Coding bootcamp graduates earn a higher starting salary than developers with a bachelor’s degree, according to the latest survey of 2,504 global remote developers. Self-taught developers earn more than those with a bachelor’s degree for senior roles.
“The findings confirm that companies are willing to pay top dollar for talented developers, regardless of their formal education. A traditional four-year computer science degree is no longer the only path to success. The way we think about career development has changed drastically with the acceptance of non-traditional education and self-directed learning. It means anyone can build an amazing remote career as a developer in 2022, including those without a university education,” says Weiting Liu, CEO and founder of Arc.
Companies are willing to pay top dollar for talented developers, regardless of their formal education. A traditional four-year computer science degree is no longer the only path to success.
Weiting Liu, CEO and founder of Arc
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Coding Bootcamps
For the first three years of experience, employers pay global bootcamp graduates a higher median salary than developers with a bachelor’s degree receive:
- 0-1 years of experience: bootcamp graduates earn a median annual salary of $16,400 globally, which is 12% more than the median salary paid to a developer with a bachelor’s degree ($14,590). All data is in USD.
- 2-3 years of experience: bootcamp graduates earn $27,334, a median of 37% more than developers with a bachelor’s degree at $19,883.
“Bootcamps have a more practical focus, while degrees contain more theory. Developers who attend bootcamps are usually able to start working right away due to the practical experience they gained during the intensive training. Developers with degrees — especially without internship experience — may have more trouble landing a job after graduation, as they need time to build hands-on experience,” explains Jeff Lam, Senior Recruiting Manager at Arc.
Developers with degrees — especially without internship experience — may have more trouble landing a job after graduation, as they need time to build hands-on experience.
Jeff Lam, Senior Recruiting Manager at Arc
But there’s a catch. After 3 years of experience, the trend reverses:
- 4-5 years of experience: coding bootcamp developers earn the same ($32,000).
- 6-10 years of experience: programming bootcamp developers earn 25% less at $31,500 than developers with a bachelor’s degree ($42,000).
“If developers do not have a degree, their limited exposure to theoretical knowledge can hold them back from more technical and leadership roles,” adds Lam.
But bootcamp grads should not be discouraged — there is a way to get this foundational knowledge.
Self-Learning
Autodidacts earn the lowest starting salary amongst their counterparts — but soon catch up.
- 0-1 years of experience: self-taught software developers earn 31% lower median salaries ($10,000) than developers with bachelor’s degrees.
- 2-3 years of experience: self-taught developers earn only 3% less ($19,250) than developers with bachelor’s degrees.
- 4-5 years of experience: self-taught developers ($33,000) outearn developers with bachelor’s degrees by 3%.
“From my experience, self-taught developers are very passionate about development and may have a lot of knowledge despite not having a formal education,” says Lam.
For those with 16+ years of experience, self-taught developers earn $63,000, a whopping 26% more than developers with a bachelor’s degree ($50,000) — and 10% more than developers with a master’s degree ($57,250).
Developers with a master’s degree are the best paid at all levels, except when out-earned by self-taught professionals.
Conclusion
Don’t let the lack of a traditional college degree hold you back. Developers with only a high school diploma usually earn less than their peers. But no matter your pathway into software development, it is still one of the best-paying careers.
If you’re thinking about a career in coding, passion and hustle trump formal education.
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Data Source
The data on developer pay based on education was collected from December 31, 2021, to April 5, 2022, via an ongoing online survey of global remote developers. The results from the survey are updated in real-time here.
The developers surveyed are based across the world — from the US, Latin America, and Europe to Asia, Australia, and Africa. The actual salary data mentioned in the report body is a global median. Consider it a comparative reference to aid comprehension only, as median salaries differ from country to country.
The report is based on salary data from 2,504 remote software developers who reported one education level in their response. To ensure accuracy, we did not consider responses from developers who reported multiple educational experiences — for example, both bachelor’s and bootcamp, or both self-taught and bootcamp.
The salary of respondents working part-time has been prorated to full-time.
Percentage of entries by education level:
- Bachelor’s degree: 55.4%. It may include developers who studied something other than computer science in college.
- Master’s degree: 18.4%
- High school diploma: 12.8%
- Self-taught: 7.2%
- Coding bootcamp: 6.3%. We also included any developers who have a high school diploma alongside a bootcamp degree in this category. We made that exception to ensure a large enough data size for bootcamp graduates. Since the level of coding taught in high school would be much lower than that taught in a bootcamp, we expect this to not impact the data in any significant way.
Percentage of entries by years of exp:
- 0-1 years: 15.1%
- 2-3 years: 23.2%
- 4-5 years: 20.8%
- 6-10 years: 25.4%
- 11-15 years: 7.3%
- 16+ years: 8.1%
We analyzed data from only those subsets that have at least 10 entries.
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