progammerGood news for all the geeks out there: the demand for computer programmers remains high. Despite a rather stagnant economy, innovation in the technology industries is continuing at a faster and faster pace. Employers are looking for folks who can help keep their company afloat in this world of fast-paced rate of change – folks who have a firm conceptual understanding in CS, coupled with practical technical skills: web design, back-end programming, SEO skills, etc. New disciplines like robotics and the Internet of Things are beginning to blossom, and as they continue to become more and more advanced, the demand for individuals who can contribute in said field will soar. It’s already beginning to.

Skills such as C++, Java and .Net will continue to remain in high demand for the foreseeable future, but it would be imprudent to not look at where technology is headed. The IT and CS fields are not foreign to paradigm shaking changes that totally changed the way programmers and IT professionals went about their work. It happens every decade or so, and it wouldn’t be a surprise if it were to happen again very soon. Given that wearable technology is on the brink of being the next big thing, professionals familiar with the Android operating system and robotics should not find a shortage of job offerings in the coming years. There will be new skills that will take the market by storm, and IT professionals and computer programmers who once were sitting pretty in their very own comfort zone will be scrambling to learn these skills. This is exactly what happened nearly 7 years ago, when smartphones hit the market, calling for mobile application experts and developers.

But if you have just graduated high school or are in your early twenties and have yet to break into the IT industry, it may be difficult to know where to start. You may be programming novice, but know that that is where the good bucks are at, and so want to develop the requisite programming skills to land a well-paying job. What programming language should you learn?

According to a list of the most sought-after skills, Java remains at the top, followed by .NET, C++, and C# (in that order). Further down the list we have SQL, HTML, C, Javascript, and PHP. So for all you youngsters out there, take your pick and learn one of those languages. It will help you land a job, but we can’t promise you that it will help you keep it. Change is coming, and even the technology mavens can’t put their finger on what skill will be the best to acquire in the near future. Staying vigilant will help to some extent, and we recommend that, but the best thing you can do is ensure you have the basic programming and computer science concepts down. You want a strong foundation of knowledge here, because even the future fields of study will rest on the core concepts that were developed long ago. Only learning the syntax of one language is not enough. When that language becomes obsolete, the one-trick pony programmer will be sure to struggle to stay afloat in this field of extraordinary change. At the end of the day, those who have a burning passion in the field of technology will not find it nearly as hard to adapt to the change as those who find it insipid and boring.