The IT sector is rapidly expanding on the EU market, and it was accelerated even further with the pandemic.. The key drivers for this are the need for digital transformation, automation options and cybersecurity. According to the Analysis of shortage and surplus occupations created by the European Commission, almost all IT professions are mentioned on the list of “shortages of high magnitude”.

According to Erni -a Swiss software engineering company- every 3rd company in the EU is looking for programmers. Based on a Eurostat report, over 50% of the companies in the European Union have difficulty recruiting IT colleagues due to the shortage of skilled professionals. In Germany alone, more than 124,000 jobs cannot currently be filled, but Hungary itself is lacking around 30,000 developers. According to a report, many companies are working with more and more international talent to fill the gap.

According to the European Software Skills Alliance (ESSA), among all software-related roles, the demand for developers is the highest. The most in-demand programming languages are Java, Javascript, SQL, HTML, PHP, C++, C#, and Python at the moment.  Also, studying computer science at a university level is the best option for young professionals, as (besides thorough practical training), they must also have a solid understanding of programming principles as it is not clear which new programming languages will last in the long run and become more important, and how these programming languages will change in the future. To be able to adapt and learn the swift developments in the field, a thorough theoretical understanding is also necessary, otherwise purely practical knowledge can become obsolete qucikly. Besides programing, some additional hard skills are becoming very important  in the field, such as security management, project management, sustainability management and sustainable software development.

Based on the findings of ESSA, the skills needed in software roles are certainly not restricted to hard software skills and other profession-related skills. There is a growing importance of soft skills that are needed to be successful as a software professional. The most important soft skills at the moment are critical thinking and analysis, problem-solving, and self-management. In addition, people in software roles also need interpersonal skills — mainly teamwork and communication skills — since almost all activities in these roles nowadays require collaborative working.