in infrastructure projects than front-end projects. But whatever the reason this does not bode well for the 44% of coding bootcamp graduates that study only front-end technologies.

Source https://www.coursereport.com/

An Indeed.com search for the most popular front end language, “JavaScript Developer”, nationwide lists 18,056 openings. The same search for the most popular back-end language. “Java Developer”, lists 28,303 jobs.  There are over 56% more Java jobs.

In the current market having back-end skills in addition to front-end skills will give you the most job opportunities. To see what that looks like in an infographic look at this blog https://skilldistillery.com/java-and-javascript/ If you need to fortify your back-end programming skills, there are many free resources available to help. Codecademy.com is one.

You can also visit our Events page for workshops on getting started programming.