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Lorenzo Zarantonello for This is Angular

Posted on • Originally published at levelup.gitconnected.com

Angular Is Your Best Shot To Land A Frontend Job

According to the 2024 Stack Overflow Developer Survey, most people who learn to code learn React.

Learners Market

Not too bad, many jobs position requires React.
However, look at the following table.

Learning to code

This table tells you how many people are learning a certain framework among the people who are learning to code.

  • React — 36.6%
  • Next.js — 17.9%
  • Flask — 17.3%
  • Django — 14%
  • Vue — 11%
  • Svelte — 10%
  • Angular — 9%

Do you see anything strange?
Maybe not.

Let's look at the job market.

Job market

I did a quick search on LinkedIn.
Clearly, it's not a bulletproof statistical analysis but maybe it can give you a hint.

Jobs requiring a certain framework in the US, Germany, and India

This table shows the number of jobs mentioning a certain framework in the US, Germany, and India (LinkedIn).

Conclusions

As I said, this is a very rough exercise.

  • Job positions requiring Angular are second to React and well ahead of any other frontend framework.
  • Only 8% learn Angular, while 30% to 40% of job positions require Angular.

Given this asymmetry, Angular might be your best shot at landing a front-end job.

Free link to the full post.

Top comments (35)

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rob_kohr_d99ce60bdbff6729 profile image
Rob Kohr

I have been a lead engineer of both angular and react projects.

Personally, I love react, and use it exclusively on all my personal projects.

Having joined projects with code written by junior devs in both angular and react, I can see why large enterprise companies prefer angular, and if I had to start a new enterprise product, but knew that we were hiring engineers with diverse skill levels, I would chose angular every time, even though I like react better.

The difference is poorly written angular code is still easy to navigate through, fix, and understand. Sometimes engineers can get "creative" and make a mess, but it isn't too difficult to untangle even the worst angular codebase.

A poorly written react codebase though is an absolute nightmare. It gives you maximal flexibility, and you can devote that to shooting yourself in the foot.

React is a more powerful, more expressive framework, but with great power comes great responsibility.

Now coming back to the article, a lot of people choose React to learn. Partly because it is more popular, and I think partly because there is less to learn to be an effective React developer. Angular has more to learn, and I think that makes it less attractive to those who are starting out. Ironically, the very people that Angular is more suited for (those who need guard rails) are those who get turned off by the learning requirements.

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lorenzojkrl profile image
Lorenzo Zarantonello

Great reply! I second everything you said!
Same experience and same conclusions.
I know Angular has a few new tutorials but I didn't try them myself.
Leaving them here for the readers: angular.dev/tutorials

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crenshinibon profile image
Dirk Porsche

I can feel you. I'm stuck in such React nightmare as well. But Angular is not the right solution, it just introduces more of a mental burden. Your Junior devs should solve real business problems and not juggle weird framework concepts. Make it simple(r).

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lorenzojkrl profile image
Lorenzo Zarantonello

Yes, Angular learning curve used to be steeper than React.
However, you get many benefits later e.g. standard routing lib, standard state management, etc. across Angular projects, even in different companies.
With React it's a given you might use a different routing lib or state management solution if you change company. That requires some learning.

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crenshinibon profile image
Dirk Porsche

I'm actuall not arguing in favor of React, which is even worse in my opinion. But there are other options that don't have the learning curve, are closer to what a browser actually renders, and have a batteries-included approach ... like Svelte, for example.

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vinaypa45266649 profile image
Vinay Patil

Angular is here to stay, much like modern-day Java. Large enterprises have heavily invested in building their ecosystems around Angular, which continues to excel in powering production-grade applications.

More importantly, not all applications demand extreme performance; many prioritize a scalable, robust architecture—something Angular delivers seamlessly through its foundational design

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crenshinibon profile image
Dirk Porsche

Yes. Enterprises are still into the Java-Side-Of-Things. That's a sad truth. But for your own sanity you shouldn't support it. If they don't find the devs to support that stuff, they need to pivot to something else (something more enjoyable to work with).

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fyodorio profile image
Fyodor

That’s not how the job market works unfortunately

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crenshinibon profile image
Dirk Porsche

Maybe you could argue, that the companies currently using Angular will shift to something else (soonish), because they don't get the devs, they need. Chicken/Egg problem. So starting Angular now might put you in a situation not so favourable down the road. Just learn what you like most, get good at it, and you will fit somewhere.

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leob profile image
leob

Interesting - I just wonder what kind of jobs these are - my hunch is that the kind of jobs requiring Angular are heavily biased towards "in house enterprise" type jobs ...

I'm an (online/remote) freelancer and I'm not really targeting the corporate/enterprise market (it would be pretty hard to break into, even if I wanted to).

