The Most In Demand Coding Languages for 2019


Software development is a highly dynamic field with the demand and popularity of various programming languages fluctuating from year to year. Developers need to be aware of these fluctuations when deciding what languages they want to learn, upskill and master. It is important to note that knowledge of specific languages is a requirement in some fields. For example, aspiring game developers should seek to master C# and C++ to move forward in their career, while those seeking a career in DevOps should master JavaScript. It is important to learn the language that will serve to boost your career prospects in your field of choice.


Regardless of the area of development in which you currently work, or want to work, it is beneficial to know what languages are most commonly used, the most in demand and the average pay for each. Research from, the world’s largest job search engine and a survey of 65,000 developers worldwide, conducted by Stack Overflow, has shortlisted six main languages as the most popular.

(A quick side note before I detail the list: SQL has been omitted despite its popularity, as it's technically not a programming language, since it lacks looping and other basic functions.)



JavaScript is the most popular language, with 66.7% of all professional developers using it. JavaScript is the most widely used language on GitHub and is used by 95% of all websites for any dynamic logic on their pages. 73.9% of DevOps engineers and 81.7% of web developers use JavaScript as their preferred language of choice. JavaScript’s dominance as the most popular and widely used language doesn’t appear to be slowing with the popularity of IoT & mobile devices using Angular JS and React driving growth. has 38,000 job postings for JavaScript developers in 2018, with median salaries hovering around the €40 – 45,000 mark. Demand and salaries for rise sharply for developers with experience working with React, Angular, and Node.js.



Moving to the back-end of things, Java takes the place of the most widely used and popular back-end language. 38.3% of all professional developers use Java with DevOps engineers using it most (41.4%). Java shows no signs of dipping in popularity as it's used by millions of developers and billions of devices worldwide being able to run on any hardware and operating system through the Java Virtual Machine. Java programmers are always in demand, as all Android apps are based on Java and 90% of Fortune 500 companies use Java as a server-side language for backend development. Indeed has 62,000 job postings for Java programmers with the median salary floating around €43,000.



A rising star in the programming world is Python. The continued growth and demand for machine learning developers appears to be driving the popularity of Python, with 27.6% of all professional developers using it. Indeed has approximately 46,000 job postings offering a median salary of around €46,000.



C++, known as quite a complex language compared to the likes of Python and Java, is another language growing in popularity. Heavily used in the game development industry, C++ is used by 20.7% of professional developers being used most by desktop developers (31.3%). Indeed posted 31,000 jobs in 2018 offering a median salary around €45,000.



Similarly, C# is also heavily used in the game development industry. Designed to run on Microsoft’s .NET platform, 36.7% of professions developers use this language, with desktop developers using it most (59.4%). Indeed posted 27,000 jobs in 2018 with salaries averaging around €43,000.

