According to a recent article in Forbes, 59% of hiring managers are using ‘flexible’ talent – i.e. freelancers and other temporary talent. In addition, most companies believe this trend will significantly increase over the next decade. There are hundreds of programming languages out there, but which are the most common programming languages for freelancers? Put differently, how best can you future-proof your career as a freelance developer? Read on to find out.
JavaScript
JS or JavaScript is used to make web applications more interactive, rather than just being static, plain pages. It’s used by 94,5% of all websites. And here’s the kicker: you can use JavaScript for both client-side scripts, which integrate seamlessly into HTML, and for server-side code by using a cross-platform runtime engine like Node,js. For freelancers, this it useful, because it means you can find work as both a front-end or back-end web developer, though JavaScript is more commonly used for front-end projects.
‘We are always hiring developers with knowledge of this language,’ says Damien Filiatrault, the Founder and CEO at Scalable Path on Quora. ‘I believe its market share will continue to increase over the next half-decade. There is just so much momentum here that even if the tide changes, legacy systems mean JavaScript will still be dominant in five years. JavaScript-based frameworks are also, logically, really popular. Having experience in one of the above could double your hourly rate.’
According to the PYPL, Popularity of Programming Language Index, which looks at how often language tutorials are searched on Google, JavaScript takes third place (data from September, 2018).
Image Source: http://pypl.github.io/PYPL.html
Python
According to Stack Overflow’s Blog, Python has ‘a solid claim to being the fastest-growing major programming language’. In addition, according to the 2018 Developer Survey, it’s also considered the most wanted language for the second year in a row, meaning developers who do not yet use Python say they intend on learning it soon. This is confirmed by Ashish Kedia, a Web Solutions Engineer at Google, who says, ‘In my opinion, Python and JavaScript are two most popular languages as of today in the freelancing world.’
A good reason for Python being one of the most common programming languages for freelancers concerns its relationship with big data: Python is probably the most used programming language in Data Science. Powerful statistical and numerical packages exist in Python for data analysis (such as PyBrain, NumPy and MySQL). Anyone comfortable with the Python programming language can use it as a tool to organize, process, and visualize data. Even if programmers are not in a Data Science field, Python is still useful to them because most programmers deal with data, in one way or another, in their day-to-day work. And salaries confirm the in-demand nature of Python – the average US Python freelancer developer salary per annum, according to ZipRecruiter, is $105,224.
Java
The Freelancer website states that ‘Java’s demand has risen sharply in the past few years, mainly due to the growth of Android phones.’ Android apps are built with Java, which means that if you’re interested in freelancing as an app developer, this is a language you should definitely learn. In addition, Java is also a very useful programming language, because it’s used on multiple platforms and for different types of programming, including web development and embedded programming (which refers to a specific type of programming that doesn’t operate on traditional operating systems).
Java is also a popular language. The TIOBE index looks at the popularity of various programming languages. This is determined by looking at the following variables: number of skilled engineers in a particular language world-wide, courses offered in that language and third party vendors. This information is combined with popular search engine results for the different languages on Google, Bing, Yahoo!, Wikipedia, Amazon, YouTube, etc. For April 2018, same as April 2017, Java was ranked as the most popular language.
Source: https://www.tiobe.com/tiobe-index/
In closing, JavaScript, Python and Java are probably the most common programming languages for freelancers who want to be in high demand. The good news is that you can learn them all via HyperionDev’s online, mentor-led bootcamps. The Software Engineering Bootcamp includes Python as part of its back-end programming. If you’re keen to learn Java, consider doing either a Software Engineering bootcamp or a Mobile Developer Bootcamp, both offer Java. And JavaScript is covered in the Full Stack Web Developer course. Become a freelance programmer with any of these valuable programming skills.
