Stack Overflow has long been the go-to resource for developers where any question can be answered by someone behind a keyboard in their highly engaged community.
Recently, Stack Overflow released the results of their annual developer survey. This year they asked over 64,000 developers across 213 countries worldwide about how they learn, how they work, and what they want from their careers.
In response, we compiled the major highlights from the Stack Overflow survey that all employers should pay attention to as they build out essential functions in tech.
Stack Overflow Survey Highlights
- While a majority of developers earned their bachelor’s degree or higher, 90 percent of developers describe themselves as self-taught to some degree.
- The most popular language was Javascript at 62.5 percent followed by SQL, Java, C#, and Python. The most favored language was Rust at 73.1 percent, while the most wanted was Python, and the most dreaded was Visual Basic 6.
- The top developer methodologies are agile at 76.9 percent and scrum at 65.2 percent. The majority of developers check code multiple times a day.
- Most developers seem to be satisfied in their career choice, though 75.2 percent are open to hearing about new job opportunities.
- 88 percent of participants stated diversity to be very important in the workplace. While only 10 percent of respondents identified as women, this statistic went up from 6.6 percent from last year.
- When assessing potential jobs, developers prioritize opportunities for develop the most. Other top concerns are compensation and benefits, office environment, and the languages, frameworks, and technologies that the company uses. Also, a majority of developers said they feel they are underpaid.
- When evaluating benefits, developers highly value the number of vacation days and options to work remotely. There was even a moderate correlation between remote work and job satisfaction with the highest ratings being from developers who work remotely at least a few days each month or more.
What This Means for Employers and Recruiters
As employers attempt to build their development and operations teams, they need to be familiar with the needs, priorities, and preferences of developers in the job market.
By understanding the importance of flexibility, professional development opportunities, and work styles to developers, companies can make the best hires, while ensuring job satisfaction and retention. In turn, they’ll benefit from a productive, effective and efficient team that will be invaluable to a thriving business model and product development.
And, perhaps most importantly, we finally know how everyone is pronouncing “GIF”