As such, I think Angular would for me not be a great choice ...

(and what a pity that Vue is so underrated - I feel that between React and Angular, Vue sort of offers the best of both worlds)

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lorenzojkrl profile image
Lorenzo Zarantonello

Interesting perspective!
It also depends on the market where you operate!

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leob profile image
leob

That's what I meant :-)

But apart from that I think you made a good point :)

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lorenzojkrl profile image
Lorenzo Zarantonello

And thanks for adding this perspective!
I don't think we hear enough from software freelancers!
Thanks!

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leob profile image
leob

You're welcome ... I was an employee at various companies before I became a freelancer - best decision I ever took haha! The freedom ... :-)

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lorenzojkrl profile image
Lorenzo Zarantonello

You should write something about that:)
Pros and cons, of course.
But also freedom vs security, if that's the trade-off. Onsite/remote?
What about the relationship with colleagues?
Probably it's great to learn more also!

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leob profile image
leob

Nice idea, I agree that would be interesting - I'll keep it in mind !

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aloisseckar profile image
Alois Sečkár

This may apply now, but what about in 5 years?

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sonukapoor profile image
Sonu Kapoor

The Google team has officially said it plans to work on Angular for the next 10 years. This was stated in the Angular 18 release: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DK8M-ZFjaMw&t=5s I think this shows that Angular is here to stay.

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lorenzojkrl profile image
Lorenzo Zarantonello

Thanks for the reply! Honestly, I didn't know what to say.
5 years in tech is forever. Anything can happen!

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sergio_che_a3c666fb730e54 profile image
Sergio Che

I'll do my bet. In 5 years React to Angular will be as php to java now. Laravel (or any php framework) to Spring.

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guilleare profile image
Guillermo A

Nobody knows the future. Perhaps another framework will take over. You may not be alive in 5 years. SQLite will be the new hawt database of choice for production. Who knows!

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martinbaun profile image
Martin Baun

I started with Angular as well a little over 4 years ago. It may not be the crowd favorite choice, but it's a fine framework that will serve you well if you dedicate time to learning it properly.

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guilleare profile image
Guillermo A

Yes, Angular is superb and better than React (or any other framework) of landing you a frontend job. It's always best not to compete in a field that is saturated with younger (cheaper) workers.

As an Angular developer of 9 years, going back to AngularJS 1.3, I must warn you that companies are still cutting down on hiring for Angular developers. Most of the roles are turning into Full Stack positions where they want an Angular frontend expert and somebody who can do C#/.NET or Java backend work + DevOps. Angular has been phenomenal for my family and me regarding work and income. Unfortunately, the current economy and tightening of organizational purses will not guarantee you a job in the field as quickly as they did before.

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lorenzojkrl profile image
Lorenzo Zarantonello

Very good points there!
Thanks for the insight!
I think the fullstack trend is visible across frameworks.

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jwp profile image
John Peters

Angular lost their top position when they failed to modernize their architecture. We see just this month that stand-alone apps are the default after a 5 year lag of getting rid of ng-modules which eventually clashed with ECMA. I feel that angular team needs new leadership; however it's pretty hard to compete against React's excellent design.

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lorenzojkrl profile image
Lorenzo Zarantonello

Pretty strong words considering what they have done in the last few years, imo.

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guilleare profile image
Guillermo A

They have realized the bad decision and are striving hard to fix it. There are many changes coming to the framework.

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inspiraller profile image
steve

If angular takes over I'm done.

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lorenzojkrl profile image
Lorenzo Zarantonello

Why?
Also, I don't think any framework/library will get an overwhelming market share soon.

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crenshinibon profile image
Dirk Porsche

For me Angular is a pain in the ass, too. I don't like all the abstractions they are enforcing. After all we are creating stupid simple websites, just stick with HTML, CSS and JavaScript and add a little sugar where it's needed. I like Svelte and HTMX (if the UI needs to be more backend driven).

Maybe only React is worse, than Angular. And I truly don't understand why their stupid concept ever got any traction. I don't want to write HTML inside my JS files ... this is just wrong.

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gdebojyoti profile image
Debojyoti Ghosh • Edited

I used to think so too. "HTML inside JS: what is wrong with you?"

But then I started using React, and - it's been my favourite way of building websites ever since.

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kirs10jacks profile image
kirsten Jacks

Great article! Angular is undoubtedly a powerful framework for building robust and scalable web applications. Its component-based architecture, strong community support, and integration with other technologies like TypeScript make it a top choice for many developers.

If you're looking to hire Angular developers, consider partnering with a reputable software development company. They can help you find skilled professionals who can bring your Angular project to life.

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