Data Bytes: The Roles That Companies Big and Small Are Hiring For

So you want the security and network-building opportunities that a large company provides. Or maybe you want the impact and rapid growth promised at a small business. Maybe you want to find a mix of both, so you’re focusing on landing a job at a medium company. Whatever the case is, you’re going to want to maximize your chances of success.

And guess what: we have the data that’ll help you choose the right role to do just that. Dive in.

The data

According to a survey of over 1,000 decision makers across a wide spectrum of respondents, companies are hiring in 2024. But what are the top positions in tech? What are the precise roles that companies of different sizes expect to hire most in 2024?

Let’s start with the standard-bearer of data visualizations: the graph.

The first thing you might notice is that large firms have higher percentages nearly across the board. Just look at the data for software engineers and data analysts — 59% of respondents from large companies said they were hiring these specialists. Thinking it through, these higher numbers make sense. The more positions a company is hiring for, the more likely they are to be hiring for these specific roles.

And as you examine the data, you’ll see this hypothesis backed up; the percentages tend to scale with the sizes of the businesses. So, while 59% of large companies expected to mostly hire data analysts, 50% of medium and 26% of small companies had similar expectations. All in all, this made “data analysts” the top response across all participants. 

But the point here is to get specific. Let’s dig a little deeper.

What the data means for you

See, we said the word “tend” when talking about the scaling percentages. After all, there are some outliers that can inform your job search, especially if you want to land a job at a small company. As you can see, the data on web developers bucks the trend that smaller businesses have commensurately smaller percentages. 

In fact, respondents from these firms demonstrated a higher interest in bringing on web developers when compared to those from larger outfits. So, want to land a job at a small company because you thrive in that environment? Learning web development_{Web Developer vs. Software Developer: Demystifying Two Great Tech Careers} is your best bet. 

Alternatively, aiming for a more specific title might also help, as “other” was another top response from these survey participants. Still, one of the submitted roles in this category was “web designer,” so the previous recommendation stands.

And want to land a job at a medium or large company? You can’t go wrong with data analysis or software engineering. However, while these were essentially tied for first place among survey participants from large companies, more respondents from medium businesses expected to bring on data analysts. 

What does that mean? If you’re cutting the difference among these institutions, go for data analysis.

There’s more info to explore

But we’ve got so much more data that can inform your job search, too. Discover the numbers that will supercharge your professional pivot in our Employer Report.