Tech may be stereotyped as a young person’s field, but it’s never too late to learn new skills, improve old ones, or even start a new tech career. 

Everett Yeckley, an Army Veteran and recent Code Platoon graduate, has over four decades of experience in the military, and in IT work. He recently completed the Full-stack Evening & Weekend program, Charlie Platoon, at age 56.

“I was always the youngest during my Service and the start of my tech career,” Everett said. “But then, I found myself the oldest student in my Code Platoon program.”

Everett enlisted in 1982 when he was 16 years old. He spent almost fifteen years on Active Duty in the Army Band. 

“When I left the military, I chose to pursue technology because it’s always fascinated me,” he said. “I started from the bottom at an IT help desk and worked my way up to Manager of IT Operations. I also earned Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees while working full-time.” 

Everett then learned of the Temporary Early Retirement Authority (TERA) program. This program offered early retirement to Servicemembers who completed 15-19 years’ Service in the Army. Those who qualified received the same retirement pay as 20-or-more-year retirements, minus a small early retirement reduction. 

Everett was months short of the fifteen years’ Service he needed for TERA. So he left tech and joined the Georgia Army National Guard. Although he had intended to only stay for another few years, he remained in the National Guard for eight additional years. 

After his military retirement, Everett hoped he could pick up his IT career where he left off, but technology had advanced while he was gone.

“Getting back into IT after my second round of Service was difficult, even with my degrees,” he said. “I knew I needed to update my skill set to remain competitive.”

“When I heard about Code Platoon, the requirements convinced me that it’s a good program. I knew I’d have to work hard to succeed.”

To prepare, Everett learned Javascript via Code Platoon’s free, self-paced Intro to Coding course. 

Everett had already used his Montgomery GI Bill benefits, attending college and grad school, but he had enough Post 9/11 GI Bill benefits left to qualify for VET TEC. VET TEC is a VA program specifically for assisting Veterans entering the tech industry.

Code Platoon’s 28-week Evening & Weekend Program is designed for people who are employed or have other life events that don’t allow them to participate in the full-time Immersive program.

“It was difficult balancing the Evening & Weekend program with work. I would have an 8-10 hour workday, take an hour break, then go to class. I played in a band at the start of the program but had to drop out to make it all work,” he said.

“The program was a challenging experience, but once I set my mind to it, it wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. The instructors explained concepts well and supported our learning. The other students jumped in to help when someone got stuck. I thought the Beyond Tech soft-skills workshops were invaluable, even after all my civilian work experience.”

“Code Platoon is opening up a lot of new opportunities. I’m looking forward to seeing where this experience takes me,” he said.

Kayla Elkin is the Marketing Content Specialist at Code Platoon. In this role, she utilizes her marketing, writing, and editing skills developed from previous positions in higher education and educational technology. Kayla has degrees in English and Sociology from Clemson University and completed the Study in India Program (SIP) at the University of Hyderabad. She lives with her partner in northern Chicago.

When Kenneth Malley graduated Code Platoon he never imagined he would end up helping deliver delicious dinners to people around the world. Well, that’s exactly what he’s doing as a Software Engineer at HelloFresh, one of the leading meal kit providers in the world.

We recently caught up with Kenneth, a 15 year Air Force Veteran, to learn more about how he launched his career with the meal kit company.

Kenneth graduated from Code Platoon as part of Kilo Platoon. His mentor during the program recommended him for a software engineering position at Factor. Three interviews later, Kenneth joined the team, helping them prepare Factor for a merger with HelloFresh Group. 

He transitioned to HelloFresh’s country launch squad five months later.

“HelloFresh used to manually launch in every new country, but now I’m helping them automate the process,” Kenneth said. “I used my programming skills to work on a new vault key generator. It grabs all of the template files and edits them for each new country.”

“So far, the program has helped HelloFresh launch in seven countries, including Ireland and Japan. It’s incredible knowing I’ve already made a lasting impact, that the code I wrote is being used world-wide.”

Kenneth’s software engineering journey began when he taught himself BASIC on his family computer at 10 years old. He kept up with programming as a hobby until he found Code Platoon. 

“When I started Code Platoon, I didn’t have much experience,” Kenneth said. “I only started to feel like a real programmer in week 10 of the program when I started to work on my personal project. It was my first time programming something from the ground up. I made a digital Hot Potato game that used each player’s phone as the controller via texting. The process of making a program from the beginning was like watching my baby grow up. The more effort I put in, the stronger it got. I was always thinking about the next features to introduce and improve.”

“I had support at every moment during Code Platoon. My fellow students cheered me on. Any instructor or teaching assistant I reached out to for help responded without hesitation. Everyone supported each other.”

“I’ve continued to have amazing support structures at HelloFresh. Launching a new country is very involved. My team of five software engineers touch hundreds of different repositories. It can be really intimidating, but if anyone gets stuck, we all dive in to help each other.”

When asked to share his favorite piece of advice for coding bootcamp graduates, Kenneth had this to say:

“Imposter syndrome is real, but you’ll figure it out. Software engineers come from diverse educational backgrounds. Some have advanced computer science degrees. Others graduated from a coding bootcamp like me.”