Posted by Adam Dunne on 24 January 2019


C++ Trends & Demand for Developers

C++ Trends & Demand for Developers

C is a middle level programming language developed by Dennis Ritchie during the 1970’s in his time at AT&T Bell Labs. He was seeking to redesign the UNIX operating system designed by Ken Thompson two years prior to enable the system to be used on multiple computers. The new language C offered both high-level functionality and the detailed features required to program an operating system. The inception of C++ began in 1979 when Bjarne Stroustrup was working on his Ph.D. thesis. Bjarne was fascinated by object-orientated approach and began working on C with classes; he started to create a new language that had the features of C and the object-orientated paradigm. C++ was first coined in 1983 and was officially released in October of 1985. C++ was officially standardised in 1998 and has continually evolved with major revisions taking place in 2003, 2011, 2014 and 2017. C++ is often mislabelled as an object-orientated language, it is actually a concept independent programming language. From a developer’s perspective, C++ is a notoriously complex language to master for a variety of reasons. For one, you have to come up with your own strategy, structure, and methodology when you use C++, there is no hints that tell you how to write your code. Whereas other languages are purposely deigned to be easy and quick to learn, C++ is the total opposite. C++ is powerful, fast and effective providing excellent concurrency support. C++ is great for applications where high performance and low latency are priority. It supports a wide range of applications from 3D graphics in games to real-time mathematical solutions for finance. Its versatile nature has led to C++ spreading to a multitude of different industries from transportation to manufacturing to game development. C++ is a staple language in the software development sphere maintaining its popularity and demand for year after year. In today’s climate, new technologies, frameworks and languages are consistently emerging, often disrupting the market causing the popularity of other languages to dissipate. C++ seems to hold its own with developers wanting to learn the language and employers looking for developers with C++ in their tech stack. TIOBE Index ranked C++ as the third most popular language of 2018, just behind Java and C. C++ has maintained this third-place spot since 2002. PYPL, a survey that looks at how often language tutorials are searched for on Google has C++ ranked in sixth place signifying that developers are actively upskilling their C++ skills. This is further substantiated by GitHub’s “Language Wanted” rankings, languages that developers have not learned yet but wish to in the future. C++ was ranked in 6th place again with 10% of GitHub’s community stating they intend to learn the language. Demand for C++ professionals is constant as it is used in so many different industries. One method of calculating demand for C++ professionals to analyse job data citing C++ as a requirement. C++ came in fourth in terms of IT jobs citing the language as a requirement, just behind JavaScript on Indeed, the world’s largest search engine for jobs. We have seen demand increase for C++ professionals for roles such a game software engineer, system software developer and embedded engineer. There have been warnings that C++ will inevitably fade out of existence as technology and other languages continue to emerge. C++’s ability to run legacy code may no longer hold value in the future. However, we have seen employers favouring C++ as programmers can be more productive using a basic language that fits so many applications. The future is yet to be written for C++ but demand for and popularity of the language has stagnated since 2013 without any indications of this trend improving going forward.    


Automation - The Impact on Human Jobs

Automation - The Impact on Human Jobs

Automation is a polarizing topic as despite the benefits and opportunities that new automation technologies offer, the impact on human jobs is a real concern. Regular reports warn that the automation apocalypse is coming within the next decade with studies from Oxford and McKinsey predicting that automation will eliminate 30 – 60% of all workplace tasks. These tasks which are carried out by human workers account for a significant portion of employment in some industries. Not all jobs are created equally, and some are more likely to be automated out of existence in the near future. To truly understand the reality of the threat that automation poses, we must examine examples of jobs that are at a high risk of automation.   The long-standing staple of the taxi driver is likely to be a profession of the past. The taxi industry has already been turned on its head in a few short years with the introduction of apps such as Uber and Lyft. The human element of ordering a taxi has already been automated out of existence, is the driver next? Autonomous vehicles are no longer science fiction with major automotive brands heavily investing in autonomous technology. As the technology continues to advance and proliferate throughout society, it’s likely the lone taxi driver will simply be replaced by technology. The ‘Future of Employment’ have ranked taxi driver as one of the ‘least safe’ jobs with an 89% chance of being automated.   On a similar note, truck/delivery drivers are likely to be a thing of the past alongside taxi drivers. We have already seen the first warning signs with Tesla’s fully electric autonomous semi-truck entering the market. Imagine; you order an item through a well-known online retailers’ website. All payment is made securely through the website, you provide your delivery address while ordering, but instead of your order being collected from a warehouse by an outsourced delivery partner, which is often the case at the moment, a dedicated robot tracks the order from the warehouse/ It is then loaded into a self-driving vehicle/drone and delivered safely to you, with no human interaction whatsoever. Amazon have already trialled this new tech using drones to offer same-day delivery on small Amazon purchases.   US Netflix series Black Mirror provides many insights into the future of our society and how technology influences it. Take episode three of season four, Crocodile. In this episode, an autonomous pizza truck delivers a pizza while cooking it in-transit. It sounds like science fiction yet in Silicon Valley, a company called Zume is pioneering the concept of a ‘robot pizza truck’. An order is placed through the Zume app, the self-driving truck begins its journey to the destination address, and by the time it has arrived at the delivery address, the robot chef will have a freshly baked pizza ready for delivery. Household brand PizzaHut came out in 2018 saying it was teaming up with Toyota to bring the robot pizza truck concept to life. The ‘Future of Employment’ has ranked fast food cook at an 81% risk of being automated. The pizza truck will automate both fast food cook and delivery driver out of existence.   As well as the food, e-commerce and driving industries, another area which faces potential extinction in the coming years is that of customer service. Customer service spans across a range of roles, yet a significant portion of these roles are on the way out. UI chatbots continue to proliferate throughout many large organisations removing the need for customer support agents. As this technology continues to improve and become a more cost and time efficient method of customer support, why would companies choose humans?   Evidently, automation poses a higher risk to some industries more than others. Jobs that are highly routine with a high proportion of repetitive tasks are most at risk of being automated in the near future. However, this does not mean the job in its entirety will disappear, automation will change how we work. The reinvention and re-engineering of jobs is the key story, not job losses. For example, automating the last kilometre of truck deliveries is an inconceivable task at the movement, the journey still requires a qualified human driver. Customer service agents can upskill and work in other areas of the business such as sales or account management.   Technology and automation have always changed how we work throughout history without causing an unemployment apocalypse. Automation will no doubt change how we work but the threat it poses can be mitigated by continuous upskilling and reskilling. Jobs will change, it important that we change as well. 


