It is generally accepted that programming languages ββsuch as Rust, Erlang, Dart, and some others are the rarest in the IT world. Since I select IT specialists for companies, constantly in contact with IT people and employers, I decided to conduct a personal study and find out if this is really the case. The information is relevant for the Russian IT market.
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To collect information, I studied the number of vacancies that required language skills, as well as the number of resumes with this skill. I collected data on Linkedin, on HeadHunter, using the Amazing Hiring service. I also have personal statistics on applications to my agency.
In general, eight languages ββtouched on my research.
Rust
World statistics: According to statistics in 2018, Rust ranked first (for the third year in a row) in the list of the most beloved languages ββamong developers and sixth in the list of the most expensive languages ββin terms of salary ($69 per year).
Despite the fact that the language is quite popular in the world, in Russia it still remains one of the rarest programming languages.
In key skills, knowledge of Rust was found among 319 specialists on Headhunter and 360 on Linkedin. However, only 24 developers positioned themselves as Rust developers on Headhunter. Behind the scenes, it is believed that only two companies in Russia write on Rust. There are 32 companies offering jobs to Rust developers on Headhunter and 17 on Linkedin.
My agency regularly receives applications for Rust developers. However, there are so few specialists that I already have the impression that I am familiar with all Rust development specialists in the country. Therefore, in the case of the Rust language, many candidates who are interested in a job master the language as they complete the TOR.
Erlang
According to the same statistics Erlang is not far behind Rust and has also made it into all sorts of ratings. In the list of the most favorite languages ββamong developers, Erlang ranks twenty-first, and in terms of salary, Erlang immediately follows Rust, taking seventh position ($67 per year).
Headhunter has 67 job offers for developers with knowledge of Erlang. On Linkedin - 38. If we talk about the number of resumes, only 55 developers on Headhunter had Erlang as a key language (it was indicated in the title), and 38 specialists had Erlang in their job titles on Linkedin.
Moreover, there is a tendency to hire guys who own developed Google Go or Golang instead of Erlang developers, since there are more of them and the salary is lower. However, my personal opinion (based on data from my agency) is that Go will not replace Erlang, because for really high-load and complex projects, Erlang is an indispensable language.
leg
Mainly used in game development. There are practically no vacancies (literally one on Headhunter). There are only two companies on Linkedin that require knowledge of this language. If we talk about the offer, almost two hundred developers indicated knowledge of this language on Linkedin, 109 on Headhunter, of which 10 people put knowledge of Haxe in the title of their resume. It turns out that the Haxe programming language is of little demand on the Russian market. Supply exceeds demand.
Dart
Invented by Google. The language is becoming more and more popular in the market. Published vacancies on Headhunter 10, on Linkedin - 8, but employers do not require this language in the list of key skills. The main condition is a great background in Javascript and a competent approach to solving problems.
The number of developers familiar with the programming language is 275, but again, only 11 people consider Dart their main skill. On Linkedin, 124 people mentioned the language in one way or another in their resumes.
Personal experience and statistics from my agency state that this language is already used by large IT companies. This suggests that it will soon be excluded from the list of rare programming languages. By the way, specialists who speak the Dart language are expensive on the market.
F#
Quite a rare programming language. Developed by Microsoft. In Russia, only a few companies (12 on HH and 7 on Linkedin) are requesting an F# programmer. In other cases, knowledge of the language is optional. By the way, the number of developers with knowledge of F# is gradually growing. The language even appeared in the fresh ranking . It ranks ninth on the list of the most favorite languages ββamong developers, and in terms of salary, it was the first ($ 74 per year).
In terms of the number of resumes published, there are 253 on Headhunter, but very few people consider F# as their main language. Only three people put knowledge of F# in the title of their resume. On Linkedin, the situation is similar: 272 developers mentioned F# in their portfolios, of which only six had F# listed in their positions.
The statistics are as follows:
The number of vacancies in total is 122 on Headhunter and 72 on Linkedin. The most popular language among those studied is Erlang. More than 50% of companies request knowledge of Erlang. Haxe turned out to be the least demanded language. Looking for specialists with knowledge of Haxe 1% and 3% of companies on Headhunter and Linkedin, respectively.
In terms of the number of published abstracts, the situation is almost similar. Of the 1644 resumes posted on Headhunter, more than forty percent (688) are related to Erlang, the fewest resumes (7%) were posted by specialists with Haxe development skills. The data received from Linkedin is somewhat different. The guys who own Dart posted the fewest resumes. Out of 1894 portfolios, only 124 relate to Dart development.
Opa, Fantom, Zimbu
I decided to combine all these three languages ββββin one paragraph for one simple reason - truly the rarest languages. There are no vacancies and practically no resumes. You can count on one hand the developers who have specified any of these languages ββin their skills.
Since these languages ββare not included in the annual Stackoverflow report, nor are they found in vacancies, I will spell out a few words about what these languages ββare.
Opa - a web programming language that tries to immediately replace HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP. Developed in 2011. Opa is free and currently only available for 64-bit Linux and Mac OS X platforms.
Fantom is a general purpose language that compiles to the Java Runtime Environment, JavaScript, and the .NET Common Language Runtime. Developed in 2005.
Zimbu - a unique and specific language that can be used to develop almost anything: from GUI applications to OS kernels. At the moment it is considered an experimental language, not all features of which are developed.
In addition to programming languages, I also included in the list and position cybersecurity specialist. The number of vacancies compared to the number of resumes is small (about 20). It turns out that supply exceeds demand (as in the case of Haxe), which is quite atypical for the IT sector. The salary of information security specialists is low. For example, in St. Petersburg, an experienced cyber security specialist is offered 80-100 thousand rubles.
My little research showed that the βtopβ languages ββfor mastering are: Rust, Erlang, Dart - there is a demand, a high salary. The least demanded languages ββwere Haxe, Opa, Fantom, Zimbu. F# is popular abroad, the Russian IT market has not yet been captured by the language.
Source: habr.com