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Computer programmer: what the job actually is

Writing, testing and repairing the code that makes a system run, usually inside a large piece of software somebody else started.

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Computer programmer: quick facts

Computer programmer salary in Ontario: the median pay is $45.67 an hour, according to Job Bank (reference period 2023-2024). Its three-year outlook in Ontario is moderate. The job usually needs a university degree.

Median pay in Ontario
$45.67 an hour
Pay range (low to high)
$27.04 to $62.67 an hour
Job outlook, 2025-2027
Moderate
People working in it in Ontario
14,800
Usually needs
Usually a university degree

Source: Job Bank wages (updated 19 November 2025) and job prospects (updated 10 December 2025), NOC 21230. Pay varies by region and experience.

The work

What this job actually is

  • Writing code that tells a computer system what to do, then testing it, fixing it and keeping it working after it is released.
  • Job Bank's group is Computer systems developers and programmers. It covers programmers in banks, government and software firms, including people who write operating systems and tools that other programmers use. The pay and outlook on this page are for that whole group.
  • Compared with the software developer page, this one leans toward the coding itself and away from the design conversations. In real workplaces the two titles overlap heavily, and the job ad decides which one you hold.
  • Most of the work is inside code that already exists. You find where something goes wrong, change the least you can, and prove with a test that you did not break something else.
  • It is quiet, text-based, and mostly solitary during the hours of actual writing, with regular review of your work by other people.

A Tuesday

What a normal day looks like

Not a good day or a bad one. The ordinary version, which is what you would actually be living.

  1. 8:45 — Open the ticket queue. A report is wrong for one customer in one province, and nobody knows why.
  2. 9:15 — Reproduce the problem on your own machine. Until you can make it fail on purpose you have not understood it.
  3. 10:00 — Read the code that produces the report. It was written six years ago by somebody who left, and the comments are optimistic.
  4. 11:30 — Find it. A date is being read in one format and written in another. The fix is two lines.
  5. 12:00 — Lunch, at the desk or not, depending on the team.
  6. 12:45 — Write the test that would have caught it, then the fix, then run everything else to see what else the fix disturbs.
  7. 14:00 — Code review. Somebody reads your change and asks why you did it that way. You explain, and one of the answers is that you were wrong.
  8. 15:00 — Start the next ticket. This one is a new feature, which is more fun and more dangerous.
  9. 16:30 — Update the notes so the next person does not lose the same morning you just lost.
  10. 17:00 — Close the laptop. The code you wrote today is invisible to everybody except the people it would have broken.

Honestly

Who loves this, and who should not do it

The second list is the useful one. Nearly every careers page leaves it out, which is why nearly every careers page reads like an advert.

You may like this if
  • You enjoy puzzles where the answer is either right or visibly wrong, with no opinion involved.
  • You can stay on one small problem for hours without needing to talk to anybody.
  • You would rather build the part under the surface than design what people see.
  • You are fine with being corrected in code review, repeatedly, for years.
  • You like learning new tools, because the ones you know now will not be the ones you use later.
You may hate this if
  • You need a visible, physical result at the end of the day. The product here is text.
  • You dislike reading other people's old work. Most programming is exactly that.
  • You get anxious when one wrong character breaks a whole system and the computer will not tell you kindly.
  • Sitting at a screen for most of the day is already a problem for you.
  • You want a job that is stable in its tools. Job Bank's own note for this group is that the pace of job growth may be affected by recent restructuring in the technology sector.
  • You want a licence or a title to prove you are good. Nobody here hands one over, and the work is the only proof.

The route in

How you actually get there in Ontario

  1. A degree or diploma with real programming in it

    Job Bank's Ontario page says a bachelor's degree or college diploma in computer science, computer engineering or another discipline with a significant programming component is usually required. Ontario colleges and universities both run programmes like this: search by field of interest on ontariocolleges.ca.

  2. No licence, but a different regulated job nearby

    Job Bank says this occupation is not regulated in Ontario. It also notes that the related job of Computer Numerical Control (CNC) Programmer is regulated by Skilled Trades Ontario. That is a machining trade, not this job, but it is worth knowing the two names are neighbours.

  3. Specialised study for engineering and science code

    Job Bank says programming for engineering and scientific applications may call for additional specialised study or hands-on experience in that field. If you like the idea of writing the code that runs a laboratory instrument or a simulation, you will need to learn the science as well.

  4. Build things people can run

    A small finished project that somebody else can use shows a hiring manager more than a list of courses does. Put your code somewhere public with a short plain explanation of what it does.

Where this comes from: Job Bank — Requirements for computer systems developers and programmers in Ontario · Job Bank — Ontario wage report for computer systems developers and programmers · ontariocolleges.ca — program search

The money

Computer programmer salary in Ontario

Job Bank's own figures, quoted rather than summarised, with the period they describe — so you can tell how old they are and go and check them.

$27.04
Low (hourly)
$45.67
Median (hourly)
$62.67
High (hourly)

Ontario, NOC 21230. Reference period 2023-2024, last updated by Job Bank on 19 November 2025. Wages vary a lot by region inside Ontario and by how long you have been doing it — the low figure is roughly where you start, not what the job is worth.

Source: Job Bank — Computer programmer wages in Ontario

Where it is heading

The outlook for the next three years

Job Bank publishes a three-year outlook for every job in every province. It is the closest thing to an honest forecast, and it moves, so read it as a weather report rather than a verdict.

