Software

"Software" as a job title is shorthand for working as a software engineer or developer — writing, testing and maintaining the code behind websites, apps, internal business systems, games, trading platforms, embedded devices and everything in between. You work in a team alongside other engineers, testers, designers and product people, building features that real users or colleagues depend on. Employers range from tech companies and software houses to banks, retailers, the NHS, government departments and consultancies.

Starting salary: £28k–£40k
Live graduate jobs: 383 open now
Main way in: Structured graduate schemes
They usually ask for: A degree in computer science, software engineering or a closely…

Approximate graduate salary

Typically around £28,000–£40,000 to start, though this varies very widely — smaller firms and public sector roles outside London often sit at the lower end or below it, while investment banks, hedge funds and large US-headquartered tech employers can pay considerably more, sometimes with bonuses or share awards on top.

What you'd actually do

Writing and changing code in a language chosen by the team — commonly Java, Python, C#, JavaScript/TypeScript, Go or C++ — usually adding to an existing codebase rather than starting from scratch.
Picking up 'tickets' (small defined units of work) from a backlog, estimating roughly how long they'll take, and updating a tracking board so the team knows what's in progress.
Raising pull requests — submitting your code for teammates to read and comment on before it's merged — and reviewing other people's code in turn.
Writing automated tests so that future changes don't silently break what you built, and fixing bugs reported by users, testers or monitoring alerts.

Show 3 more

Attending a short daily stand-up meeting, plus sprint planning and retrospectives if the team works in two-week cycles (common but not universal).
Reading documentation, debugging unfamiliar code, and asking questions — in your first year a genuinely large share of the week is working out how an existing system fits together.
Occasionally joining calls with the people who will use the software, or with a product manager, to pin down what a vague request actually means in practice.

How graduates get in

Structured graduate schemes — very common at banks, insurers, large retailers, consultancies, defence firms and the Civil Service. These usually run for one to two years with rotations, training and a cohort of other graduates.
Direct entry as a junior/graduate software engineer at a smaller company or software house — extremely common and often faster to join, but with less formal training; you learn mainly from the engineers around you.
Converting from a summer internship or industrial placement year. This is one of the strongest routes: many employers fill a significant share of graduate places from their own interns, so applying for placements in your second year matters.
Degree apprenticeships (Level 6) in software engineering or digital technology solutions — you work and study simultaneously and come out with a degree and several years of experience. An entry route into the profession rather than a graduate route, but increasingly common.

Show 2 more

Conversion routes for non-computing graduates — an MSc in computer science, a coding bootcamp, or a self-taught portfolio of projects. This works, but is harder: you'll usually need to demonstrate real code you've written and may start at a smaller employer before moving on.
Open-source contributions, game jams, hackathons or a personal project with actual users can substitute for formal experience at some employers, particularly smaller ones. Less likely to open doors at large firms with rigid screening.

What employers ask for

A degree in computer science, software engineering or a closely related subject is the most common background, but it is genuinely not required everywhere. Maths, physics, engineering and other numerate degrees are widely accepted, and some employers accept any degree if you can code.
A 2:1 is the most frequently stated minimum, especially on large graduate schemes. Plenty of smaller employers set no grade bar at all and judge you on a technical exercise instead. Some large schemes still ask for UCAS points or specific A-level grades.
Demonstrable code you've written outside coursework — a GitHub profile, a dissertation project, a placement, freelance work. This matters more than the exact degree subject at most employers.
Familiarity with at least one programming language in depth, plus version control (Git). You are not expected to know the employer's exact tech stack; you are expected to show you can learn one.

Show 2 more

Expect a technical assessment somewhere in the process: an online coding test, a take-home exercise, a live pair-programming session, or a whiteboard-style problem. Format varies enormously between employers.
Security clearance is required for defence, intelligence and some government roles, which usually means UK residency for a set number of years. No general professional licence or exam is required to practise.

Skills that matter

Debugging and systematic fault-finding

Most of the job is working out why something that should work doesn't, in code you didn't write.

Reading other people's code

You spend far more time understanding an existing system than producing new code, especially in your first two years.

Version control with Git and branching workflows

Every commercial team coordinates work through it, and getting it wrong visibly disrupts colleagues.

Writing clearly in short form

Pull request descriptions, ticket comments and documentation are how distributed teams understand your decisions months later.

Breaking vague requests into concrete tasks

Requirements arrive half-formed, and the engineer who can turn 'make the report better' into three specific changes becomes useful fast.

Comfort with being a beginner repeatedly

Languages, frameworks and tools change over a career, so the ability to learn a new one from documentation is more durable than any single technology.

Putting these on a CV? We counted which skills 12,914 live graduate adverts ask for, and what to do with the answer — part of our application advice.

Where it leads

Graduate/junior engineer: working on well-defined tasks with code review and close support. Typically one to two years, though this depends entirely on the employer and how much you're thrown in at the deep end.
Software engineer (mid-level): owning features end to end, being trusted to make design decisions within a component, starting to review others' work. Often reached around two to four years in, but this varies widely.
Senior engineer: responsible for the design of larger pieces of a system, mentoring juniors, and being the person consulted when something is broken or ambiguous. Timelines vary a lot — some people reach this in four or five years, others take longer, and it's not a race.
A fork in the road: a technical track (lead engineer, staff/principal engineer, architect) or a management track (engineering manager, head of engineering). Both are normal senior destinations and some people move between them.
Sideways moves are very common and not a step back — into product management, data engineering, DevOps/platform engineering, security, developer relations, technical consultancy, or founding a startup. A few years of writing software opens more doors than most graduate careers.

What people get wrong

“You need a computer science degree to get in.”

Many working engineers come from maths, physics, engineering, or entirely unrelated degrees via an MSc, a bootcamp or self-teaching. What employers screen for is evidence you can actually write and reason about code — a CS degree is the most convenient evidence, not the only kind.

“It's a solitary job for people who'd rather not talk to anyone.”

It's a collaborative team job. You'll spend a substantial part of the week in code review, planning discussions, pairing with a colleague and explaining technical trade-offs to non-technical people. Engineers who can't communicate plateau early.

“The job is mostly writing new code.”

Much of it is reading existing code, debugging, testing, reviewing, and making small careful changes to systems that are already live. Greenfield projects — starting something fresh — are the exception rather than the rule.

“All software jobs are at tech companies in London.”

Banks, supermarkets, insurers, the NHS, local councils, manufacturers, game studios and government all employ large numbers of engineers, and there are substantial clusters in Manchester, Edinburgh, Bristol, Leeds, Cambridge, Glasgow, Belfast and Cardiff. Remote and hybrid working is also widespread in this field.

Where this varies

The experience differs enormously depending on where you land. At a large bank, insurer or government department you'll likely work on established systems with formal processes, change-control and compliance requirements, and a structured graduate scheme with rotations. At a startup or small software house you might be shipping code to live users in your first fortnight, with little formal training and much broader responsibility. Consultancies place you on client sites, so the technology and the team change every few months. Sector also shapes the work: games and embedded/defence software involve different languages and constraints from web and data-heavy business software. Pay, pace and how much support you get as a beginner all vary accordingly — it's worth asking directly at interview how a new graduate's first three months are structured.

See all 383 live Software jobsFrom employers' own careers sites, updated daily Tailor your CV for this roleFree with an account, 3 a month

General guidance about the role across the UK market, not about any specific employer. Entry routes and requirements vary — always check the individual job advert.