Fun Facts about Software Developers

If you ask most developers where they search for solutions to complex problems, about 90 percent of them will say StackOverflow.com. Stack Overflow has more developers contributing to this community than any other site, and in most cases, you can quickly find the solution you’re looking for while ensuring that the information is trustworthy and accurate.

Every year, Stack Overflow conducts a survey to try and gather information about the developers that access their site and has been touted as one of the most comprehensive developer surveys ever conducted. Over 64,000 developers provided information on where they work, what they work on, and the technologies they use to build software solutions. Let’s take a look at some of the interesting statistics collected by the Stack Overflow.

Software Professionals & Job Titles

Participants of the survey consider themselves to be:

• Developers
• Programmers
• Engineers
• Database Administrators
• Senior Developers
• Full-Stack Developers

The title of “Web Developer” was by far the most popular choice at 72.6 percent.

Developer Job Titles

Of those surveyed, full-stack developer was the most selected job title. A full-stack developer usually knows between five and six major programming languages and frameworks. Executives typically consider themselves to be full-stack developers. They are usually more comfortable using different technologies mostly because they tend to have more experience and have been in the industry longer.

It’s worth noting that the US has a higher proportion of people who identify as full-stack web developers compared to other countries across the globe.

Average Age of the Developers

The highest percentage of respondents who consider themselves to be “hardcore developers” were between 25 and 29 years of age. This is not to say that there aren’t developers over 30 – older developers just no longer consider themselves “hardcore developers”.

Average Level of Experience

Most of the responders were in the two to five year range. This is usually the amount of experience most mid-level developers have who are engaged in heavy development on a daily basis. The next two ranges were 6 to 10 years, who are your typical Full-Stack Developers and 11+ years that are mostly comprised of Engineering Managers.

“A common misconception about developers is that they’ve all been programming since childhood. In fact, we see a wide range of experience levels. Among professional developers, one-eighth (12.5%) learned to code less than four years ago, and an additional one-eighth (13.3%) learned to code between four and six years ago. Due to the pervasiveness of online courses and coding bootcamps, adults with little to no programming experience can now more easily transition to a career as a developer.”

Gender Breakout for Developers

Men still make up the majority of developers coming in at 88.6 percent of the workforce. However, this number is significantly less than 2016 survey where men made up closer to 92 percent of the developer workforce. This gender gap is largely in part to computer science and development work being mostly marketed to male students. However, that trend is changing at universities, so expect women to begin closing the gap in the near future.

Levels of Education

76.5 percent admitted to having a bachelor’s degree or higher. However, a large group of developers also responded that they were at least partially self-taught. This goes to show that a formal education is still highly prized within the development industry.  

These are just some interesting facts compiled by Stack Overflow, one of the most visited developer sites on the Internet. To be a good developer you must continually train on the latest methods and technologies to keep your career moving forward. If you would like to become a developer or if you are currently a developer and would like to add to your skillset, the best way to do that is to obtain valuable training from a reputable training company such as ONLC.

We have onsite training centers all over the country and chances are there is one close to you. You can also take classes online from any location and even schedule online classes at your workplace. Contact us today to see all of the new programming languages that you can master on your way to becoming a Full-Stack Developer or Engineering Manager.