Data Analyst
Average salary per year:
Here and below - January 2021 salary statistics provided by Glassdoor.
A data analyst solves specific business issues with analytics.
Compared to Data Science, which we will discuss later, analysts have lower salaries. But Data Analyst has a much lower threshold for entering the profession. Here you do not need to have a deep knowledge of mathematics, statistics and probability theory - you just need to own the analyst's tools.
The spread of salaries in the market is largely due to the fact that data analysts are also in demand in companies that, in principle, are not related to IT and digital. On average, DA vacancies are 2.5–3 times higher than DS vacancies. At the same time, Senior DA can easily receive $ 100,000-120,000 per year. It all depends on the pool of skills and abilities.
BLS predicts that the entire DA sector will grow by 18% per year over the next 10 years.
It is also interesting that Data Analyst is considered an excellent springboard for further growth. After all, you can develop from DA into Data Science, ML Engineering, product analyst, and business analytics. Even at Full Stack Developer. There are a lot of options.
Web Developer
A web developer has been in the top of the most demanded professions in the IT field for more than 15 years.
The profession has a fairly low entry threshold - it is enough to know HTML / CSS at an intermediate level in order to make simple, but functional landing pages. Therefore, there are a lot of newcomers here.
But at the same time, there is a very shortage of highly qualified specialists on the market who are fluent in not only HTML / CSS, but also JavaScript with the AngularJS, ReactJS, VueJS frameworks.
Interestingly, web developer is in the top 25 professionswith the highest level of specialist satisfaction. Among the main reasons why the front-end likes their work is a good work environment, almost guaranteed personal and professional development. And the stable growth of the market guarantees the demand for web developers.
A huge plus of the profession is that it is completely suitable for remote work and freelancers. According to Glassdoor , the average salary of a freelance web developer is even higher than that of a full-time office developer.
Information Security Analyst
Interestingly, many companies do not disclose the salaries of their cyber security specialists, so the data varies from source to source. Careercarma , for example, claims that the average salary in the industry exceeds $ 100,000, and a Senior Specialist earns from $ 115,000. The
profession is complex and requires a huge amount of specific knowledge, but the market is experiencing a huge shortage of specialists, so many even large companies do not require a university degree, but quite calmly take specialists after bootcamps. Among them are Google, Amazon, Oracle, Cisco, Facebook, Microsoft.
This specialty is especially relevant for companies with large financial assets and operating a large amount of personal data of users (banks, large grocery corporations, information projects such as social networks and video services). ISA are needed, among other things, for state defense projects. BLS predicts a 31% annual growth in the demand for security professionals.
It should be noted that there is a growing need not only for information security engineers, but also for pentesters who test the created systems for strength and find vulnerabilities in them.
Experienced information security professionals with LPT Master or similar status are literally worth their weight in gold today.
Python Developer
Python is considered one of the fastest growing programming languages today. According to the PYPL ranking , it ranks first in terms of learning dynamics (30.44%), with a significant gap from Java, which is in second place (16.67%).
And a StackOverflow study puts Python in the 4th most used programming language in 2020. And it also indicates that it is the Python programmers of the Middle and higher level that are most lacking on the market.
The highest salaries for developers are paid in Python in the US. There, even Junior can expect to receive compensation of $ 90,000 a year. And Middle gets $ 110,000 without any problems.
Interestingly, the Python developer salary is growing steadily. In 2019–2020, it increased by 15% on average, and the growth dynamics continues.
The reason is simple. Python is now confidently picking up the field of data analytics, and is also widely used in web applications and web services, the development of artificial intelligence algorithms and process automation. At the same time, it has a low entry threshold due to the simplicity of syntax and sugar.
Database Administrator
DBA is one of the key positions in large companies. When the knowledge of system administrators and developers on the DBMS used is no longer sufficient to guarantee the smooth and correct operation of the database, but at the same time it is important for the business, the company hires a DBA.
A database administrator is already an experienced specialist who knows one or more DBMS almost perfectly.
Most often, a DBA is a specialist with impressive experience in development or administration. It is extremely difficult to become a database administrator right away, so the growth of specialists in the market is rather slow. Moreover, every year the market grows by 10% .
Most of all DBA specialists are in demand in e-commerce, which works with big data.
It is also interesting that, despite the high technical requirements of the specialty and stressfulness, DBA specialists are satisfied with their work and the tasks performed - the satisfaction index is 3.8 points out of 5 .
Web designer (UI / UX)
Web designers have always been popular, but in the last 5 years the number of specialists who work not only with images, but also with user experience has grown significantly.
An intuitive interface is the basis of any web project. The user should understand, without unnecessary prompts, how to work with a website or mobile application.
On average, a UX designer earns 30-40% more than a graphic web designer. But the requirements for it are higher. In addition to proficiency in Photoshop and Illustrator, as well as skills in working with Omnigraffle, InVision, Axure and / or Balsamiq, a UX designer must have a strong knowledge of HTML, CSS and JavaScript.
