Walk your own road
There are so many paths you could forge for yourself. Discover what you like best about development, then stride forward doing the things you enjoy.
What do you want to work on?
You may decide you want to be a full stack developer, specialise in front end, back end, or databases. You may prefer building things, or you may prefer fixing things. You may like working on quick turnaround projects, or continually improving a big system. Or you might decide to become a scrum master, or a tech team lead, or start your own tech business, or move across into devops, quality assurance, or cyber security.
Which tech do you enjoy using?
We teach PHP and Node.js, but there are many other languages, and you’ll have the skills to learn them if you want to. Whether you lean towards languages that are best suited to working with hardware, improving software, creating websites, or organising data there will be a language for you.
How do you want to contribute?
Every industry in the world nowadays needs tech. Whatever you are passionate about, you’ll have the ability to get into. Care about climate change? Go into green energy or agritech. Enjoy helping people? Education or health. A real foodie? Restaurant delivery or grocery e-commerce. Love stars and cars? Aerospace and transport. Every industry needs developers like you.
What is important to you?
Work life balance is important, so your career should support that. You may want to work your way around the world, or prefer a secure role with a clear route for progression. You may prefer working remotely, or in a sociable team. You may want flexible work hours, or a reliable routine. You may prefer a generous salary, or a role with the chance to play with exciting new tech. Structure or freedom? Large company or small? What type of company culture? With in-demand skills, you are in more of a position to choose the sort of job that suits you.
Don’t worry if you don’t have any idea yet what path you want to go down. We’ll be here to help you to recognise your own strengths and get you started.
It’s okay to take time discovering where you want to go in your career.
The main thing is to take the first step.
How much can you earn?
Starting salaries for junior developers vary depending on factors including:
- Location
- Sector
- Company size
- Transferable experience
As a rough guide, a junior developer in the Bristol & Bath area should expect a starting salary from £20-30k, and in London £25-35k.
As an example, a career changer with related experience going into a role at a large fintech company in London would expect to be paid a higher salary than a school leaver going into a small healthtech start-up in Cornwall.
It is useful to be aware of what salary ranges to expect and why there might be differences, however remember that the most important thing is that this should be a career you love.
Moving forward
Career progression is often faster in tech than many other professions. How fast you progress will depend on which tech you specialise in, the level of support from your employer, and, of course, how hard you work to continue learning.
You will generally spend 2-4 years as a junior developer before progressing to mid-level, moving up to senior after another 2-3 years, and following that may want to become a lead developer. With additional experience in management there is potential to progress to Head of Technology or CTO, depending on your aspirations.
According to the 2020 Tech Nation Report, the salary for a full stack developer in Bristol, Leeds and Manchester ranged from £43-59k, while in London it was £50-74k.
- Junior developer – 26,226
- Mid-level developer – 36,970
- Full stack developer – 41,921
- Senior developer – 52,516
- Lead developer – 55,877
- Software Development Manager – 66,580
- Head of technology – 86,131
- CTO – 124,483
*UK national average salaries via Glassdoor
