2022 State of Software Engineers
Overview
The demand for software engineers continues to accelerate as competition for talent heats up. In fact, software engineers on Hired received more than twice the average amount of interview requests in 2021 than in 2020.
This environment continues to pressure companies to strengthen their employer brand and to offer compelling compensation as well as expand their talent pool into new markets.
For engineers, upskilling and specialization is often the name of the game with higher demand – and the salaries to go with it – as the reward.
After analyzing the data of more than 366k interactions between companies and software engineers on our marketplace and surveying more than 2,000 candidates, we present the State of Software Engineers Report for 2022.
We hope this report provides insights and resources for both engineers to advance their careers and for employers to enhance their recruitment and retention strategies.
Let’s begin –
Josh Brenner, Hired CEO
p.s. Updated: See the 2023 State of Software Engineers Report for the latest data!
Key Takeaways
Top Software Engineer Skills
For the second year in a row, Go was the most in demand skill, creating 1.8x more interview requests for the engineers proficient in it.
For the full list of the top ranking engineering skills, .
Top Software Engineer Roles
The highest in demand role enjoyed a 2.1% increase in interview requests year over year compared to other software engineering roles. The highest average salary, however, went to this specialized engineer subrole.
For the top roles and most in-demand specializations, .
Global Trends
As expected, the pandemic shelter-in-place and work-from-home policies continue to expand opportunities for remote tech workers to pursue roles (and salaries) outside of their current location or cost of living standards. While Canada and the UK are catching up, the US continues to offer the most competitive salaries on average. But things are changing in the big tech hubs as workers relocate for various reasons and companies rethink how necessary it is to be in the office.
For data on the top markets and those seeing the most growth, .
Remote Trends
Our data shows more aggressive remote hiring in specific regions over others, and where local tech talent is most in demand. When open to working remotely, software engineers on the Hired platform received 20% more interview requests overall than candidates who are not.
To learn more about the impact of remote, .
Webinar: March 24, 2022
2022 State of Software Engineers: An Insider's Guide to Hiring in Tech
Join Hired CTO Dave Walters and other industry experts for a discussion of the State of Software Engineers report and the hiring landscape.
Watch recordingDemand by Company Size
Startups and other smaller companies are seeing more investment and growth, placing them at the heels of enterprises when it comes to competitive salary and benefits. Our report details the average annual salary of software engineers as well as the average compensation at companies of various sizes.
What Motivates Software Engineers
Engineers are born problem solvers, innately creative, in their own way. They are lifelong learners and want to use their skills to solve meaningful problems.
where we reveal what drives their passion for coding and their key elements for an ideal work environment. Use them to refine company culture and increase retention.
Additional Takeaways for Employers
In addition to survey results from engineers on what they’re looking for in a role, in a workplace, and in a manager, the report includes suggestions and tools to optimize the interview process, and remote environments.
Finally, the report provides specific best practices to rethink hiring criteria, expand talent pools, and make progress on DEI goals.
Conclusion
The demand for software engineers is simply not slowing down. We’ve run out of ways to describe how much it’s increasing. Digital transformation may sound like a buzzword, but as more of the planet arrives online, as business owners become more creative and explore new distribution channels – as our lives evolve, we need software engineers.
To get the best and brightest minds on your team, get to know what they’re looking for, what drives them, and where they are. We’re here to help.
Methodology
This report is based on proprietary data gathered and analyzed by Hired’s data science teams. For the purpose of this report, Hired examined software engineering candidate interview requests and salary data from January 2020 through December 2021 inclusive. The data included reflects over 366,000 interactions between companies and software engineering candidates during this time period.
In addition to our proprietary data, we collected survey responses from more than 2,000 software engineers on the Hired marketplace to inform our understanding of software engineers’ working preferences.
For more details,
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