6 hottest IT jobs for new tech grads

There are close to 2 million new college grads flooding the marketplace in 2015, and after a few years of less-than-stellar economic growth, 2015 offers new opportunities for these young workers to start their careers. Where will these newly minted degree holders find work? According to Indeed.com’s May 2015 report, The Talent Driven Economy: Emerging Interests of Today’s Job Seeker, there’s a good chance they’ll end up in a STEM career.

“It’s reassuring to see how many job seekers are looking for work in IT and STEM fields. This is great news for employers who’ve struggled to build a STEM pipeline or who have trouble filling IT roles – the talent is available and it’s looking for opportunities,” says Indeed.com’s chief economist Tara Sinclair.

Here, CIO put together the top 6 hottest jobs being researched by the class of 2015, based on Indeed’s anonymous user data. An emerging job is defined as a job title search with the highest percentage change in volume from 2013 to 2014, according to the report.

Digital marketing describes a field of marketing that uses digital channels, including the Web and social media, to promote products and services. Candidates looking for a career in this field could end up working in social media strategy, email campaign management, SEO or online behavioral analysis. Interest in digital marketing careers has increased 30 percent from 2013 to 2014, and is especially popular in New York City and San Francisco.

Java remains one of the most popular programming languages, due to its incredible flexibility and end-to-end capabilities. Candidates can use Java from the early stages of a software product through the end of the development process, establishing requirements for new products, designing prototypes, and reviewing code. Interest in Java development careers grew 22 percent from 2013 to 2014, and is trending all across the U.S. in cities like Atlanta, New York City, San Francisco, Dallas and Los Angeles.

Web developers design and build websites, and also are responsible for maintaining and improving the front-end and back-end of websites. Web development is a popular career option as almost every firm imaginable needs a strong Web presence. Interest in Web developer careers has grown 20 percent from 2013 to 2014, and is especially popular in Los Angeles.

Information technology jobs encompass anything related to computer and telecommunications systems and technology used to store, receive, transmit and manipulate data. Because of the breadth and depth of opportunities in the field, interest in IT careers has grown 17 percent from 2013 to 2014, and is country-wide; trending in cities like Dallas and Houston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York City and almost anywhere you can think of.

A career as a data analyst is ideal for candidates who love to collect, manipulate, store and organize data. A candidate could also be looking for jobs that entail the maintenance, management and security of an organization’s data. Interest in data analyst careers has grown 15 percent from 2013 to 2014, and is trending in cities like Philadelphia and San Francisco.

This field of engineering supports hardware and software for all network devices, including routers, switches, firewalls, encryption programs and many others. Network engineers also maintain backup systems and document the status of network devices. Like Web development, demand for networking professionals is huge, since most companies rely on networking technologies to stay connected in a digital age. Interest in network engineering careers has grown 13 percent from 2013 to 2014, and these roles are trending in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago and San Francisco.