How to Score a Junior Java Developer Job? Analyzing Most Common Job Requirements in the U.S.

If you choose software development as your career path, which the majority of CodeGym’s students do, then getting your first serious full-time job as Junior Java Developer probably won’t be easy. But it shouldn’t be too hard either if you are using CG to learn the essential Java development theory and acquire practical skills of using it, as well as following our publications meant to deliver all the other information that may need to get the job (or point you in the right direction to get it). Learning most frequently asked job interview questions for Java positions and using online developer interview prep platforms should be helpful to build up your confidence before the technical interview, for example.But would that be enough? To answer that question, we decided to study currently open Junior Java Developer job openings in the U.S., looking at the most common requirements for positions of this level. So let’s see.

1. Education.

Most common job description requirement:

• Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science or equivalent, or one or more years of work experience.

Frequency of reference: over 70% of job descriptions. Evidently, a computer science degree is still regarded by the absolute majority of employers in the U.S. as a basic requirement for a Junior Java Developer position. But even though a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science gets mentioned in job descriptions quite frequently, in most cases it is perceived as a necessary requirement only if you don’t have any previous work experience in this field. At least a year, better two years, of professional experience seem like an adequate alternative to the CS degree in the eyes of most employers, based on our research.

2. Work experience.

Most common job description requirements:

• 2+ years of software development work experience.
• Proven hands-on Software Development experience.
• Proven working experience in Java development.

Frequency of reference: over 90% of job descriptions. Even though many employers tend to specify “two or more” years of professional experience as a standard requirement, many just ask for “proven working experience” in the field, which allows us to conclude that having a proof of your capabilities as a Java developer in a form of side projects or freelance work would be sufficient. Given you have enough of that to show it as an equivalent of 1-2 years of working in the field.

3. Java technologies.

Most common job description requirements:

• Experience in Java 8 features such as Lambda expressions, Streams, and CompletableFuture.
• Good knowledge of Java and J2EE environment (required for Enterprise developers).
• Solid understanding of OOD design principles and patterns.
• Strong understanding of application enterprise architecture and data flows.

Frequency of reference: over 95% of job descriptions. Of course, almost all Junior Java Developer job descriptions include the knowledge of Java Core. Java 8 features, J2EE environment, and object-oriented design would be among the most commonly mentioned.

4. Frameworks.

Frameworks that are most commonly mentioned in job description requirements:

• Spring (70% of job descriptions)
• Hibernate (20-30% of job descriptions)
• Angular (25-30% of job descriptions)
• Bootstrap (20-25% of job descriptions)

The Spring framework is mentioned in the requirements for a Junior Java Developer the most frequently, which comes as no surprise as this is the most popular Java framework by far. Other frameworks, the knowledge of which is often specified as desirable, are Hibernate, Angular, and Bootstrap.

5. IDEs.

Most frequently mentioned IDEs:

• Eclipse (60% of job descriptions)
• IntelliJ IDEA (40% of job descriptions)

Eclipse and IntelliJ IDEA dominate in Java Junior jobs descriptions in the U.S., although, to be fair, most companies tend to articulate this requirement without too much specifics, as the need to have experience using Eclipse, IntelliJ IDEA, or one of the alternative IDEs.

6. Other software development tools, technologies, and methodologies.

Most frequently mentioned:

• Adobe Experience manager (AEM) (20% of job descriptions).
• Bamboo, Jira, SonarQube, Crucible, Subversion, GIT, and other code versioning tools (35% of job descriptions).
• Automated build and testing utilities such as Jenkins, Junit, Maven, Robot Framework (15% of job descriptions).
• Agile SCRUM development (over 70% of job descriptions).

When it comes to other software development tools and technologies, the most frequently mentioned would be code versioning tools, content management solutions such as Adobe Experience manager, and automated software testing technologies. In the software development methodologies field, Agile SCRUM is the most dominant one by far.

How CodeGym will help you meet these requirements and get the job

Feeling a little bit overwhelmed with all these things that you seem to need to know in order to score a Junior Java Developer position? It would be quite understandable if you are. The good news is, learning on CodeGym can and will give you most of that required knowledge and experience. You will master all the essential Java Core technologies while going through the CG course and will start getting used to the tool and technologies a Java Junior Developer is most frequently required to know soon after the course begins. Our students get to start working on real coding tasks from Level 3, and pretty soon begin to develop mini-projects (writing a complete piece of software on your own) and games, doing all coding in CodeGym’s IntelliJ Idea plugin, so you will be very comfortable with using IntelliJ Idea, which is the most popular IDE among Java developers these days. While mini-projects are designed to arm you with all the skills that are necessary to progress further and start working on pet projects to get those 1-2 years of practical experience and feel confident on the job interview. Have experience applying for Junior Java Developer positions? Share it with us in the comments section below!