There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a software development project manager. For example, did you know that they make an average of $53.46 an hour? That's $111,206 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 21% and produce 284,100 job opportunities across the U.S.
There are certain skills that many software development project managers have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed analytical skills, leadership skills and creativity.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a software development project manager, we found that a lot of resumes listed 32.6% of software development project managers included project management, while 10.7% of resumes included application development, and 5.3% of resumes included scrum. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
When it comes to searching for a job, many search for a key term or phrase. Instead, it might be more helpful to search by industry, as you might be missing jobs that you never thought about in industries that you didn't even think offered positions related to the software development project manager job title. But what industry to start with? Most software development project managers actually find jobs in the technology and finance industries.
If you're interested in becoming a software development project manager, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 50.4% of software development project managers have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 33.2% of software development project managers have master's degrees. Even though most software development project managers have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a software development project manager. When we researched the most common majors for a software development project manager, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or master's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on software development project manager resumes include associate degree degrees or doctoral degree degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a software development project manager. In fact, many software development project manager jobs require experience in a role such as project manager. Meanwhile, many software development project managers also have previous career experience in roles such as software developer or senior software engineer.
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In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of project manager you might progress to a role such as program manager eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title lead program manager.
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The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 32.6% of software development project managers listed project management on their resume, but soft skills such as analytical skills and leadership skills are important as well.
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a software development project manager. The best states for people in this position are New Jersey, Washington, Delaware, and North Carolina. Software development project managers make the most in New Jersey with an average salary of $122,414. Whereas in Washington and Delaware, they would average $121,532 and $120,606, respectively. While software development project managers would only make an average of $119,516 in North Carolina, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. Washington
$121,533
Avg. Salary
2. Delaware
$120,607
Avg. Salary
3. North Carolina
$119,516
Avg. Salary