CODINGAME & CODERPAD TECH HIRING SURVEY 2022
Introduction
About this report
In 2022, CodinGame and CoderPad turned to their developer and HR communities to find out more about what’s going on in the tech space.
We asked them about their projects, their challenges, and their priorities. We dug deep, to find out just what it means to be a developer and recruit developers in today’s job market.
We surveyed close to 14,000 developers and recruiters from all over the world to bring you answers.
You’ll find exclusive and valuable insights about the tech hiring scene, such as:
- 70% of developers want to work remotely, either full time or a few days a week.
- 57% of recruiters are ready to remove the CV from the recruitment process.
- The percentage of recruiters hiring developers from non-academic backgrounds has almost doubled.
- 42% of recruiters will use skill-based assessment solutions to improve diversity.
- Candidate Experience is the top priority recruiters plan to invest in for 2022.
About CodinGame
We’re on a mission to build the most engaging platform where developers can sharpen their coding skills for free, by playing games and solving puzzles, and connect with top companies to land great jobs. We’re paving the way for tech hiring based on skills, not resumes! Over 2 million fans of code have already joined us on CodinGame.
We also strive to help companies looking to hire and retain skilled programmers (Facebook, Bank of America, Nintendo, Warner Bros, etc.). Our clients turn to our all-in-one tech recruiting platform CodinGame for Work to source, screen and retain tech talent like never before. How? Thanks to our innovative sourcing tool, reliable online technical tests and our fun, team-building escape game, Coding Escape.
About CoderPad
CoderPad is a simple yet powerful online technical assessment software that makes it easy to interview in the candidate’s language of choice so hiring managers can quickly get a quality signal of an engineer’s skills. We empower customers around the world to screen and interview best-in-class engineers with our comprehensive and flexible technology, responsive customer success team, and devotion to a great candidate experience. Founded in 2013 and headquartered in San Francisco, CoderPad serves over 3,300 customers and has hosted more than 3 million technical interviews in 30+ languages.
Today we are a global team with a comprehensive technical hiring platform that includes take-home projects and live paired programming interviews. We strive to build technology that gets the right people hired — and moves hiring beyond resumes, college logos, and personal connections. We focus on our users and candidates above all else — never forgetting our roots of being simple, easy to use, and reliable.
WORKING AS A DEVELOPER IN 2022
USA is most lucrative place to be a developer
In the top 5 countries offering the highest salaries, you’ll find:
- United States of America
- Switzerland
- Canada
As you would expect with the varied cost of living across the world, salaries also vary widely.
While 44% of developers in the USA make 100k or more and 5% make over 200k, in India over 75% make less than 20k.
The regional difference in wages, coupled with the embracing of remote work and increasing openness to recruit globally, presents an opportunity for developers around the world. We expect to see a wage increase in future surveys as recruiters widen their talent pool.
Average Salaries by country
Excluding students/interns and those currently unemployed and countries with a low number of respondents
Top in-demand technical skills for 2022
Developers and recruiters are not always fully aligned on the skills they wish to hire for or acquire.
This year, the top 3 skills recruiters wish to hire for are Web Development, DevOps, and AI/Machine Learning, whereas developers are most interested in learning AI/Machine Learning, Web Development and Game Development.
It’s a good match for Web Development and AI!
Developers, however, have the desire to specialize in areas which do not always match the market demand (i.e., Game Development, Blockchain or Robotics), whereas recruiters lack candidates with skills in DevOps, Cloud Computing and Database Software.
Which skills would you like to acquire/hire for in 2022?
Developers keep up with in-demand languages
In 2022, Javascript, Java and Python will be the top 3 languages recruiters will look for.
In general, there is at least the same percentage of developers who know a language as there are recruiters seeking it, if not more. This shows developers are aware of market demand and learn languages to meet them.
Interestingly, for a few languages, there is more hiring demand than supply, including Clojure and Scala.