Demand for PHP Developers

Demand for PHP Developers

  PHP is a staple language in the software development world first appearing on the tech scene way back in 1994. In recent times, we have seen a flurry of articles surface on the future of PHP with some critics arguing that it is a language of the past and that there is no future for PHP professionals on the market. We thought it would be a good idea to present our own take on the polarizing topic. Today’s technology market is evolving at an unprecedented pace, and many critics fear that the times of PHP are long gone. This begs the question; is it worthwhile investing in PHP and creating PHP resources, or are they doomed to become obsolete in the near future? Though many new languages and frameworks are quickly gaining momentum, PHP remains in the top 10 programming languages worldwide according to GitHub, TIOBE, Hacker and Fullstackacademy rankings. PHP was ranked fourth in GitHub’s rankings in 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018. PHP was given the seventh-place ranking in 2018 and eighth place in 2019 by TIOBE experts. listed it as number eight programming language to learn and listed is as number six programming language to learn in 2019. Not so bad for a ‘dead language’. The demand for PHP from a business perspective offers an insight into the longevity and future of the language. PHP is a highly versatile language that can be used for a plethora of business applications from website applications to CRM systems to content management systems. PHP is perfectly compatible with a variety of Apache, IIS and MySQL interfaces and it offers a high level of control to the web developer. PHP boasts a high level of reliability and performance coupled with relatively low development and maintenance costs. This versatile nature and variety of benefits offered by PHP means that it appeals to both start-ups and established businesses who in turn then seek to hire experienced PHP professionals. PHP is used by major brands such as Yahoo, Facebook, Wikipedia, Flickr, WordPress, Friendster, Digg, Source Forge, iStockPhoto, and MailChimp as well as being used by approximately 79% of all websites (discounting CMS sites). Short answer, there is a lot of demand for PHP developers. In the current state of affairs, there is high demand for IT professionals across the entire IT spectrum with demand often outstripping supply. Companies are battling for talent leading to a surge in salaries and remuneration packages being offered to IT professionals. This however is not the case for PHP professionals. Approximately 20% of all developers within the EU have PHP in their tech stack according to LinkedIn data. This figure is so high as PHP is a comparably simple language to learn, and practitioners are often self-taught. It can be learnt for free, has a huge community, and is open source. This substantial number of PHP developers has led to lower salaries being offered compared to other IT professionals such as Ruby on Rails developers with salaries dropping by approximately 4% from 2017 to 2018. Despite the surplus of PHP developers on the market, there is always room to optimise and futureproof your skillset to get ahead of the curve. Laravel and Symphony are sought after frameworks on a CV with only 12% and 10% of PHP professionals listing them as a core skill. Recently, we have seen a lot of demand in the market for CMS skills like TYPO3, Drupal and Magneto. There is a clear shortage of suitable candidates on the market with these skills to match the ever-growing demand. Adding these frameworks to your tech stack will make you a highly sought-after candidate and also enable you to command a higher salary. What is most important to perfect within PHP is the same as every other language, your code. Clean, effective code is a priceless commodity, one that will enable you to command a higher salary more than anything else. The future is yet to be written on PHP, current reports do signify a minute decrease in the demand for PHP, however there is no cause for panic just yet. PHP is an incredibly well established language utilised by millions for a variety of applications across the world.     Looking for a PHP job? Check out our current vacancies here.