“Whenever you start a new field, you never know how it’s going to turn out. There’s an element of risk. In my case, I think everything ended up better than I could’ve asked it to be.”

To read about Kenneth’s experience as a coding bootcamp student, check out his blog post “When Grit and Opportunity Meet.”

If you’re a Veteran interested in starting a software engineering career, you can learn more about our programs and apply to Code Platoon today.

Kayla Elkin is the Marketing Content Specialist at Code Platoon. In this role, she utilizes her marketing, writing, and editing skills developed from previous positions in higher education and educational technology. Kayla has degrees in English and Sociology from Clemson University and completed the Study in India Program (SIP) at the University of Hyderabad. She lives with her partner in northern Chicago.

At Code Platoon, we track national demand for programming languages so that our Veteran, Servicemember, and military spouse students get the best training for their new software engineering or DevOps engineering careers. 

This article highlights the programming languages with the highest salaries and most frequently targeted job postings for 2022. We’ve also published our findings for 2021, 2020, and 2019. 

Our 2022 findings show that Python and Javascript developers continue to be paid well, ranking #3 and #4 in salary. C++ holds #1 in compensation but there are relatively few job postings. Java, Javascript, and Python lead in jobs posted.

How we identified the top programming languages for 2022

To measure compensation, we examined the 15 most popular coding languages according to Stack Overflow’s Developer Survey. We mapped the average salary for those languages’ job listings on Indeed.com, one of the largest job listing sites. We tracked the total number of job postings targeting those 15 most popular languages to measure demand.

Ranking programming languages by pay and number of job openings

Python: Python is an interpreted, multi-purpose programming language. It holds the #3 position in the Average Salary and Job Postings categories. Python continues to grow in use for data science, machine learning, cybersecurity, and DevOps engineering. 

Javascript: Javascript took #2 in Job Postings and #4 in Average Salary. Javascript is an indispensable language for programming web applications and remains popular with employers.

Java: Integral to large-scale, legacy business applications and gaining new relevance from its Google adoption for Android, Java climbs to #1 in Job Postings and #2 in Average Salary. 

C++: C++ is used primarily in gaming and high-performance applications. It stands at #1 in Average Salary and #5 in Job Postings. C++ is fast and stable, but it’s also among the most difficult programming languages to learn. 

C#: C# maintains a user base through its continued use for the Unity gaming engine. It stands at #4 in Job Postings and #6 in Average Salary. 

PHP: PHP is a general-purpose scripting language that powers WordPress. It’s ranked #7 in Job Postings and #8 in Average Salary.

C: C is an older–but still widely used–programming language. It holds #5 in Average Salary and #6 in Job Postings. Concepts that are hidden to users in scripting languages like Python and Java are exposed in C, offering more flexibility. However, its complexity makes it challenging to learn.

SQL: SQL (or Structured Query Language) is the standard language for relational database management systems. It’s a query language that allows users to draw information from databases. SQL ranks #7 in Average Salary and #8 in Job Postings. 

What will be the most popular programming language in 2023?

Speculating how these programming languages will fare in the future is difficult because the supply of qualified applicants affects the number of open positions. However, Python will likely continue growing as companies increasingly adopt data analytics tools, infrastructure software development, and AI tools (all areas where Python shines). Javascript will also continue to be the “language of the web.”

If you’re looking for more information on the various programming languages and their relative popularity in the workforce, the TIOBE Index and Stack Overflow provide authoritative reports. They consider industry demand and incorporate different approaches to determining the best programming languages.

Are you a Veteran, Servicemember, or military spouse interested in learning to code? If you’re a military community member looking to transition to a tech career, you can apply to one of our programs to get started. 

Rod Levy is the Founder and Executive Director of Code Platoon. Rod spent 20+ years in finance and entrepreneurship. He was a Partner at G-Bar Limited Partners, where he co-founded and managed their volatility-arbitrage trading desk (BBR Trading). He was one of the founders of Cerrio, an internal software start-up. He holds undergraduate and master’s degrees in engineering from Cornell University and an MBA from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business, where he graduated with honors. Rod has also completed Dev Bootcamp’s web developer program.

On Saturday, July 16, twenty students graduated from Code Platoon’s Full-stack Software Engineering Bootcamp: Evening and Weekend program. As part of the ceremony, the new graduates showcased the web applications they developed with the skills they learned during the 28-week program. 

Here are their tech demonstrations:

Our first group is TR-APP Job Tracking App. TR-APP is a web application for job seekers that organizes job posts, documents, and application reminders in one location. Users can search for and save job postings to their dashboard, set reminders for specific applications, and plan their commute to interviews with a Google maps integration and local weather data.

Check out TR-APP developed by Everett Yeckley, David Tetreau, Jorge Prias, Felipe Lopez, and Will Compton: two Army Veterans, an Air Force Veteran, a Marine Corps Veteran, and an Active Duty Servicemember in the Navy, respectively.