Angular 2+ offers job opportunities for developers
As with languages, developers are keeping up with market demands for frameworks, with the 3 most sought after by recruiters in 2022 being React, Node.js and .NETCore.
However, Angular 2+, which is well-suited for enterprise-class apps, really lacks developer supply (developers prefer more agile frameworks such as Vue or React).
It thus offers great opportunities for developers looking to further increase their employability in 2022.
Developers want better project management and scheduling
The top 3 challenges faced by developers at work remained the same compared to 2020.
Unplanned changes to the schedule are their biggest pain point, followed by unclear direction, and a lack of technical knowledge in the team to implement projects.
As the Great Resignation in the tech industry becomes an issue worldwide, those looking to retain employees should focus on providing clear direction, adequate training and managing project timelines with realistic deadlines.
What are your main challenges at work?
IS REMOTE WORK HERE TO STAY?
Most developers want to work remotely
In 2022, 70% of developers want to work remotely: 33% prefer to work remotely full time and 37% prefer to work remotely a few days a week. Only 4% would prefer to be at the office full time.
Fortunately, this fits with what recruiters are offering.
1 out of 3 recruiters offer full remote and 29% offer hybrid flexibility. Fewer than 10% of recruiters said that there were positions with no remote work possibilities.
This is good news, as restricting developer posts to the office is a surefire way to reduce the hiring pool and appear less attractive than competitors’ offers.
Developers unhappy to return to the office after COVID-remote
66% of developers moved to remote work due to the pandemic. As the situation has improved, 56% of them have been asked to return to the office (23% full time).
Globally, the more developers work remotely, the happier they are. On the other hand, those who have been asked to return to the office are far less content (33% of those asked to return full time are “not very happy” or “not at all happy”).
With developers being reluctant to return to the office, companies should offer hybrid working options at the very minimum if they hope to retain employees.
Has your company asked you to return to the office? How do you feel about this?
Hybrid teams as productive as grouped teams
With the various changes over the last couple of years, the majority of teams are now hybrid (only 20% were already hybrid before the pandemic).
32% of developers believe this mix of on-site and remote workers has a positive impact on productivity, whereas 51% of recruiters are convinced of the positive effect on productivity.
The effectiveness of hybrid teams is great news as companies widen their talent pool to recruit more globally and developers seek flexible remote options.
Do you feel that hybrid organization affects work quality and/or productivity?
RECRUITING IN 2022: A TIGHT BUT DYNAMIC JOB MARKET
More companies hiring in the hundreds
35% percent of recruiters are planning to hire more than 50 developers in 2022.
Notably, the amount of recruiters mass recruiting has increased. The percentage of those hiring 201-500 has more than doubled, and the amount hiring for more than 500 has increased by 50%.
This reflects the need to make up for pandemic-related hiring freezes or restructuring. As business returns to normal, recruiters must rush to fill their teams.
In 2022, how many developers does your company plan to recruit?
Companies’ budgets for recruiting developers are growing
53% of recruiters will have more budget for recruiting developers in 2022 than they did in 2021.
It is a positive sign that companies are recruiting more in 2022.
After a difficult period where many businesses stopped recruiting or even let go of employees, companies now appear to be feeling more confident.
The greater budget could also be linked to developers demanding higher salaries, a point that was mentioned in comments by several recruiters.
2022 budget for recruiting developers compared to last year
Almost 50% of recruiters struggle to find qualified candidates
“Finding qualified candidates” remains the number one challenge when recruiting developers.
It is clear that the market is tight as recruiters also listed “standing out from other companies to attract talent” as the third biggest challenge.
Since 2020, “Identifying potential even if candidates don’t have the perfect matching skill set” has leapt from 8th place to 2nd and correlates with our finding that more recruiters are regularly hiring developers who learned outside of a university or engineering school.
What are your main challenges when recruiting developers?
Recruiters predict difficulty in recruiting Full-Stack profiles
Full-stack engineer and back-end engineer are the two roles that recruiters think they will most struggle with.
