How to become a Software Engineer: education, training and skills.
What workers in the job actually report about their education, experience and training, the skills to build first, and the stepping-stone roles that lead in.
- 85% Bachelor's Degree
- 5% Associate's Degree or other 2-year degree
- 5% Master's Degree
- 3% High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED)
Most software engineers report needing a bachelor's degree (85% of workers surveyed by O*NET). O*NET places the job in Job Zone 4 of 5 (considerable preparation). The most common answer for related work experience was “over 6 years, up to and including 8 years” (44%), and for on-the-job training “over 3 months, up to and including 6 months” (25%).
Data Government data groups this job as Software Developers (O*NET-SOC 15-1252.00). Figures on this page are for that occupation.
Six steps to becoming a Software Engineer
Data Steps 1 to 5 summarise O*NET data for the role; step 6 is advice.
- EducationPlan for a bachelor's degree
85% of workers report it as required.
- TrainingExpect on-the-job training
Most common: over 3 months, up to and including 6 months.
- ExperienceRelated experience
Most common: over 6 years, up to and including 8 years (44% of workers).
- SkillsBuild the core skills
Programming, Critical Thinking, Judgment and Decision Making are rated most important.
- ToolsLearn the tools
Atlassian JIRA, Docker, Git.
- CredentialsCheck licensing where you live
Many occupations need a state license or certification. Requirements vary by state, so confirm with your state's licensing board.
What workers report
Data Share of workers giving each answer, O*NET.
O*NET Job Zone 4 (Considerable Preparation Needed): A considerable amount of work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is needed for these occupations. For example, an accountant must complete four years of college and work for several years in accounting to be considered qualified.
Data Pay once you are in the job: the BLS median is $135,980; the lowest-paid quarter earn $105,210 or less. See the full Software Engineer salary data.
How this page is built
Education, experience, training and Job Zone come from O*NET 31.0 survey data for the occupation. Stepping-stone roles use our skill-match score: Skill match is the correlation between the two occupations' skill profiles: for each of 35 O*NET skills (10 essential, 25 transferable) we multiply importance by level, subtract the average across all occupations, and correlate the two profiles. 100 means identical shape; 0 or below means unrelated. Only occupations that O*NET itself lists as related are compared.
- Licensing rules in your state.
- Requirements at a specific employer.
- How long the path will take you personally.
- O*NET 31.0 Database, U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under the CC BY 4.0 license. TryHired selected, ranked and combined the data; O*NET is not responsible for these pages.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 estimates (public domain).
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