Key Takeaways from StackOverflow's Developer Survey

April 15, 2015 at 1:30 PM by Rob Stevenson

classroom_blog Throughout the month of February, wildly popular Developer destination StackOverflow conducted a comprehensive survey in an effort to more accurately paint the picture of the international developer. StackOverflow is a vast hub where developers can share their work, engage in a Q&A format, and browse the site's job board. With just over 26,000 respondents across 157 countries, this research may very well be the widest polling ever performed on the profession. Data gathered included location, gender, years of experience, side projects, favorite technologies, and much more. It's no secret that the surest way to find the best fit candidate is to intimately understand both the role and the point of view of the talent. With the results so generously provided by StackOverflow, you can begin to understand who exactly you're dealing with when it comes to the tricky tech hire. 

The Limitations

No survey is perfect. The challenges of this one, as highlighted by the folks at StackOverflow, are as follows:

  • Selection bias. This survey was distributed en masse without specific targeting or sampling considerations, meaning there isn't an element of randomization.
  • Language bias. The survey was only provided in English, so the survey excludes non english speaking devs.

The Lessons

StackOverflow Dev Survey

One of the earliest takeaways from the service is the average developer age by country. Unsurprisingly, the United States developers tend to be the oldest. This means developing tech markets such as listed above could be ripe sourcing opportunities for entry to mid level dev hires, assuming you can offer relocation stipends in a pinch.

StackOverflow Dev SurveyThe lack of gender diversity in technology is no secret. According to the survey, however, there is hope! Women appear to be pursuing tech careers now more than ever before, with 67% of female developers having 5 or less years of experience. Encouraging young women to take a look at coding through programs such as CodeEd is just one of many ways to build a more representative engineering force.

StackOverflow Developer SurveyHere's a quick remender that an individual's academic bailiwick is not the be all end all of their professional ability. In fact, 41.8% of all developers claim no such qualification. Use traditional institutional certifcation not as a standard but as a plus: it certainly doesn't hurt, but you can't completely write someone off just because they don't have it.

 

 

StackOverflow Developer SurveyStackOverflow Developer Survey

The above might be the most useful charts of the the entire survey. Here, developers list their least favorite and most desirable to learn languages. If you're hiring for a technology listed in either of these charts, you'll know which ones to stress.

 

What do you think are the most interesting takeaways from the survey? Hit us up in the comments!

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