Though these two positions are quite common on the tech job market, recruiters will need them in such high numbers this year that they predict they’ll face hiring difficulties.
Unsurprisingly, highly specialized jobs DevOps, Architects and Data Scientists, and Machine Learning Specialists are considered difficult to find on the market.
Fortunately, machine learning and DevOps are both in the top 5 skills developers want to learn in 2022, so future demand should be met.
Developers’ current positions vs. positions recruiters will struggle to hire for
Pandemic a boost for contingent workers
42% either started hiring contingent workers or started hiring more following the pandemic.
This could be due to uncertainty, leading employers to prefer contingent workers over permanent employees.
It may also be due to difficulty in finding candidates in a tight market, with developers having more options to choose from with the global adoption of remote work.
Has the pandemic impacted the way you hire contingent workers?
More recruitment globally
Developers do not limit their job searches to what’s available locally.
50% would search globally and only 20% would seek a job in their current city.
This is a change from 2020, when only 35% of developers said they would search globally. Undoubtedly, the embracing of remote work over the last couple of years has played a role.
Recruiters are also opening their nets wide with 40% hiring internationally. We will undoubtedly see fewer and fewer posts limited to local applicants over the coming years.
Geographically, where do you look for tech candidates/new job opportunities?
WIDENING THE TALENT POOL
Saying goodbye to the CV
Roughly 57% of recruiters said that they would!
This shows that recruiters recognize the limitations of the CV when trying to recruit tech profiles.
Focusing on aspects such as the educational background and work experience, the CV does not give an accurate representation of the candidates’ skills. It can also introduce bias into the process, unnecessarily.
Recruiters consider hiring based on technical assessment tests and live interviews as good alternatives to spot the most skilled candidates for the job.
Would you be willing to remove CVs from your recruitment process entirely (and base your hiring decisions on technical assessment tests, live interviews, etc.)?
Europe is the most reluctant to ditch the CV
Interesting differences appear between continents.
We find the most resistance to ditch the CV in Europe, with 40% saying they wouldn’t, followed closely by Oceania.
South American recruiters were the most open to the possibility, followed closely by Asian respondents.
Would you be willing to remove CVs from your recruitment process entirely (and base your hiring decisions on technical assessment tests, live interviews, etc.)?
Recruiters agree bias is an issue in tech recruiting
It is no longer debated.
65% of recruiters believe that bias is an issue in technical recruitment.
This widespread recognition of bias couples with a desire to turn towards more objective and fairer hiring methods, such as practical technical assessments and live coding interviews.
These solutions help recruiters improve candidate experience and more accurately identify talent.
Do you think that bias is an issue in technical recruitment?
Skill-based hiring is #1 measure to improve diversity
- Using skills-based technical assessment tools
- Implementing equal pay
- Proactively sourcing diverse candidates
* Kline, Patrick M., Evan K. Rose, and Christopher R. Walters. Systemic discrimination among large US employers. No. w29053. National Bureau of Economic Research, 2021.
What does your company do to improve diversity in its tech recruitment?
Recruiters casting net wider than universities
Recruiting developers from non-academic backgrounds has gone from being a rare occurrence to becoming normal.
As the market tightens, recruiters recognize the importance of keeping the top of the funnel open to not filter out potential quality candidates.
The percentage of recruiters who hire from this pool has almost doubled in just one year.
Do you recruit developers with non-academic backgrounds?
More than 1 in 3 developers didn’t learn from university
The previous trend is good news for the 40% of developer respondents who didn’t learn to code at engineering school or university.
Most of those are self-taught and a small part trained through online or offline short-term training.
Fewer than half of the devs who responded to the survey learned computer programming at a university or engineering school.
How did you learn computer programming?
Upskilling and reskilling a priority
When companies cannot hire to meet their technical needs, they often turn to training existing employees to meet demands.
