Why learning 10 programming languages doesn’t make you a more interesting job candidate

New data from LinkedIn on the most in-demand jobs on the platform in the third quarter of this year reveals that software engineering is in second place. Just pipped to the post by sales roles, it is clear that software engineering and development pros are in high demand.

Additionally, full stack engineers and application developers feature in the top ten in-demand roles at places eight and ten respectively.

Software roles are in such high prominence because software powers pretty much everything. According to McKinsey, these days, “Every company is a software company.”

Traditional bricks and mortar businesses are now increasingly digital-first. Think of your bank or your supermarket, for example. The way we use these businesses has radically changed, with services increasingly offered online.

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Media are software companies now too. Hundreds of workers at The New York Times Tech Guild went on strike the day before the US election. They include data analysts, project managers, and software developers, and make up around 600 of the publication’s tech employees.

These workers create and maintain the back-end systems that power the New York Times—yes, including Wordle. The fact that they not only represent about 10% of the paper’s total workforce, but are so essential to its operations, is yet another sign of our reliance on software solutions and the people who provide them.

McKinsey has established three main reasons why this is the case. Firstly, there is the accelerated adoption of digital products, observed particularly during the pandemic when we did more online than ever before.

Secondly, these days, more of the value in products and services is derived from software. Thirdly, the growth of cloud computing, PaaS, low- and no-code tools, and AI-based programming platforms are growing the sector exponentially.

Languages to learn

In such a dynamic sector, it’s no surprise that new programming languages are emerging all the time. Consider Mojo, a language designed to combine the simplicity of Python, with the efficiency of C++ or Rust.

Or how about Finch, a new language from MIT that’s designed to support both flexible control flow and diverse data structures.

Additionally, older languages are having a resurgence, such as Go, and that’s because it’s good for security and AI; both hot-button topics right now.

Stack Overflow’s 2024 Developer Survey highlighted JavaScript, HTML/CSS, and Python as the top three languages respondents had used for extensive development work over the past year.

Additionally, the US White House Office of the National Cyber Director (ONCD) issued a recent report advising that programmers should move to memory-safe languages.

Given all that, it is understandable if as a developer, you’re really not sure what languages you should be using, what you should learn, and what you can think about dropping.

Broad v specific

Does this mean you should be aiming to become proficient in up to ten languages? A recent Reddit thread discussed just that, with one user arguing, “There is absolutely no point of learning 10 languages; just pick two, pick a specific field, and become the best at it.”

Others agreed, with one contributor saying, “people are fixated on finding the hottest new language, the hottest new tech stack, or the latest trends, but this is not gonna help you.”

Another user pointed out that “Specialisation is good but you should have a general understanding of the type of languages and how they work, then you can learn new languages and tech stack easily.”

For many developers, good foundational knowledge is more important (and more valuable to their long-term career) than having a laundry list of programming languages on their CV that they may only be semi-proficient in.

“Learning a stack on YouTube and building toy projects is easy,” pointed out another thread contributor. “Building specialisation takes a lot more effort and many years of real life experience.”

If you do decide to specialise in a couple of languages, that should be, at least in part, influenced by what you enjoy doing most.

“Do what you think is good for you,” says a thread contributor. “Once you become really good, you’ll automatically stand out from the crowd by being better than 90% of the mediocre developers.” Wise advice.

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