When is a programmer looking for a new job?

It is often said that the programmer is not looking for a job, she finds it. Not without reason, there are such crackers in circulation as, for example, the conversation of two coders, one of whom asks the question: "how does it feel to be unemployed?"and the other replies:" it was the worst half hour of my life!"or saying that an unemployed programmer is like a yeti-you hear about him, but no one has seen him.

Developer open to suggestions

However, all this does not mean that the programmer is not looking for a new job at all, although it might be better to write that he is open to new job offers, but he is not necessarily actively involved in this process. This is confirmed by The New Stack Overflow report, which shows that more than 62% of coders present on the mentioned portal do not actively engage in job search, but nevertheless are happy to take advantage of the opportunity when they receive an attractive job offer and change employers. However, almost 25% of developers are not interested in changing jobs at all. However, there are coders who are actively looking for employment, but there are no more than 13% of them worldwide and devote no more than 5 hours a week to this. This situation is probably also due to the fact that the majority of coders are at least moderately satisfied with their current work, although only 10.3% declare the highest degree of satisfaction. Programmers were much more satisfied when Stack Overflow asked them about their career satisfaction.

It is worth paying attention to the data on how the developers got their work so far. The Stack Overflow report shows that coders most often found a new job thanks to information from their friends, former colleagues and family members (26.8%). A little less often (17.9%) there was a direct contact of a representative of a particular company, which ended in employment. In contrast, a much smaller share in finding a new job were the actions of headhunters, visiting the "Work" tab on the company's website and other ways.

Why are the coders leaving?

If most programmers are satisfied with their work so far, why do many of them decide to change jobs? First of all, it should be noted that most coders are not all. This means that there is always a certain percentage of professionals who do not fully meet in the current job, others feel burned out and want to change, and still others are forced to do so by the family situation (for example, they follow their wife or girlfriend where their partner can find employment). As a result, it turns out that in the US programmers work with one employer on average about 18 months, and in Poland - about 24 months. The data also show that female programmers are more willing to leave than their male colleagues, which analysts attribute to the fact that women feel that they have less opportunity for a career and promotion in IT companies, because there is still a strong stereotype of a male programmer. All these figures confirm that IT companies struggle with rotation, not because of layoffs, but because of the so-called voluntary turnover, when programmers change their place of employment of their own choice, because they have no greater problem finding a new job.

It is worth checking out what actually pushes coders to make professional changes. To answer this question, you need to find out what coders really value in their work besides an attractive salary. It's worth revisiting the stack overflow report here. It turns out that programmers value above all the possibility of professional development. The second place is taken by non-payment benefits, followed by the comfort of work at the place of employment, languages, technologies and frameworks that can be dealt with on a daily basis, the atmosphere at work and colleagues, projects implemented at the employer, the flexibility of employment and the possibility of remote work, as well as the reputation and prestige of the employer. When a programmer decides to change jobs, it is easy to guess that most often the impetus for such a step is dissatisfaction with one or more of the aspects listed above. However, even simple boredom, tiredness, a sense of stagnation and burnout can drive you to leave. That's when the programmer is looking for a new job. He does this actively or simply gives himself to recruiters.

How often did you change jobs and what made you do it? Share with us your experience on this topic.