2018 Developer Skills Report: In-demand Languages, Popular Frameworks, and Hiring Challenges

Regardless of what kind of work you’re doing right now, you have to accept that the future of work is going to be quite different. In fact, everyone on the planet will be required to learn how to code.

As technology is integrated at the core of every aspect of life, people will need to learn to think differently. As traditional resumes become obsolete, enterprises will be seeking potential candidates primarily based on skills.

This makes learning to code critical going forward as it will help enhance your computational thinking and provide a robust foundation to help you make important decisions. 

The following post is a summary of HackerRank’s community survey of 39,441 developers. You can find the HackRank Developer Skills Report here.

The Most In-Demand Languages and Frameworks

HackerRank’s survey found that employers were looking for developers who had established knowledge and experience working with JavaScript, Java, Python, C++, and C. With the rise of big data and the ubiquitous nature of JavaScript, this doesn’t come as a big surprise.

It’s also not surprising that companies are struggling to meet the demands for JavaScript frameworks as we’re still going through the top tech talent shortage.

Developers are still highly enthusiastic about learning programming languages made popular by tech giants. This makes perfect sense as tech giants like Google and Facebook dictate the future of technology to a great extent.

The top five languages developers hope to learn this year are as follows:

1. Go
2. Python
3. Scala
4. Kotlin
5. Ruby

The programming languages that were most loved by developers were Python, C, C++, Java, and JavaScript. The frameworks that developers loved the most were Node.js, React, ExpressJS, AngularJS, and Django.

Skills-Based Hiring

According to the report, an overwhelming majority of hiring managers are already looking at GitHub for evidence of proven skills and experience. The top competencies that they’re after include problem-solving, debugging, programming language proficiency, system design, and performance optimization.

Long story short, what you do is far more important to recruiters than what’s stated on your resume. HackerRank’s research also suggests that 80% of small companies like startups place more value on portfolios whereas only 66% of large enterprises did the same.

The top five qualifications employers looked for are as follows:

1. Experience
2. Portfolio
3. How many years of experience
4. Training
5. Personal brand

When the data was filtered by roles, it was clear that those in C-level positions (like VPs, CTOs, and founders) valued GitHub projects over years of experience. They also didn’t really care about prestigious degrees.

When developers met with C-level executives, these individuals looked at portfolios, work experience, years of experience, education, and training.

Hiring Challenges

While the lack of top tech talent is a real problem, companies also have a huge challenge when it comes to effectively assessing skills. From the developer’s perspective, they’re in a unique position where work-life balance trumps benefit packages.

So what are developers looking for in a potential employer?

• A healthy work-life balance
• Room for professional growth and learning
• Attractive compensation
• An opportunity to work with smart people
• Challenging problems to solve

To stand a chance at beating the talent shortage employers must be able to offer highly flexible work schedules. What’s more, employers need to offer remote working options, focus their attention on outcomes and not hours, encourage vacation time, offer paid time off, and foster creativity (with side projects).

The report also found some interesting facts. For example, one in four programmers learned to code before they could drive. Founders were also three times more likely to have coded before the age of 10.

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