Despite the looming threat of AI, people who can code are in high demand across banking. Some languages are much more popular than others.
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We’ve looked at job listings for 13 major investment banks to find which languages are most frequently requested. While we found Python to be the most popular language across all areas of finance when we looked at this in September, it seems that major banks have a different favourite: SQL.
SQL is the de facto language in finance for data analysis and is used by multiple different types of role. Data scientists, quants, risk managers and even investment bankers use it.
Behind it are Python and Java. Python is the most popular language in the world right now, and is used in all manner of functions, including data analysis and machine learning. Java is banks’ historic favourite; jobs with that language more often involve working on legacy or back office technology. There are some exceptionally high paying jobs for Java developers in finance, but they’re predominantly found outside of banking, at hedge funds and trading firms.
It’s notable that hiring for tech roles in India is greater than the US and UK combined. Roughly half of all Java roles in the banks we looked at are in the subcontinent.
C++ roles, which can often be some of the highest paying tech jobs, are proportionally high in Hong Kong and Singapore. While ~10% of global banking jobs are in C++, the language is mentioned in roughly a quarter of listings in these Asian cities.
Roughly 9% of tech candidates in our CV database claim C++ experience. The incidence of C++ jobs is therefore 1.2x times higher than the incidence of C++ candidates. C++ is an outlier compared to the likes of Python, SQL and Java which have huge candidate bases; almost 50% of candidates have SQL experience.
At all but two banks, Java roles made up 20% to 23% of total openings. More niche languages are less equally distributed.
For example, Q, another high-paying niche language, is particularly popular at Goldman Sachs. It makes up 2.8% of job listings at the bank compared to just 1% at JPMorgan and 0.5% at HSBC.
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