StackOverflow Developers of 2020 have their say...
It is interesting to look at the trends that are appearing when it comes to what actually is influencing the Job Satisfaction of developers and what factors influence the developer’s mindset when considering a Job Change.
Below I will look at a few of these trends related to the above factors and the compensation across countries.
I have considered the StackOverflow survey data for 2020 and looking at the below distribution of responses, I will be doing a comparative analysis between the top 2 values of both categories.
What factors influence the Job Satisfaction of the developers?
I will first be looking at the distribution of the top 10 reasons that influence the job satisfaction between a male and a female developer.
We can infer from the above distribution that while the majority of the factors remain the same for both the cohorts and so do their priorities, some stand out in terms of their priorities.
Female respondents value “Diversity of the company or organization” and “Office Environment or Culture” quite high and its growing importance is also indicated by the fact that organizations are pushing more towards D&I (Diversity and Inclusion) initiatives and rightly so.
Another important thing to note is the “Remote Work Options” is also quite highly ranked and this is evident from the recent shift to a Work from Home culture.
We’ll now be looking at what the respondents from the top 2 countries have to say,
We can infer from the above distribution that while the majority of the factors remain the same for both the cohorts and so do their priorities, there are again some that stand out in terms of their priorities.
Respondents from India value “Financial Performance or Funding Status of a company” quite high compared to their United States’ peers and that can be attributed to the fact that amidst the high competition in a developing country such as India, people are looking for safer and stable jobs and hence valuing the current financials of a company highly
We can also see that the respondents in the United States value “Specific department or team that I’d be working in” quite high compared to their Indian peers and that can be partially explained by the fact that team harmony and right culture fit is something that is given much importance in those parts.
How does the Compensation vary across countries?
We can see from the above distribution that the compensation in North American countries, as well as European countries, are quite well spread and hover around $50K - $100K on an average, with salaries in the United States even more generously spread in the higher ranges
The scenario is quite a bit different in developing countries such as India and Brazil where the majority of the salaries are in the $25K - $50K range on an average, whereas only a select few respondents crossing the $50K threshold.
This shows why a lot of outsourcing of jobs is done to the developing countries to benefit from the fact that talent is available for cheaper in these countries.
How do the Work Hours vary across countries?
We can see from the above distribution that the majority of countries stick to 40-45 hours a week but again you can see that respondents from the developing countries seem to indicate that a good chunk of them are actually working 50+ hours per week and that is again indicating of the fact that although there are countries like Germany or United States where most organizations impose strict work hour policies to help their developers with their work-life balance, there are developing countries like India and Brazil where developers seem to be working a higher number of hours.
What factors influence developers to look for a new job?
Here I look at the top 10 factors that influence developers in the United States and India to look for a new job.
As you can see from the above that quite a few respondents from India responded with “Looking to relocate” as they are generally looking for new opportunities when they need to shift locations owing another standout factor for looking for new job opportunities is indicated by the response to “Wanting to work with new technologies”, developers in India are looking at constantly reskilling themselves with the latest technologies to stay relevant in the market.
The developers in the United States demonstrate more spontaneous behaviors going by how highly they’ve reacted to responses such as “Curious about other opportunities” and “Having a bad day (or week or month) at work”
A big common thing between the two countries and in fact globally is how much both cohorts have responded with “Better compensation” and rightly so 💸.
References
StackOverflow Survey Data 2020 [https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey]
