Skilled software developers want jobs that offer competitive salaries but, even more than that, they want to work on complex challenges, have good relationships with their peers and teammates, and be able to choose when and where they work. That’s what our recent survey of software developers across Canada has revealed.
We teamed up with Angus Reid Group, a leading marketing research firm, to better understand what software developers really valued out of their careers. What made them stay at a job? What factors lead them to consider resigning? And is it true, perhaps, that our hiring ecosystem isn’t necessarily as competitive as it could be?
Here are just a few of our top findings:
- Salary & Compensation: The median annual salary reported by Canadian software engineers was $90,000 CAD in 2020/2021. However, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labour Statistics, the median annual salary of software developers in 2020 was $110,140 USD. Are Canadian developers aware of the discrepancy? Acutely. 58 percent of developers surveyed said that they think salaries in the U.S. are higher than those offered at home.
- Culture & Benefits: Salary isn’t the be all, end all of career satisfaction. Developers highly prize getting along with their peers and coworkers and being able to solve interesting challenges. Those two factors were rated even higher than salary and compensation in terms of job satisfaction.
- Remote and Flexible Work: 95 percent of developers said that flexible work hours are an essential benefit. It might be time to re-think the old “butts in seats” policy and give developers more freedom over how, when, and where they contribute.
By sharing this data, we hope that this transparency will help developers advocate for their needs and negotiate a hiring package that truly reflects their worth.
As for hiring managers and employers, we hope that you’ll use this information to join us in doing what’s right for engineers.