Fast Facts: Highest Paying Skills for Recent Computer Science Grads

In a recent survey, 83 percent of employers reported having difficulty finding qualified candidates to hire, and about 75 percent tied it to a skills shortage. Current trends point to a widening skills gap and fewer companies requiring formal degrees, accepting nontraditional credentials instead. Why?

In a skills-based economy employers place the highest value on the specific needs of a job, and they aren't waiting around for traditional institutions to catch up. Companies like Google and Amazon are building in-house certifications and last-mile trainings to meet their own demands for skills that colleges and universities can't supply.

Institutions of higher learning can stay relevant by tapping into their graduate outcomes analytics to learn how their alumni impact the workforce — down to the supply and demand of skills by employer and degree program. With this evidence, institutions can adjust curriculum to create a more marketable, confident workforce.

What are the highest paying skills for Computer Science grads?

When skills are in short supply, and demand for tech talent is growing, employers are willing to pay for the most experienced candidates. Here are the highest paying skills for recent Computer Science grads.

1. Machine Learning
2. Git
3. Node.js
4. Linux
5. C#
6. MySQL
7. SQL
8. Android Software Development
9. Data Structures
10. Javascript

How popular are the highest paying C.S. skills?

Notice the prevalence (or popularity) of each skill tied to a high salary is low for recent Computer Science grads. This chart clearly shows a gap in supply versus demand. Colleges and universities armed with these insights can give their students an education that aligns with a shifting employment market and improve relationships with employers by meeting them in the middle to close the skills gap.

How do the highest paying skills vary by company?

Technologies can vary greatly from company to company, which means the skills they require can vary, too. If you isolate the same population of recent Computer Science grads who gave us the highest paying skills by company, you'll notice a difference in the resulting analytics.

Google

Highest paying skill: Algorithms

Average Salary: $85,147

Amazon

Highest paying skill: Apache Spark

Average Salary: $85,283

Microsoft

Highest paying skill: Machine Learning

Average Salary: $87,653

Want to analyze the skills gap for your university?

Click here to get a free data snapshot of your university outcomes. Steppingblocks will analyze your institutional alumni from our database of over 100 million real people in the workforce. Understand your impact to prove (and improve) the value of a degree from your university.