HackerEarth, a leading developer assessment solutions provider, today released its first-ever developer survey report titled “Behind the Code: HackerEarth Developer Survey 2020.”

The report gives employers and recruiters a look into the minds and motivations of today’s most hard-to-recruit and highly-coveted talent and provides developers with insights on upskilling and career development.

The survey results include responses from 16,000+ developers from 76 countries, with women comprising more than 20% of participants. The report distills these survey results into actionable insights that pave the way for better skills-based hiring alignment between enterprises and developers that are coming out of college or are experienced candidates already in the workforce.

In the midst of global economic uncertainty, software developers and engineers remain in high demand with major tech companies still hiring.

From March 8 through April 8, CareerBuilder had 46,118 job postings for Software engineers and 13,199 for Java developers, according to the Wall Street Journal. Additionally, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that software developer jobs will increase by 21% by 2028, much faster than average. However, with ongoing social distancing, considerations for remote hiring, staff management, and skill-building are more important than ever.

“While the demand for developer talent continues to rise, there is too often misalignment between the needs and expectations of companies and developers in hiring, career, and overall happiness,” said Sachin Gupta, CEO of HackerEarth. “Our mission is to connect every developer with the right opportunity, and this survey was designed to bring a human voice to the global developer community, as well as sharpen the insights for recruiters and HR professionals that must increasingly recruit, test, and interview with developers through online channels and platforms.”

CEO, HackerEarth

Key findings from the report include:

Surprisingly, developers that worked longer hours were happier, but they still want fewer meetings that cut into productivity.

• 70% of developers reported that fewer meetings would help them achieve “100% productivity” at work.
• 30% of developers who only worked between 40 to 50 hours a week reported they were happy with their job.
• 97% of developers who worked 60+ hours reported they were happy with their job.

Developers use online competitive coding platforms and YouTube tutorials to learn new skills.

• A majority of developers, 70% of students and 53% of working professionals, make use of online coding platforms like HackerEarth to upskill themselves.
• They also depend heavily on YouTube tutorials to acquire new skills.
• Other upskilling channels include online educational platforms like Coursera and Udemy and developer platforms like StackOverflow.

Developers spend downtime watching the TV show ‘Friends’ and playing indoor games.

• Both students (43%) and experienced developers (42%) said ‘Friends’ was their favorite TV show.
• Other TV shows that they love watching include ‘Game of Thrones’ ‘Big Bang Theory’ and other sci-fi/fantasy shows.
• 30% of developers like playing indoor games like table tennis and foosball during breaks (but 5% of developers report not having time to take any breaks).

To find out more including the main things that upset developers about the tech hiring process, the operating system developers prefer most, and this year’s most sought-after programming language, download the full report here.