Assessing the Availability of Entry-Level Software Development Positions in the 2024 Job Market
Romeo Cifuentes-Beach
Co-Presenters: Individual Presentation
College: The Dorothy and George Hennings College of Science, Mathematics and Technology
Major: Computer Science
Faculty Research Mentor: Daehan Kwak
Abstract:
This work attempts to study claims about the availability of entry level software development jobs. Recently, there have been increasing concerns about the software development job market being hard to break into. Anecdotally, many people have found it difficult or have been unable to find a software development job without having prior experience in the field, especially in the years after the pandemic. This study investigates the validity of these claims by analyzing the 2024 job market through job listings.A quantitative approach was used in this study. 870 U.S. Glassdoor job listings, taken from the first half of 2024, were analyzed in this study. The python library Pandas was used to help organize and filter the data. To find the frequency of jobs that required certain levels of experience, job titles were filtered for certain keywords. In particular, the keywords “Senior,” “Junior,” “Entry,” and “Experienced” were used. The average salary of jobs for each skill level was also analyzed to determine if employers paid less experienced developers a lower salary.The results support the idea that the 2024 job market was challenging for new developers. When a job title included an experience level, it was over four times more likely for it to be listed as a senior position than an entry level or junior position. Interestingly, the average salary for entry-level and junior positions was comparable to that of senior positions, indicating a less distinct pay gap than expected. However, it must be noted that this information is based on a limited sample size. Of the 870 job listings provided in this dataset, only 139 had an indication of the required skill level. A future study should attempt to perform a more comprehensive analysis of the job market using a similar methodology.Keywords: Software Development, Entry Level, Job Market, Job Availability