Devs Have Spoken. This is What They Want
The developer community is one of the most supportive and active groups on the internet today. Devs from all over the world work together to collaborate, learn and develop new skills. One of the gathering points for developers of all levels is Stack Overflow, who recently approached its 100,000+ coders with their 2018 survey. The results of the survey paint a thorough picture of what developers want, what they love and what they are looking forward to. This year's survey is particularly valuable to hiring managers and recruiters because it focused on finding out coders' preferred technologies and their job preferences. Understanding the aspirations of developers can help you cultivate environments and opportunities to help you attract top dev talent. Key Takeaways DevOps and machine learning are important trends in the industry today. Languages and frameworks associated with these kinds of works are on the rise, and developers working in these areas command the highest salaries. When assessing a prospective job, different kinds of developers apply different sets of priorities. Women say their highest priorities are company culture and opportunities for professional development, while men say compensation and working with specific technologies are most important. While developers aren't prepared to write unethical code, the debate firmly sits in shades of grey. Developers are not sure how they would report ethical problems, and have differing ideas about who ultimately is responsible for unethical code. Developers are overall optimistic about the possibilities that artificial intelligence offers, but are not in agreement about what the dangers of AI are. One thing's for sure, they aren't afraid of losing their jobs to AI any time soon. Python has risen in the ranks of programming languages since last year, surpassing C# in popularity this year. Software Developers are Young and Looking for Experience According to the survey, over 50% of software developers have been coding for less than 8 years and have less than 5 years of professional experience. This is part of the reason why experienced developers are so hard to find: they are in the minority. The opportunity for businesses is to create spaces to cultivate new talent and invest early in developers. While they lack professional development, the survey reinforces the belief that developers love coding. Over 80% enjoy coding as a hobby and almost all professional developers learn new skills informally. Most commonly, this is through online courses and community events, like hackathons. When looking for new candidates, hiring managers need to look beyond the CV and work experience of developers. Extracurricular activities and portfolio work should be taken into consideration with more weight than other roles. This may reveal much more about your candidate than you might think. Not All Developers Actually Work in Tech Financial service, media, healthcare, consultancies… these are just a few of the diverse range of industries developers are working in. The survey reveals that only 16% of developers work specifically web development. In today's digital world, everyone needs tech people. It's part of why tech recruitment is such a diverse environment. Most developers work in medium sized businesses, but as experience increases, so does the size of the business they work in. This demonstrates a clear career path for the average developer and is reflected in their work ethic. 80% of developers in the survey want to be doing more work. Javascript Rules Over 70% of developers polled use JavaScript on a regular basis. But new technologies, such as Python, are on the rise. This is reflected in their desires, as Python came out on top of most wanted language to work in. On the other side of the scale, Visual Basic 6 is the most dreaded of all languages. React, MongoDB and Android round out the last of the most desirable technologies that developers want to use. If you want to make your business more attractive to developers, look for opportunities to use the technologies they like to work with. Developers Are An Active Bunch! Developers work hard, but they don't work into the small hours, avoiding contact from the outside world. Most developers get up between 6am and 8am, work 9 hours a day and live balanced, healthy lives. Understanding the needs and concerns of developers is essential for people looking to hire the top coding talent. That's why our recruitment consultants take the time to immerse themselves in the tech world, so they truly understand what devs want and how best to support them on their career journeys.
