This is the definitive guide for anyone wanting to choose the right programming language career path in 2018.
And let me be clear about something:
This is not a “top hottest languages” post throwing around a bunch of names and buzzwords.
This is an objective and practical review of the current state, tendencies, and safe near-future predictions of the IT industry at the start of 2018.
It’s based on statistical data from various trusted sources and is the result of a two-week period of in-depth research.
The goal of this post is to help you make an informed decision about which languages the IT market is looking for in 2018. It’ll help you decide which niche is worth the time and effort to master, and which will help you start (or continue) a successful and profitable career as a software developer.
When trying to decide which programming language makes the best career path, developers typically look for these four traits:
High salary
Popularity — plenty of job openings, variety
Tendency to become more in-demand in the future
Preferably easy to learn and pleasant to work with
For each language outlined in the list, you’ll see:
A brief intro to get you familiar with the language, what types of career options it can offer, and what’s cool about it
Language popularity diagrams according to TIOBE and GitHub Octoverse
Salary comparison based on data from Indeed.com and StackOverflow’s 2017 survey
The tendency in demand for the last five years according to Google Trends
A short example code snippet to give you a visual idea of the language’s syntax
At the end, I’ve included four lesser-known languages which gained rapid popularity in the past few years and are expected to be in very high demand for 2018.
Let’s dive right in with the number one pick.
1. JavaScript
JavaScript is the most popular language according to StackOverflow’s annual survey, with 62.5% of respondents claiming to use it.
It’s undoubtedly the dominant language of the web and the growth of JavaScript over the past decade has been immense. Why? Just look around and count how many web-enabled devices you can see. Stack Overflow’s co-founder and popular programming figure Jeff Atwood famously said:
Any application that can be written in JavaScript will eventually be written in JavaScript.
Having that in mind, it’s safe to say there will be no shortage of JavaScript opportunities in 2018 and beyond.
JavaScript knowledge feeds into plenty of front-end frameworks such as Angular, React, Ember, Backbone, and others, as well as the Node.js run-time environment, which allows you to run JavaScript on the backend with high efficiency.
Three of the top four most popular frameworks for 2017 according to StackOverflow are JavaScript-based.
If you enjoy immediately seeing the results of your work in action, for example making interactive web components, JavaScript is a good idea for you. Have in mind that a career in JavaScript implicitly means you should also be comfortable with HTML and CSS, which is basically what web pages are made of.
Tools like Apache Cordova or React Native allow using JavaScript for mobile applications. It’s even possible to get into game development or desktop app development with projects like Electron.
Let’s see the stats behind JavaScript being the #1 pick:
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