State of the Software
Developer Nation

We asked developers which industry they thought was up and coming in 2021. The AI and cloud technology industry came out on top, followed by cybersecurity and FinTech.

This focus in the top three is unsurprising given that so many aspects of life and work went remote in 2020, which makes these industries more attractive than ever. Developers are also keen to use their skills to address global challenges: 1 in 5 are looking to work on problems related to environmental sustainability.

Given its prominence within AI and cloud computing, this might come as little surprise: The majority of developers chose Python as the language they want to work with next.

Interestingly, all the languages that round out the top 5 have applications in AI or cloud computing: TypeScript comes in second, followed by Go, JavaScript, and Rust.

The majority of developers are currently working with JavaScript.

Interestingly, SQL comes in second place. This suggests that database work is an important aspect of many developer roles.

Node.js and React are the top two most used frameworks – which is unsurprising, given that they are frameworks of the most used programming language, JavaScript.

Here's the plot-twist: Although Node.js is currently the most used framework among developers, most indicated that they are keen to work with React next!

Not all languages are created equal, and website development language PHP is the most unequal of them all: It's the most disliked language among developers.

Fun fact: 33% of Perl developers indicated a dislike for their own language, followed by 16% of PHP developers, and 14% of JavaScript developers.

Actually like PHP? ❤️  Take the survey to let us know which languages you like or dislike!

When it comes to frameworks, developers have a clear disdain: 1 in 5 voted AngularJS as the most disliked framework.

Even though surveyed developers indicated that React is their most desired framework, it still ranks in the top 10 of disliked frameworks.

Many developers get excited about coding from an early age: Over half of surveyed developers learned to code before they turned 18.

When it comes to being a developer, not all learning takes place in the four walls of a classroom.

In fact, 44% of surveyed developers indicated that they taught themselves to code.

Developers are committed to refining their craft and keeping their technical skills sharp. 1 in 3 developers want to learn a new language every few years.

That said, the frequency of learning varies according to seniority level: While juniors tend to be more keen on learning a new language every few months, senior developers and tech managers are more likely to learn new skills every few years.

Developers’ commitment to honing their craft extends beyond the grind of a nine-to-five: 57% of developers spend time coding as a hobby.

Interestingly, whereas junior developers are especially keen to frequently learn new skills, it appears that senior developers and tech leads are more likely to code as a hobby.

While 6-10 years of experience seems to be the minimum requirement for this career stage, the majority of senior developers and tech leads have at least 10 years of experience.

The majority of junior developers typically have less than 2 years of experience and intermediate developers have, on average, 2-6 years of experience.

See what developers earn by seniority in the next graph.

When it comes to developers’ salaries, seniority matters. It is unsurprising to find junior developers earning the lowest average salary and tech leads earning the highest.

We’ve included the upper and lower quartiles to give better context on the distribution of the data. The quartiles, shown by the shaded area, indicate what the top 25% and bottom 25% of developers earn.

Want to get more comprehensive salary data? 💰 Take the survey to help create transparency in the industry.

So what do developers want in their careers?

When it comes to assessing their current position, developers care about a balanced setup: Their top 4 reasons for staying in a job are a good work-life balance, great teams, opportunities for career growth and a great company culture.

These factors even trump current and future salary potential when deciding to stick in a job.

While growth and learning opportunities are developers' third most important reason for staying in a job, one third of them don't seem to feel confident that their current company can offer this to them.

Developers at all levels of seniority consider challenging projects their number one way to grow.

While junior developers care a lot about mentorship and training programmes, the number two most important growth opportunity for seniors and tech leads seems to be the opportunity to work on new languages and frameworks.

The majority of surveyed developers have been in their current jobs for less than 2 years. This remains true for developers who have been working for more than 4 years.

With tech being a fast-paced and dynamic industry, developers want the opportunity to learn new skills and work with exciting tech – and taking on new job opportunities is one way to make this happen.

While half of the surveyed developers indicated a desire to remain at their current company for another two years, there's an interesting trend emerging:

One fourth are looking to move jobs within the next three to twelve months and 7% are already looking for work.

While the majority of developers want to stay in their current jobs for now, companies need to consider their team members’ wellbeing to retain top talent:

The number one reason for developers to leave their jobs is poor management, followed by better salary offers elsewhere and a poor work-life balance at their current workplace.

This makes sense given that developers are most likely to stay in a job for good work-life balance – and leave if it's missing.

Companies who don’t raise the bar on their recruitment processes could miss out on more than half of developers.

In fact, 63% of developers have discontinued an interview process after a negative experience.

Not receiving feedback after an interview or technical assessment is the number one pet peeve of developers in a hiring process.

Their second biggest pain point? Being approached for a job that doesn’t match their skillset or interests.

The good news for companies is that both of these pain points in the candidate experience can easily be fixed by adding one or two steps to a hiring process.