More than one in two developers is considering job hopping with the next year while talent retention has become the top issue on  technical hiring companies' priority list. These are among the findings of CodinGame's 2023 survey of developers and recruiters which also explores preferences for skills assessment.

A few days ago I reported that Software Developer was ranked the Best USA Job by U.S. News and World Report and that despite the spate of layoffs by major tech companies the number of new job openings means that demand for skilled developers will outstrip supply going forward. 

Now we have the findings of a survey of both developers and those responsible for hiring them. For its 2023 survey CodinGame gathered feedback from close to 14,000 developers from 131 countries, with diverse professional and personal backgrounds and roughly 4,200 recruiters from 98 countries on the  hiring side. What does it tell us about the landscape of work and the hiring process?

Hybrid work is now the norm for the tech industry with only 15%  of developers working 100% on-site 

The survey also reveals that while the phenomenon of “The Great Resignation” was in the headlines in 2021 it's certainly not over with 42% of recruiters saying that there’s been an increase in tech employee resignations in their company in the past 12 months, something that has caused them to consider employee retention to be of prime importance.

In answer to the question, Are you thinking about quitting your job or exploring new job opportunities in the next 12 months? fewer than a third chose No, I'm happy where I am compared to over a half choosing Yes, I'm thinking about it. Over 10% had recently switched jobs. When respondents who were thinking about resigning or who had recently changed jobs were asked about their motivations two thirds gave To get a higher salary as the top reason.

This confirms that developers’ priorities when looking for work have shifted over the past couple of years. Wheras in 2021 salary was in third position, behind work-life balance (1st) and interesting technical challenges (2nd) with remote working options ranked 8th, now salary, work-life balance, and remote working options are the most important considerations, in that order.

While 20% of companies don't consider developers without a degree, 59% of developers do not have a university degree in Computer Science, and close to a third consider themselves to be primarily self-taught:

CoderPad encourages companies not to close themselves off to unconventional talent making the case that a technical interview process should tell you whether candidates have the skills for the job. The report also states:

Some of our best developers come from non-traditional learning backgrounds—one is a former professional pianist!

and it also quotes a developer's comments

“I learned programming when I was very young. The first operating system that I used was Windows 95 and I remember these booklets which contained assembly code. Then I worked various part-time jobs as an adult. I then taught myself programming again by doing online courses and MOOCs. Then I got employed by a tech company and decided to get a college degree in software development. So in short my path to software development contained all of the above!”

The CodinGame hiring platform provides CodinGame Screen, which evaluates candidates’ coding skills with fun, hands-on programming tests that only take 60 seconds to set up and CoderPad Live which allows recruiters to conduct collaborative coding interviews and invite developers to write, execute and debug code in a browser-based environment.

Pointing out that during the hiring process:

Developers want to showcase their skillset to potential employers to the best of their ability. Recruiters want an accurate view of the candidate’s skills to determine whether they meet the requirements of the role.

the survey explored preferences for different assessment methods:

For developers technical tests are the preferred assessment method, followed by take-home (asynchronous) development projects, then live coding interviews. Recruiters, on the other hand, prefer a live coding interview with a discussion of code, followed by technical tests with practical coding questions and a personal portfolio. CodinGame comments:

It’s promising that technical tests and live interviews appear in both groups’ top 3, but recruiters should note developers’ affinity for async projects. Recruiters ranked take-home projects in 5th place.  

More Information

CodinGame & CoderPad Tech Hiring Survey 2023

Related Articles

Boom Time For Developer Recruitment

What Makes Developers Tick

Revealing The Top Skills For 2023

Stick Or Twist - Employers Want You

Get Certified, Earn More

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