Software Developers are in demand all over the world, which is great if you fancy a change of scene. In its 2020 report Devskiller finds that JavaScript is the must-have skill required by employers across the globe.

This is the second time Devskiller has shared its findings about employers hiring intentions. As the company that trademarked "RealLifeTesting" for its methodology, its tests are designed to find "actual problem solvers" who possess the skills that employers need. For its first report its data, spanning the whole of 2018, came from testing 112,654 developers from over 120 countries for companies in over 40 countries. This time around its report Devskiller Top IT skills report 2020: Demand and hiring trends is based on an extra hundred thousand developers (213,782) and with a wider geographical reach - test-takers in 143 countries in response to hiring companies in 49 countries.

Last year Java plus SQL was the most sought after skill combination but this time it has been relegated to third place: 

What is interesting about this chart is that a JavaScript coding test is included almost irrespective of the role to be filled.  Commenting on this chart the report states:

What these findings show is that when it comes to full-stack development, the combination of IT skills required are increasingly JavaScript on the front-end along with SQL to compliment a server-side tech stack. 

In total, Devskiller found that 72% of companies were looking for JavaScript developers:

Devskiller is distinguished by its focus on international hiring in response to the trend for companies to look outside their own borders for technical talent, Over the past year the countries that have seen an increase in their international technical hiring are the US, France and New Zealand while the UK and Germany, both of which are dealing with possibly slowing economies and political uncertainty have seen a decrease.

While the US recruits a quarter of all overseas developer candidates and remains the largest recruiter of overseas talent it is now only the 4th largest labor market for overseas recruitment after India, Brazil and Egypt.

The average score on Devskiller's coding tests went up very slightly year-on-year, from 40.71% to 41.14% while the highest national score remained virtually static, with developers from Latvia coming top of the league with a score of 54.65%. 

Commenting on this table, Devskiller told us:

The reason national rankings in this category can vary so much is that the score is partially dependent on the skill of the candidate pool and partially how appropriate the tests are to the positions being filled.  

Reinforcing this point is the finding that Italian companies, which adjust tests to be more reflective of the skill level required for the job rather than giving developers excessively challenging tests, have the highest scoring candidates, with an average of 57.14%.

At the same time as companies are targeting their tests more closely at the skill level of the positions that they are hiring for, they are becoming much more selective.

Devskiller comments:

Israeli companies are the most selective this year, accepting for consideration only 12.26% of the developers they test. Luxembourgian companies, who attract the highest-scoring candidates, are the second most selective. They accept for consideration only 16% of their candidates.

and concludes:

Tests that are targeted at a more appropriate level are attracting many more candidates. The ability to test a wider spread of candidates has given companies the opportunity to be a lot more selective in who they accept for consideration. 

More Information

Devskiller Top IT skills report 2020 

Related Articles

Insights From Devskiller's Code Skills Testing

Packt Skill Up Survey Shows Programmers Are Mostly Full Stack

Know Your Worth - Insights Into Developer Pay

Stack Overflow Publishes Largest Ever Survey

Language Learning Insights From HackerRank 2019 Survey

To be informed about new articles on I Programmer, sign up for our weekly newsletter, subscribe to the RSS feed and follow us on Twitter, Facebook or Linkedin.

Comments

Make a Comment or View Existing Comments Using Disqus

or email your comment to: comments@i-programmer.info