Ontario, 2025-2027

Moderate3 out of 5 stars

  • Employment decline will lead to the loss of some positions.
  • A moderate number of positions will become available due to retirements.

What that rating means: how many openings Job Bank expects in Ontario for this kind of work against how many people are likely to be looking — not whether it is a good job. A “limited” rating means more competition for each opening; it does not close the door, and it can change before you are ready to walk through it.

What is changing in this work

  • The extensive use of advanced digital tools across all industries will continue to create job opportunities
  • However, the pace of job growth may be affected by recent restructuring in the technology sector

Who hires for it

  • Various industries, but the leading share employed in computer systems design and related services, which include video game design and development
  • Finance and insurance, mainly banks
  • Public administration, largely federal government departments
14,800
people work in this job in Ontario
23%
are women (48% across all jobs)
12%
are self-employed (15% across all jobs)

Source: Job Bank — Computer systems developers and programmers job prospects in Ontario (NOC 21230). Outlook updated by Job Bank on 10 December 2025; read by us on 5 October 2026.

Before you leave school

Things you can do now

  • Take the senior maths and computer science courses your school offers, and ask your guidance office whether a nearby school or an online course covers what yours does not.
  • Write one small program that solves a real problem for somebody around you, such as a script that sorts a team schedule. A real user teaches more than a tutorial.
  • Ask your school about co-op. A placement in an IT or software department shows you the work as it is rather than as a course describes it.
  • Try a free coding site for an hour and then decide whether you wanted to keep going or merely to be finished.

Test it

Do this before you decide anything

Reading about a job tells you almost nothing. This is designed to be done alone, this week, for free.

Fix one bug in a short program you did not write

About 90 minutes
  1. Find a free beginner exercise on a coding practice site that includes a short program with a stated problem. Pick one that says it is broken and asks you to repair it.
  2. Read the program all the way through before you change anything. Write down in one sentence what you think each part is meant to do.
  3. Change one thing at a time and run it after each change. If you change three things at once you will not know which one worked.
  4. When it works, write two sentences explaining what was wrong. If you cannot explain it, you fixed it by luck.

What it tells you. If you enjoyed the stuck stretch in the middle and wanted the next broken program, that is a strong sign this work suits you, and the next step is a longer project. If every minute felt like being told off by a machine and you were relieved to stop, that is a real answer too: the creative or people-facing technology jobs on this site may fit better.

Better than any article

Questions for somebody who does this job

Most people say yes to a teenager who asks good questions. These are the ones that get real answers rather than encouragement.

  1. “How much of your week is writing new code and how much is reading or repairing old code?”
  2. “What do you wish you had learned in school that you only learned on the job?”
  3. “How do you decide when a change is finished enough to hand to somebody else?”
  4. “Which tools have you had to drop and relearn since you started?”
  5. “What does a good code review feel like, and what does a bad one feel like?”

Could you own one of these?

The part other career sites never mention

Yes, in a limited sense. Nobody licenses programmers, so you can take on freelance contract work or build your own product with no permission. Job Bank counts a share of this group as self-employed. The work then includes finding clients, writing quotes, chasing invoices and fixing things at night, which is a second job on top of the coding.

Business 101 is free and teaches that part

Quick answers

Questions people ask about this job

How much does a computer programmer make in Ontario?

The median pay for a computer programmer in Ontario is $45.67 an hour, according to Job Bank (reference period 2023-2024, updated 19 November 2025). The range Job Bank publishes runs from $27.04 to $62.67 an hour. Pay varies by region, employer and experience.

What is the job outlook for a computer programmer in Ontario?

Job Bank rates the employment outlook for this work in Ontario as moderate for 2025-2027 (updated 10 December 2025). Employment decline will lead to the loss of some positions. A moderate number of positions will become available due to retirements. A lower rating means more competition for each opening, not that no one is hiring.

What do you need to become a computer programmer in Ontario?

Job Bank says this work usually needs a university degree. The usual route in Ontario, in order: A degree or diploma with real programming in it; No licence, but a different regulated job nearby; Specialised study for engineering and science code.

Where does a computer programmer work in Ontario?

Various industries, but the leading share employed in computer systems design and related services, which include video game design and development. Finance and insurance, mainly banks. Public administration, largely federal government departments. (Job Bank.)

How many people work as a computer programmer in Ontario, and how many are women?

Job Bank counts about 14,800 people working in this job in Ontario. 23% of them are women, compared with 48% across all jobs. That describes who does the work today, not who can.

Where people come from

Which programs lead here?

In the 2021 Census, this job is one of the 12 most common for graduates of these programs. Each page shows what else they do, and which of those jobs have openings.

Tech and engineering jobs: who is hiring What can you do with your degree?

Not sure this is the right list to be reading

Start from yourself, not from the job.

Future Finder is free, takes about ten minutes, needs no account and stores nothing. It will tell you which kinds of work you lean toward, and which of these pages are worth your time.

Try Future Finder — freeAll jobs

Parent of a teenager weighing this up? Career coaching for teens gets them talking to people who do the work, anywhere in Ontario.

If this appeals, look at these too

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Wages and training requirements change. Every figure on this page is linked to the body that publishes it, and the review date above says when we last checked. If you find something out of date, tell us and we will fix it.