By the numbers: Austin’s most in demand coding skills

It’s no secret there are lots of opportunities out there if you can code. At last count, Built In Austin’s job board had 293 openings in its Developer/Engineer category alone.

 

But if you’re looking to make a move or just add a new framework to your toolkit, how do you choose which skills to learn?

 

At a glance, the highest demand is for data engineering, mobile apps for iOS and Android, and quality assurance engineers—even though those are a luxury at many tech companies.

 

Before we get into further detail about how you can pursue these skills, a note on the terms we’re throwing around: You can’t really make an apples-to-apples comparison among software development languages like PHP and Drupal, which complement one another almost as often as they compete.

 

It’s kind of like asking if there are more hammers or screwdrivers in the world—most people own both, and their uses are pretty specific.

 

Likewise, some languages are more versatile than others. In the tools metaphor, JavaScript is increasingly becoming the duct tape of the software world, capable of holding together almost any web application if you know how to use it.

 

 

Fortunately, it’s a lot easier to learn software development than it used to be. For one, there are tons of high quality tutorials online, many of which are free (and the paid ones are generally worth it).

 

Better yet, the rapid growth of coding schools affords you a place to go and learn in a classroom setting without the time and financial investment of a college degree in computer science, or the overwhelming options online.

 

"There's no substitute for getting an opportunity to work in a team environment," said Damon Clinkscales (pictured right), founder of the product development firm Kismet Ventures and longstanding meetups Austin on Rails, Cafe Bedouins and Austin Open Coffee Club. "The rise of coding schools as an alternative path to a technical career (instead of college) has been pretty remarkable."

 

One of the schools offering this opportunity in Austin is The Iron Yard. Travis Swicegood became campus director there after years of work as a self-taught developer. He put college on hold during a lucrative software project he worked on after high school and didn’t look back. He’s since worked as a UX architect and public speaker on related tech topics.

 

“I wish I’d had something like this when I was learning to code,” he said. “In 12 weeks, our students are where I was after a year and a half of trying to feel through it myself.”

 

While most online tutorials focus on step-by-step instruction, Swicegood said coding schools teach you to think and learn like a programmer.

 

“The vast majority of students come in thinking they’re going to get a certain skill,” he said. “Most of them get careers where they’re using those skills, but learning new ones on the job or applying their skill in a new way. But they know how to think through the process because we teach them to think like a front-end or back-end developer, or designer.”

 

So how do you choose the path that’s right for you? We talked to a few coding school graduates to find out what worked for them.

 

Michael Pitre worked on Wall Street and in East coast commercial real estate before attending The Iron Yard. Now he’s a service engineer at Academic Works.

 

“I had a very hard time choosing between the back-end and front-end courses,” he said. “When you're trying to choose as a total outsider to the tech industry, the distinction is very difficult to make. I ended up choosing the back end class because it was the more ‘full-stack’ of the two courses, and I wanted exposure to both sides of development. Viability in the job market was obviously very important to me.”

 

Jesse Crow is a front-end developer at IBM Design. Before taking design courses at The Iron Yard, she was the office manager at Favor.

 

“I had no UI design experience,” she said. “I wanted to learn how to code, but I also wanted to learn design principles and programs so that I could take concepts from an idea to a live, coded version. The UI design course struck that balance between design and code perfectly.”

 

Ultimately, the best skill you can have to keep up with the evolving tech landscape is the ability to change with it.

 

“I think the most important thing that I learned at The Iron Yard was how to learn,” Crow said.