What Potential Employers are Looking for in Software Engineers.

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photo by People Creations

The race for technical expertise is only becoming more intense. A “hotter” year appears to arrive every year. Based on the jobs posted on major job portals, more than 70,000 available technical positions are available. Nearly 80 percent of developers aren’t seeking a new job at the moment. However, more than half of those polled said they’d be open to new opportunities if they arose. It begs the issue of how to attract technical talent, which is on the minds of practically every technical recruitment team worldwide. When assessing fresh prospects, what are developers looking for? Over 500 developers were polled, and the results may surprise you.

Retention of developers is affected by a variety of factors.

Learning and growth opportunities are essential for maintaining people. More than three-quarters of all software engineers are either actively hunting for work or open to exploring new possibilities. In addition, to pay, 39% want to work with new technology, 36% desire greater work-life balance, and 35% are looking for advancement or leadership chances when asked why.

Most job seekers compare potential new employers to their existing company while considering new prospects (77 percent ). Developers prioritize the same things if deciding whether or not to remain or leave their existing positions. Beyond money, 61% of developers said they would consider changing employment to have more freedom, flexibility, or learning opportunities.

It’s no surprise, however, that when it comes to remaining in current employment, developers place a high priority on work flexibility (65 percent), even if it means sacrificing a little bit of money (59 percent). The desire for future jobs to allow for more flexibility in terms of working hours and location was shared by respondents of all ages, with millennials particularly keen to take advantage of new learning possibilities. According to a recent study, millennials are also the most eager to learn new things.

Flexibility and opportunity to grow at work are important to developers.

How can a prospective or present employer stand out from the competition? Over 53% of employees want the developer experience to be valued at work, followed by compensation transparency (41%), and chances to learn from individuals outside of their team as the third most important factor (40 percent ). When they join a firm, developers also seek a sense of purpose and a network of peers. An organized onboarding process appeals to 35% of new hires, while quick access to in-house specialists appeals to another 33%.

On the other hand, a lack of flexibility and resources might make a company less desirable. On Stack Overflow, roughly 60 percent of users would be put off, and 54 percent find organizations unappealing if they lack the tools to be confident in their work’s quality. 56 percent of developers said they would be put off if they were obliged to work specified hours, and 50 percent said they found firms unattractive if required to work in an office.

ChatOps isn’t a deal-breaker for developers, with just 8-12 percent saying it would make a firm undesirable if it didn’t exist. What about the old wiki systems, though? Only 20% of respondents said that a lack of access to one would make a firm less enticing.

Reputation is crucial in the world of software development.

In both passive and active job searches, developers refer to the same four sources: their network, media, corporate material like blogs and cultural videos, and online reviews. Asking friends and relatives and reading media coverage about the firm are the initial steps taken by folks who come across companies they’d want to work for. More than a quarter (26%) of developers say they found a firm to work with via an online ad. Job seekers search for information through business reviews, followed by media coverage.

Developers are divided on whether their company’s image really reflects what it’s like to be a member of the team.

The tech stack’s immense power

The most common reason developers drop out of an interview process is that they don’t like the tech stack (32 percent). Because most developers are looking for new skills, this is a good fit. Disorganized interview process (24 percent), weird interview questions (24 percent), unsatisfactory employer ratings (24 percent), and a lack of information about what it was like to work at the organization are among the other top causes (22 percent).

Is there a way to prevent your stack from scaring off potential hires? More than 83,000 developers took part in our annual Developer Survey, and the results show which languages and technologies are the most popular among them. The most widely used programming languages and frameworks provide for a high degree of adaptability. For example, Rust has been voted the most popular language for the sixth year in a row, while Python has been voted the most popular language for the fifth year. Svelte, a newcomer to the list, was the most favored framework in its debut year, while React is the most desired by developers, with one in every four expressing an interest in it.

Looking forward

Whether it’s the company culture or the technology stack, developers are always looking for ways to be more adaptable and discover new things. Those who are not finding it in their existing position may seek elsewhere. There are presently over 70,000 available technical positions, and 20% of developers actively seek new positions. We expect this trend to extend to other tech positions as well.