Developers weigh in on opportunities, tech and work-life balance.
Recently, Lawless Research collaborated with HackerRank on a global survey of more than 16,000 developers. The resulting HackerRank 2019 Developer Skills Report identifies compelling insights into the world of coding.
Immigration Policies Impact Access to Tech Talent
With 57% of Silicon Valley’s technical workforce born outside of the United States, 4 in 10 developers are negatively impacted by immigration policies in 2018. Nearly 25% state that these policies discouraged them or those they know from applying for U.S. jobs. Among hiring managers, 15% say this makes it difficult to recruit tech talent.
Professional Growth and Work-Life Balance Matter Most
When concerns about employers arose, 58% of respondents took action on issues such as privacy misuse and censorship. Top turn-offs include employers who don’t provide clarity around job roles. Across all job levels and functions, developers reveal that their highest priorities are opportunities for professional growth and work-life balance.
Technical Trends Continue Evolving
73% of respondents know JavaScript, up from 67% in 2017. AngularJS continues to be the most popular framework—though React is gradually gaining. And 53% of developers predict that IoT will be the most adopted technology over the next two years.
Hip-Hop Fuels Younger Coders, Poor Documentation Frustrates Them
In 2018, hip hop and rap fueled coding sessions for developers 21 and younger, though dance and electronic music were the most popular choices across all age groups. Badly written documentation frustrates 75% of junior developers, while spaghetti code aggravates 65% of senior developers. We also found that ~10% of developers admitted to accidentally wiping out an entire database.
Calculators are the New Games
Games were the entry point into coding for the majority of developers over age 38. Younger generations typically built calculators as their first projects. Two of the more precocious projects included “hacking” a flash game for infinite health and ammunition, and creating a program to help complete homework assignments.