The next project is Through the Lifting Glass, a weightlifting team management app. Through the Lifting Glass lets coaches track their team rosters and lifting progress, schedule practices and lifting events on the calendar, post workouts and photos, and send messages to the team. Athletes can track their progress, view their teammates’ records, schedule team bonding events, and communicate with their teammates.

The team behind Through the Lifting Glass is Stephanie Lentell, Kevin Belk, Juan Laporte, Devin Glauner, and Melissa White: two Air Force Veterans, a Marine Corps Veteran, an Army Veteran, and an Army spouse.

Ahead of the Game is the third project in this showcase. Ahead of the Game users can find the game locations of their favorite baseball, hockey, and football teams. Users can schedule text notifications for each saved game, sync games to their Google Calendar, and join chats with other users planning to attend games.

Chris Hicks, Scott Rametta, Latasha Wise, Stephen Howard, and Dan Miller–an Active Duty Air Force Member, Navy Veteran, Army Veteran, Air Force Veteran, and Marine Corps Veteran– created Ahead of the Game.

The final project developed by Charlie E&W Platoon graduates is Parents-n-Parks. Parents-n-Parks connects local parents and families with similar interests. The App uses a Google Maps integration to find local events, family-friendly locations, and ratings while planning events. It allows users to send friend requests and invite each other to meetups.

Check out the Parents-n-Parks presentation by Tressa Sharma, Anthony Lemke, Josh Richardson, Ka Leung, and William Keirn, one Army and four Marine Corps Veterans, respectively.

Congratulations to the Charlie Evening and Weekend Platoon graduates! We’re proud of the creativity and skills demonstrated during this cohort’s final presentations.

If your organization is looking for employees that are trained leaders, quick thinkers, and detailed problem-solvers, then Veterans would make a great addition to your tech teams. 

But hiring and retaining Veterans isn’t as simple as deciding to do so. You may need to adapt everything from your hiring process to onboarding and promotion pathways to become a Veteran-friendly organization. Here are seven key steps used by our corporate partners to get started.

1. Understand military skills

Some Veterans’ positions in the military match well with civilian positions. Others’ may seem unqualified, at least until you know how to translate their skills. If your organization struggles to get Veterans into interviews, your first action should be to improve your hiring team’s knowledge of military skills. You can also create resources for Veteran candidates that explain the hiring process and professional expectations, as our partner Grainger does.

2. Behavioral interviewing

Veterans generally perform best and are most comfortable with behavioral-based and situational interviews. For example, asking candidates with military backgrounds to talk about a time they solved a problem, quickly learned something new, or led a team will likely result in a more reviewable answer than a closed-ended question or question focused on an industry-specific skill.

3. Communicate onboarding expectations

For a recently transitioning Servicemember, your company may be the first civilian employer they’ve ever had. Veterans may need some help learning to navigate the civilian workforce. Some suggestions for onboarding Veteran employees include:

• Clearly state expectations, like dress codes, for example, in the welcome letter.
• Have a tangible onboarding plan with check-ins for feedback and goals for the first 90 days.
• Help build a social network within the team. For example, plan a lunch or coffee break for everyone to get to know each other or have the team answer an ice-breaker question at the beginning of meetings.

4. Training and skills support

Like hiring any candidate, a former military member joining your team will likely have stronger and weaker areas related to the position. Your organization can develop training programs to help Veteran employees close knowledge gaps and gain confidence in their abilities. For example, our partner Underwriters Laboratories provides programs to help Veterans build their skills for future promotions and leadership opportunities.

5. Veteran resource groups and mentorship

Veteran-friendly companies often have Veteran resource groups or mentorship programs to help Veterans make connections and adapt to the civilian company culture. Our partners at Accenture, Motorola Solutions, and Echo, have such programs available. 

6. Clear career advancement pathways

While in the military, Servicemembers know where their orders will come from and what is required to rise in the ranks. After their Service, some Veterans find the civilian workforce culture confusing. Providing a clear, written-out pathway for promotions during onboarding and scheduling frequent career advancement check-ins could help assuage some of these transitional frustrations.

Our partner Sprout Social has taken this idea one step further by including a 1-year growth timeline on every job description.

7. Support non-profit Veterans’ organizations

One of the best ways to show Veterans that your organization supports them is to partner with non-profit Veteran organizations. Offer an employer match to donations for Veterans organizations, give your employees paid volunteering opportunities, or do both like our partners Enova, DRW, and Wayfair. 

A partnership can reaffirm your commitment to Veteran employees and also give your civilian employees more opportunities to interact with Veterans and build their awareness of Veterans’ issues.

If you’re interested in hiring Veterans for paid tech apprenticeships or full-time positions or offering a Veteran-focused volunteer opportunity for your employees, consider joining our corporate partners. Email corporatepartners@codeplatoon.org or visit our corporate partners page for more information.

Kayla Elkin is the Marketing Content Specialist at Code Platoon. In this role, she utilizes her marketing, writing, and editing skills developed from previous positions in higher education and educational technology. Kayla has degrees in English and Sociology from Clemson University and completed the Study in India Program (SIP) at the University of Hyderabad. She lives with her partner in northern Chicago.