Software Developer Career Path
All the insights below are based on Jobtrees users’ actual career paths, aggregated together, instantaneously, to show you the real and unique most common career progression for each role. Use this as inspiration for your next job and to re-calibrate expectations for what success is in your next career step. After you search, toggle over to the Family View to see what roles are in the same job family. Use this to get a sense of the hierarchy of roles within this job family and inspiration for other jobs you can target.
Filter Options
The career path for a
Based on 380 Jobtrees users who were a Software Developer in their career, on average, they have 1.98 years of experience and 2 jobs prior to this one. They spend 3.2 years on average in this job building experience and earn $105K per year before moving on.
12% of Jobtrees users moved to another job with this same title in their next career step. The most common career steps after Software Developer are Software Engineer, Senior Software Engineer and Research Assistant. Software Engineer, the most common next career step, is a less experienced role which is common to see in career paths as titles aren't synonymous across companies (higher title doesn't always mean higher pay or larger scope) and not all job seekers are looking to increase their responsibility in their next career step. While Software Engineer is from the same job family, Developer, there are other common opportunities outside this discipline that Jobtrees users are taking as shown by Senior Software Engineer, also being a common career path to Software Developer.
If you are looking for more ideas on potential career paths from this job, you should also consider Web Developer, Teaching Assistant and Software Development Intern as they commonly lead to Software Developer as well. Find more insights below about this specific career path based on our Jobtrees users' experience.
Interactive Career Path Tool – Plan the path to your next job
Explore the ways our users are moving between roles. Apply filters to see more specific insights and save the specific paths you want to remember. Dive deeper into jobs you like.
Info on Jobtree buttons and symbols
The roles above are the most common next steps in our users’ career paths.
Use the + button and watch the ‘branches grow’. It adds another level of potential career steps based on the most common paths taken by Jobtrees’ users.
Software Developer
Software Engineer
Senior Software Engineer
Research Assistant
Senior Software Developer
Software Engineer
Senior Software Engineer
Web Developer
Software Development Intern
Software Engineering Intern
The roles below are the most common previous steps in our users’ career paths.
Use the + button and watch the ‘roots grow’. It adds another level of potential previous career steps based on the most common paths taken by Jobtrees’ users.Read insights on these paths here
Understand more about the career path
How can I become a
The most common career steps to get to Software Developer are Software Engineer, Senior Software Engineer and Web Developer based on actual career paths reported to Jobtrees.
While Software Engineer is the most common, there is no specific role leading to Software Developer that is an overwhelmingly common path. Another characteristic of the Software Developer career path is that experience within the same job family as this role isn't common and as a result likely not necessary. This shows there are many potential paths to becoming a Software Developer so focusing on translatable skills is likely more important than a specific role.
While Software Engineer isn't from the same job family as Software Developer, Developer, it can help to have direct experience in this discipline shown by Senior Software Engineer also being a common career path to Software Developer.
If you are looking for more potential career paths to Software Developer, you should also consider Senior Software Developer and Teaching Assistant as they commonly lead to Software Developer as well.
What should I know about the career path
Career paths aren't linear with people often returning to a prior role which is what you see with Software Engineer being the most common role to and from Software Developer. This is common when people move to companies of different sizes or choose to return to a function they fit well with. Career paths aren't linear with people often returning to a prior role which is what you see with Software Engineer being on the path to and from Software Developer. This is common when people move to companies of different sizes or choose to return to a function they fit well with.
Software Developer is part of the Developer job family which has a variety of unique role within that discipline. Choosing to pursue a role within this family likely will mean that you will need to look outside of your discipline to find new roles and so should focus on related skills as part of that search.
Other common titles that have similar job requirements and career paths as Software Developer are Freelance Software Engineer, Junior Software Developer.