If the designer “does beautifully”, then the UX designer must improve the appearance of the project and its functionality in order to be effective as well. These are not so much design challenges as design issues. Therefore, A / B testing and working with analytics take up the bulk of a specialist's time.
And the most interesting thing is that there is practically no salary threshold. Top industry professionals earn up to $ 25,000 per month.
Mobile App Developer
In 2020, the number of purchases using mobile devices exceeded the volume of shopping using computers for the first time. Statista predicts that in 2021, total mobile purchases will account for 53.9% of total online purchases.
The field of mobile development is still relevant and growing steadily, so specialists are needed constantly. At the same time, it is not worthwhile to somehow separate developers on iOS and Android. Although the task pool, requirements and tools are different, they work in the same market. In most cases, e-commerce applications are developed on iOS and Android simultaneously.
Agency NewZoo also notessignificant growth in mobile gaming. In 2020, the market grew by 13.3% and now stands at $ 77.2 billion. And the dynamics of growth will continue for at least the next 5 years. More than a third of the world's population (2.5 billion people) is expected to play mobile games in 2021.
At the same time, mobile games already occupy over half of the total gaming market. Developing projects for PCs and consoles usually costs orders of magnitude more, but at the same time, they are released significantly less than games for mobile phones.
So the value of developers for iOS and Android will only grow over time. Moreover, the choice of areas for specialists is very wide: from serious projects in e-commerce to the development of mobile games and applications.
DevOps Engineer
DevOps is one of the fastest growing in the IT industry. This is a strategically important specialty for the development of any software: from highly functional utilities to full-fledged operating systems.
IDC predicts that the number of DevOps professionals will double from 2019 to 2024. It is expected that by 2024 at least 30% of companies will have a full DevOps cycle in the development and release of projects.
According to Research and Markets, DevOps is moving from a niche tool to a global market that has enormous potential for growth. During the quarantine period in 2020, the market grew by 29.3%. And by 2027, an annual growth of the specialty is expected to be at least 19.9%.
According to the agency, India, China, Brazil, Mexico, Russia and Canada will act as locomotives in the development of the DevOps sphere.
Research from the Puppet agency says a well-established DevOps infrastructure helps deliver a higher quality product by transforming the way teams feel about their workflow.
DevOps specialists are primarily interested in large IT companies that release many products and need to automate the development, testing and release of projects. And with the development of artificial intelligence algorithms and big data analysis, DevOps has a lot of opportunities to further strengthen and automate product development and improvement processes.
According to Payscale , devops are very satisfied with their work - 4 points out of 5. Despite the high level of responsibility, specialists like the absence of the usual routine tasks most of all. As DevOps, you never get bored.
Data scientist
Big data is the new oil. Moreover, the analogy is relevant not only for the data itself, but also for the salaries that data scientists receive. In today's market, they have virtually no upper bound. Top-tier professionals can earn $ 300,000 a year or more.
The point is that the amount of information on the Internet doubles every two years. According to Statista forecasts , in 2020 the size of the worldwide network is already 59 zettabytes of data. Compared to 2010, this number has increased almost 30 times.
At the same time, the ordering of data is actively growing. Even faster than the total. If in 2010 only 9% of all information was structured , then in 2020 - already 13%.
Frost & Sullivan estimates that the Data Science specialty is growing 35.9% annually. Therefore, the field requires more and more new specialists. And due to a lack of personnel, salaries in Data Science are gradually growing - and this will be the case for at least the next few years.
Interestingly, Data Scientists are among the top jobs with the highest employee satisfaction, with a 4.3 out of 5 . This means that at least 86% of specialists are fully satisfied with their functionality and salary in the company. Therefore, it is safe to assume that the field of Data Science will continue to develop dynamically in the future.
Machine Learning Engineer
For five years in a row, the profession of a machine learning engineer has maintained an enormous pace of development.
According to Indeed , the machine learning space grew 344% from 2015 to 2018. And according to a 2020 LinkedIn report , the need for ML professionals has grown by 74% over the past 12 months. And the dynamics of growth is not going to decrease.
On Crunchbase alone, there are 12,272 machine learning startups now (as of December 29, 2020). And there are even more companies that have ML as a non-core, but important part of their work. And for at least another 5 years, the market will experience an acute shortage of qualified machine learning engineers.
AI and machine learning specialists are needed in tech companies that automate workflows. They are also needed for the development of systems for working with natural languages, economic forecasting, picture and face recognition, in game design and many other areas.
Glassdoor also compiled a ranking of the best startups and machine learning companies. See the spoiler for a complete list.
Leaders in machine learning
So if you are looking for where to develop or where to start your way in IT, choose one of these professions - you won't be mistaken. There is always enough for bread with butter and caviar.
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