The unemployment rate may have ticked down from 8% a year ago to 7.3% in August, but the jobs picture remains lackluster. If you look beneath the headline statistics, you find that the share of Americans who are either working or looking for work has slid to its lowest level since 1978, because many discouraged people have dropped out of the workforce. One bright spot: the need for employees with computer science skills remains robust and promises to grow. The Bureau of Labor Statistics is predicting that jobs for what it calls “computer and information research scientists” will increase by 19% between 2010 and 2020, a healthy rate. For software developers the forecast is even better, with a projected growth rate of 30%. (Compare that to my field: The growth rate for “reporters, correspondents and broadcast news analysts” will decline by 6% in that time period, says the BLS.)
I checked in with Indeed, the Google-like job listing aggregator, to get the latest information about which cities have the greatest number of postings for computer science jobs and how those jobs are paying. Salaries are healthy this year: $98,000 is the average pay for Senior Software Engineers, one of the top five job titles listed, with 840 postings nationwide. Other job titles with the greatest number of listings: Software Engineer, Senior Sharepoint Developer (Sharepoint is a software platform and group of products made by Microsoft), Senior Software Engineer, Software Developer and Java Developer.
When Indeed gathered its data, it counted jobs that were listed directly by employers as opposed to jobs listed by staffing firms, to ensure against duplicates.
Among cities with the most listings, New York comes out on top, with nearly 5,000 jobs. That’s not surprising, given the city’s population, density and the growth of so-called Silicon Alley. But it’s interesting to note that when I wrote a similar story last year, Washington, D.C., with its many defense contractors and government jobs, was No. 1. This year D.C. has slipped to fifth place, with 2,200 jobs. The top-ten list has shifted in part because Indeed sharpened its search for us, zeroing in on cities and neighboring communities within a 25-mile radius. Last year it researched metropolitan areas, which included postings within 100 miles of a city center. This year’s list is a more genuine ranking of city job listings, as opposed to distant suburbs and outlying areas
After New York, the No. 2 city is San Francisco, home to an explosion of tech start-ups. That city offers 3,900 job listings. Seattle comes in third, with 3,000 jobs. The city Seattle has big employers with a need for computer scientists, like Amazon and Microsoft.
Some sample jobs listed on Indeed right now: In New York, there is a position for a junior software engineer at a company called Pulsepoint, a digital media and advertising outfit. No salary is listed. The job requires a B.S. in computer science, math or engineering, or equivalent professional experience, and looks for skills like algorithm mastery and Java language.
In San Francisco, there is a posting for a senior software engineer at Twilio, the fast-growing cloud computing company that, among other things, lets people make and get phone calls that are hosted in the cloud. Twilio has a growing client list, from airbnb to LinkedIn. Like Pulsepoint, Twilio requires a computer science degree or equivalent experience and it also wants at least five years of work experience. In addition, it requires skills that those of us who are not in the field don’t understand, like SIP, RDBMS and MySQL. Applicants obviously need to know what those acronyms mean. No pay is listed with this position, but salary site Glassdoor suggests the post would pay in the six figures, up to $125,000.
In Seattle, there is a listing for a software engineering job at a big data directory company called Inome, founded by entrepreneur, Naveen Jain, whose meteorite collection I happened to write about a couple of months ago. Again the requirements include words that are mysterious to Luddites like me: Hadoop, HDFS, AVRO. This job requires a Bachelor’s or Master’s in computer science or a related field. There is no compensation listed but the company lists perks like a 401k match and free public transit pass.
Chicago comes in fourth with 2,800 jobs, including Java Application Software Developer at SWC Technology Partners, a company that provides information technology services to mid-sized companies. This post requires not just a computer science degree but 3-10 years of experience and knowledge of yet another list of terms I don’t understand: PHP, Javascript, Apache web server, and Tomcat. Presumably that has nothing to do with a tabby or calico. No salary is mentioned in this listing either but from Glassdoor it looks like it would pay in the six figures, since Glassdoor shows a programmer position that pays up to $113,000.
In fifth place, Washington, D.C. has 2,200 postings. They include a Senior Information Security Engineer position at the College Board in Reston, VA, a job that requires five to seven years of IT experience and five years in information security, plus knowledge of yet more acronyms I don’t understand: SEIM, IDS/IPS. Glassdoor says a software engineer job there pays between $80,000 and $120,000. I’m guessing this senior post would pay on the high end of that scale, if not more.
As I have written many times, Indeed is a good place to start a job search, but it’s essential to go beyond the listings if you want to land a job. Plug the company name into LinkedIn to learn what connections you have inside a company. Reach out to those people and ask if they know if the job is still open and whether they can put you in touch with someone inside the company whom you can talk to candidly. It’s even better if they can help you get in front of the hiring manager. Tap the network of family and friends you see regularly and tell them you’re interested in the particular company.
When you do send in your résumé, hopefully with a cover letter that mentions someone the recipient knows, make sure it includes keywords from the job description. Your letter should also specifically address the requirements listed in the job description. For example, if you were applying for that College Board job, you would say you have experience in SEIM and IDS/IPS (whatever that is!).
There is no question that there are plenty of computer science jobs waiting to be filled. Companies need to hire and they are willing to pay for great people
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