§ 01

THE FLOOR

Skills you can't skip. Below this floor your resume doesn't get opened.

6MUST-HAVE SKILLS
Skills · ranked by prevalence
01Agile30.4%Process baseline. Standard.
02Problem Solving29.5%DSA / interview gate.
03SDLC28.8%Process vocabulary baseline.
04System Design28.3%Filter at FA. Unusual.
05Java27.4%Default backend language.
06Debugging25.8%Implicit daily expectation.
On the bubble
Python
Floor skills derived from validated generalist software engineer postings on the astrid.postingmeta collection at JUNIOR + ENTRY seniority.
§ 02

PICK YOUR TRACK

Sub-tracks within this profile. Picking one is non-optional.

01

PROCESS-KNOWLEDGE

← THE MNC DEFAULT
FA share41.9%of FA postings · n = 135
Salary16± ₹7LPA · mean ± SD
Company mix
MNCs & GCCs~65%
Established SME~18%
Hires at
CapgeminiSiemensWiproAccentureNetsmart
Add to the floor
Performance OptimizationTroubleshootingDesign PatternsRequirements AnalysisData StructuresCode Reviews
02

APPDEV-LEANING

← PRE-COMMIT TO BACKEND
FA share26.4%of FA postings · n = 85
Salary16± ₹10LPA · mean ± SD
Company mix
MNCs & GCCs~36%
Established SME~29%
Lala Companies~14%
Hires at
NatWest GroupWabtec Corp.GoogleScout Inc.Microsoft
Add to the floor
PythonC/C++JavaScriptAlgorithmsData StructuresC#
03

MOBILE-LEANING

← HIGHEST FA PAY
FA share15.8%of FA postings · n = 51
Salary27± ₹11LPA · mean ± SD
Company mix
MAANG & Elite Global Tech~39%
MNCs & GCCs~37%
Hires at
GoogleJPMorganChasehackajobWalmartAlbertsons Companies
Add to the floor
Security TestingMobile TestingAccessibility TestingPythonJavaScriptUI Design
04

INFRA-LEANING

← PRE-COMMIT TO DEVOPS
FA share15.8%of FA postings · n = 51
Salary17± ₹7LPA · mean ± SD
Company mix
MNCs & GCCs~61%
Established SME~16%
Hires at
NatWest GroupAccentureCapgeminiJPMorganChaseNetsmart
Add to the floor
SQLPythonScalabilityCode ReviewsAWSPerformance Optimization
Track shares and salary statistics (mean ± SD) derived from validated generalist software engineer postings on the astrid.postingmeta collection at JUNIOR + ENTRY seniority.
§ 03

THE SKILL ARC

What ramps with seniority. What travels if you leave the profile.

A

Senior skew — what ramps with seniority.

Rising · FA → SR
01Microservices
FA4.9%
SR19.3%
+14.4 pp
02Design Patterns
FA10.8%
SR20.3%
+9.5 pp
03Kubernetes
FA2.8%
SR12.2%
+9.4 pp
04AWS
FA9.4%
SR18.6%
+9.2 pp
05Performance Optimization
FA14.8%
SR23.9%
+9.2 pp
06Docker
FA1.6%
SR10.7%
+9.1 pp
07Spring Boot
FA4.0%
SR12.3%
+8.3 pp
08Scalability
FA7.7%
SR15.2%
+7.5 pp
09React
FA5.9%
SR12.7%
+6.8 pp
Fading · FA → SR
B

Portability — what travels if you leave the profile.

Portable · cross-profile spread (out of 15)
01Problem Solving
15/15
Mobile Development41%Data Analytics & BI40%Enterprise Platforms40%
02Agile
15/15
Fullstack Development47%Enterprise Platforms43%QA & Testing39%
03Debugging
13/15
Systems & Embedded36%Mobile Development27%Backend Development19%
04Troubleshooting
13/15
Enterprise Platforms36%DevOps & Platform32%Systems & Embedded19%
05SDLC
12/15
Enterprise Platforms22%Domain-Specific Development19%QA & Testing18%
06Java
12/15
Backend Development59%Fullstack Development42%Security Engineering42%
07SQL
12/15
Data Analytics & BI63%Data Engineering57%Fullstack Development45%
08Python
11/15
Data Science & ML78%AI & LLM Applications66%Data Engineering57%
09Code Reviews
11/15
Frontend Development25%Backend Development25%Fullstack Development23%
10System Design
11/15
Backend Development18%DevOps & Platform17%AI & LLM Applications16%
11Performance Optimization
11/15
Mobile Development26%Frontend Development20%Systems & Embedded16%
12AWS
11/15
DevOps & Platform48%Security Engineering43%Backend Development41%
13JavaScript
10/15
Frontend Development68%Fullstack Development46%AI & LLM Applications21%
Locked · stays inside the profile
01Mobile Testing2/15
02Requirements Analysis1/15
03Accessibility Testing2/15
04Continuous Testing2/15
05API Testing2/15
06Cross-Device Testing2/15
07Penetration Testing2/15
Skill arc derived from validated generalist software engineer postings on the astrid.postingmeta collection. FA = ENTRY + JUNIOR seniority; cross-profile spread computed at the 10% prevalence threshold across all 15 profiles.
§ 04

TARGETING YOUR COMPANY POOL

Hiring volume splits across two distinct company pools with different skill profiles.

MAANG & Tier-1 Tech

n = 231usable
CompaniesGoogleMetaAmazonAtlassianStripeMicrosoft
Skill skew · MAANG & Tier-1 Tech vs IT Services & BPO
% in MAANGSkill% in IT ServicesSkew
53.2%
Distributed Systems
0.3%
+52.9 pp
56.9%
Code Reviews
5.4%
+51.5 pp
45.4%
Security Testing
1.3%
+44.1 pp
42.4%
Algorithms
0.0%
+42.4 pp
43.7%
Java
2.6%
+41.2 pp
42.0%
Mobile Testing
1.3%
+40.8 pp
40.3%
Data Structures
0.0%
+40.3 pp
40.3%
C/C++
0.3%
+40.0 pp
39.7%
Accessibility Testing
1.3%
+38.4 pp

IT Services & BPO

n = 310usable
CompaniesTCSInfosysWiproHCLCognizantLTIMindtree
Skill skew · MAANG & Tier-1 Tech vs IT Services & BPO
% in MAANGSkill% in IT ServicesSkew
1.0%
Requirements Analysis
79.9%
-78.9 pp
1.4%
Test Case Design
76.0%
-74.7 pp
3.1%
Root Cause Analysis
71.6%
-68.5 pp
4.4%
Test Automation
71.6%
-67.2 pp
0.0%
Software Validation
66.8%
-66.8 pp
0.0%
Report Generation
66.1%
-66.1 pp
4.4%
Monitoring
65.5%
-61.1 pp
6.4%
Troubleshooting
61.0%
-54.6 pp
18.6%
Debugging
68.4%
-49.7 pp
Company-pool skills derived from validated generalist software engineer postings on the astrid.postingmeta collection, scoped to the MAANG + Tier-1 Global and IT Services & BPO company classes.