An analysis of more than 494,000 interview requests for software engineers coupled with a survey of more than 1,300 software engineers and 120 hiring professionals found a lot more employers prefer to hire DevOps professionals who work in the office—but resistance to working in an office (rather than working remotely) remains high.
The survey also found that, despite the preference for hiring local software engineers, more than half of hiring professionals (52%) are filling positions on fully remote teams while another 40% are focusing on hybrid teams.
The interview requests analysis conducted by Hired, a provider of a platform for vetting potential employees, found that nearly three-quarters of interview requests (72%) were for software engineers with more than six years of experience. Backend engineers received 59% of all interview requests.
Hired CEO Josh Brenner said the survey makes it clear that organizations are less inclined to hire less experienced talent. In fact, there’s a decided shift toward DevOps professionals that have degrees versus individuals that are largely self-taught, he added.
Hiring those individuals, however, remains challenging. More of them are willing to consider other employment options given the current state of the economy, but more than two-thirds of engineers (68%) said they are not worried about losing their jobs in the next six months.
However, enterprise IT organizations are now finding it easier to hire DevOps engineers because competition from startup companies and technology vendors such as Google and Microsoft slackened in the wake of a series of ongoing layoffs, noted Brenner.
Competition for software engineers is also impacted by geographic region, with the Los Angeles area seeing the largest negative impact on local salaries, decreasing by 6% to $152,000. Philadelphia had the greatest amount of growth, with local salaries increasing by 7% to $150,000. Despite demand for remote engineering talent, growth in salaries for these positions has flattened. The San Francisco Bay Area had the highest salaries for remote roles at $180,000, followed by Seattle ($175,000) and New York ($169,000). The percentage of active engineering positions “open to remote” fell to 69%, the survey found.
The highest-paying markets for in-office jobs, in contrast, were San Francisco ($180,000), Seattle ($169,000) and New York ($162,000).
Software engineers, as always, are motivated to work for organizations based on new challenges and continuous learning (69%), building products/solutions and problem-solving (66%) followed by earning potential and career stability (60%), the survey found. When learning a new skill, the survey found the biggest motivator remained the simple joy of learning new things (40%) followed by the fact that their current job required it (25%).
Regardless of the state of the economy, it’s clear that demand for DevOps expertise continues to outstrip available supply. However, software engineers may be unable to command as high a salary as they did a short while ago. Of course, no one can be sure what lies ahead, but economies do eventually rebound. In the meantime, DevOps professionals would be well-advised to continue to invest in their own skills to maximize their earning potential, no matter which direction the economic pendulum swings.
