With our useful web-scaper (what-do-they-want?), we can now see all of the top programming languages employers are looking for.
So what are the job sites after? Let’s take a peek.
Pulling keywords from the last 100 “developer” jobs from a well-known job board gives us… a ton of typos. In fact, at the time of writing, “youll” is the number one most common word.
With a little more sanitising we get the top ten being:
| Keyword | Count |
|---|---|
| sql | 121 |
| javascript | 78 |
| css | 66 |
| java | 60 |
| .net | 51 |
| vba | 31 |
| ssis | 26 |
| bepro | 25 |
| wordpress | 20 |
| api | 19 |
Unsurprisingly, the list is dominated by SQL and a combination of web programming languages. Annoyingly, python (being a real word) isn’t included in our results set. I’ll have to include a whitelist for known programming languages that are real words.
Adding a filter for jobs that pay more than £80,000 gets you:
| Keyword | Count |
|---|---|
| .net | 171 |
| java | 158 |
| london | 131 |
| sql | 105 |
| javascript | 74 |
| fx | 47 |
| tdd | 43 |
| appian | 42 |
| quant | 35 |
| ui | 32 |
The salary filter pulls in words like quant, and fx which quickly ties these jobs into the Financial Services (FS) industry. Unsurprisingly, if you want to get paid more as a developer FS is definitely a good shout.
Next in this series, we’ll take a look at refining our application and improving the accuracy of our results. Finally, we’ll work to ensure that we can set this up as a continuously running service, aggregating our data and giving a long-term view of the most important programming skills.
What do you find employers are looking for? Do you feel there’s something critical missing from the list? Let me know below in the comments!