The majority of recruiters’ companies are currently investing in upskilling (teaching employees new skills within the same job) and almost half are also reskilling employees (training them to do a different job altogether).
Some developers appear be unaware of all the training initiatives in place.
Some training schemes may have been implemented recently following fluctuating needs during the pandemic and may not yet have resulted in changing roles for employees.
Is your company currently investing time and/or money in upskilling/reskilling technical profiles?
CANDIDATE EXPERIENCE A PRIORITY
Candidate experience #1 priority
It is clear that recruiters recognize that they need to adapt to a candidate-driven market.
- Candidate experience has come in first place 2 years running.
- Talent retention has remained in second place for 3 years running.
- Expanding the talent pool and talent diversity are also a big focus for recruiters, increasing openness to hire developers from non-academic backgrounds.
- Employer branding has moved from third place last year to fifth this year, as recruiters judge expanding their talent pools and talent diversity greater priorities.
Are those signs of permanent change?
What does your company plan to invest in/develop in 2022?
Whiteboard interviews are the worst
It’s unanimous.
Indeed, research* has shown that many well-qualified candidates can be eliminated during whiteboard interviews because they’re not used to performing in front of an audience.
Such tests cause needless anxiety and often feature problems to solve that don’t have any direct relation to the daily job requirements.
Candidates and recruiters are also in agreement that live coding interviews are the best option.
*Mahnaz Behroozi, Shivani Shirolkar, Titus Barik, and Chris Parnin. 2020. Does stress impact technical interview performance?
What is your preferred interview format?
Live coding interviews and technical tests are best
While developers judged technical tests with practical questions to be the best way to most accurately assess their skills, recruiters believe that live coding interviews have an edge.
The general agreement on methods between both groups is great news, especially as recruiters seek to provide a great candidate experience.
Gamified tests also provide a potential opportunity for recruiters.
It’s clear they are appreciated by developers and perhaps underutilized by recruiters, who rate them similar to technical tests with theoretical questions.
Which assessment methods allow you to best showcase/assess technical skills?
Soft skills: a challenge for remote recruiting
30% of developers find it difficult to demonstrate their personalities and soft skills remotely.
Actually, both recruiters and candidates listed similar top 3 challenges.
The next challenge is Assessing candidates’ technical skills online. It seems that some people haven’t discovered CodinGame yet!
Third place is Dealing with technical difficulties. Examples of technical difficulties given included not having a camera on a computer or trying to run Teams for an interview on Linux.
What do you find most challenging about hiring remotely?
CONCLUSION
Conclusion
- With finding qualified tech profiles remaining the main challenge for recruiters in 2022, widening the talent pool will be at the center of HR strategies to stand out against other companies.
- Tech recruiters consider that candidate experience is the number 1 priority for 2022 and will therefore pay close attention to developers’ expectations at work, such as remote and hybrid options.
- Mitigating bias in tech recruiting and improving diversity will be among recruiters’ top concerns, with more than 57% of HR professionals open to ditching the resume and 65% of them willing to hire developers with non-academic backgrounds.
- Savvy recruiters who focus on skill-based hiring will be ahead of the game, and developers will benefit from being hired on criteria outside of the traditional resume.
DEMOGRAPHICS
Who, when and how?
The CodinGame and CoderPad 2022 Tech Hiring Survey was carried out from October 20-December 6, 2021.
The survey was hosted by SurveyMonkey and promoted across various online channels (social media, email, and on our own websites).
14,000 developers and recruiters from 131 countries around the globe took part in this year’s survey. We gathered feedback from developers and recruiters with diverse academic and professional backgrounds.
Our developer community
We gathered feedback from close to 14,000 developers from 131 countries, with diverse professional and personal backgrounds.
Although many student coders took part in our survey, our developer community was primarily represented by professionals working in various positions and industries.
The IT services and technology industries were the main represented industries, followed by finance. Over a third of participants work in a company with more than 1,000 employees. The most common positions held were full-stack developer and back-end developer.
