Top 5 in-demand technologies for software freelancers in the Nordics 2022

We’ve been tracking the demand for senior software development freelancers in the Nordics for the past several years now, and while doing so we’ve noticed a steady trend: the amount of freelance software development talent has continued to increase - and so have the salaries software freelancers in Nordic countries like Finland and Norway can successfully demand!

But staying competitive in a talent market, even one that’s slanted in favor of you as a software freelancer requires you to continuously develop and use your skills in specific technology areas that are currently in demand. Luckily, with a successful track record of hands-on development skills in your stack and work history, you can outshine other talents and land gigs that will be best suited for your dream career goals, preferred way of working, and lifestyle.

Read on to learn which technologies are the most in-demand in the Nordics heading into 2022!

1. Java

Java’s the number one programming language in demand in 2022. It’s versatile, lean, and surprisingly longstanding, a true monolith among programming languages, so that’s not really a surprise. One of the most tetch-inducing thing to stay abreast of with Java tends to be Oracle's complex licensing schemes. Their releases, on the other hand, are pretty reliable, operating like clockwork with general access becoming available in either March or September for each subsequent release. Important things to earmark in 2022 with Java are:

• Longstanding systems built on Java SE 8, which offered long-term support, will not automatically be migrated to later versions via autoupdate after its extended support period runs out in July of this year;
• The latest version offering LTS, Java SE 17, was released in September 2021, and the next LTS release is Java SE 21 (slated for September 2023). So the LTS releases appear to be getting more frequent, at least for now.

Luckily, keeping your skills fresh and working as a software freelancer on your own computer is a lot easier as a personal user.

2. React

React.js software freelancers remain in high demand because the cleanest, smoothest, most aesthetically pleasing view layers are going to do the heavy lifting of retaining happy customers. Luckily for the React aficionado, the upcoming React 18 includes out-of-the-box improvements (for example,automatic batching), new APIs (like startTransition), and a new streaming server renderer that supports React.lazy.

React 18 also features concurrent rendering, letting it prepare multiple versions of the UI at the same time. This unleashes new possibilities to improve app testing and ultimately performance. Better yet, the update process from React 17 to React 18 is designed to eliminate rewrites and let you try new features at your own pace, with opt-in concurrency further eliminating breaking changes to component behavior, so this upgrade should require minimal changes to application code, with React itself boasting that most users could upgrade within a single afternoon.

Since it’s always nice when brushing up on your stack is as clean and simple an experience as using apps built in React, the React 18 working group and beta release are great jumping-off points to polish your scripting.

3. AWS

Nordics-based Amazon Web Services freelance software developers are in huge demand for 2022. The headlines ahead of this year were focused on how AWS is expanding its Local Zones across the Nordics - and beyond. But it's also committed to releasing new versions of its bespoke version of Linux every other year, starting with AL2022. The best news of all is that the learning experience for updating your skillset is as easy and breezy as ordering cat litter and gym socks, with frequent, complete release notes presented alongside clear, cogent side-by-sides with how the updates improve upon Amazon Linux 2 easily accessible.

4. SQL

Since relevant info changes more frequently than SQL Server, the premier structured query language remains in super high demand for Nordics software freelancers. The next version of SQL Server, 2022, focuses a lot on bridging existing gaps with Azure, for example:

• Fixing failover back/forth from SQL Server 2022 and Azure SQL DB Managed Instances, including restoring versionless databases from Azure SQL DB Managed Instances down to on-premises SQL Server 2022,
• Azure Synapse Link integration minimizing massive ETL jobs between SQL Server and Azure Synapse,
• SQL Server Ledger to enable blockchain immutable histories of tables, and
• parameter-sensitive plan optimization that’s able to cache multiple plans per stored procedure.

Public release preview updates and patches are published upon implementation, or you can apply for the early adoption program to stay ahead of the competition.

5. JavaScript

The OG object-oriented programming (OOP) scripting language, JavaScript is still vital in operating 97% of websites. This means virtually all private and public sector entities require it, and JavaScript remains a high-demand technology for full-stack and front-end software freelancers alike. Its universality means annual updates to ECMAScript, the standardized form of .js, are crucial, and new additions and improvements are approved and adopted from July each year. In 2021, changes to JavaScript included:

• Promise.any,
• String.prototype.replaceAll,
• Logical Assignment Operators,
• Numeric Separators,
• Intl.DisplayNames,
• WeakRef and FinalizationRegistry, and
• Ergonomic Finalizers.

In 2022, proposals that reach stage 4 of the verification process by March of 2022 will be included in the official ECMAScript release in July, and several proposals are already at this stage, including:

• Top-Level Await,
• Temporal (which makes it significantly easier for date and times parsing),
• Chaining Error Cause, and
• Private Fields.

Looking even further ahead, Pipeline Operator is a long-standing pipe dream of ours… but for now, that’ll still be in the pipeline.

These are the top five in-demand technologies for software freelancers in the Nordics in 2022, so brushing up on these — and any previous releases of these scripts you may have missed! — will ensure you are among the most competitive freelance software developers on the market.

But these are not the only technologies in high demand in the Nordics in 2022. There are also plenty of projects seeking out software freelancers for cloud architecture and development, data analysis, UX/UI design, DevOps engineering, and all kinds of freelance software development projects requiring crucial skills in TypeScript, Azure, Scrum, Python, DevOps, Node, Kubernetes, and Kotlin, just to name a few.

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Witted offers software professionals several different ways of working, because one size does not fit all. We’ll help you find the way of working that works best for you, whether you prefer the flexibility of working as a software freelancer, the all-out best compensation available in the Nordic software market, or greenfield projects and tight-knit community.