We have spoken on these pages on various occasions of the rapidly growing phenomenon in Italy which takes the name of Great Resignation. It seems that the Great Resignations also concern the sector of software developer.
READ ALSO: Quitting the job goes viral: Gen Z celebrates the layoff on social media
According to the surveys of the Ministry of Labour, the new trend has led to more than 2 million resignations already in 2021 and affects employees with fixed-term and permanent contracts.
The term was later coined as well Job Hopping which defines the increasingly frequent phenomenon of jumping from one job to another, a symbol of the cultural revolution of our time which is opposed to the bygone idea of dedicating one’s whole life to a single job.
A sector that does not escape this phenomenon is that of technology and this is confirmed by the professionals of an ecosystem that is a symbol of the technological world: software developers.
According to the research “The State of Software Development in Italy” conducted by BitBoss, which at the end of 2022 involved more than 800 developersit emerged that 3 out of 4 developers would be willing or willing to change their job, when new opportunities should emerge.
31.7% of developers employees with a regular employment contract would in fact be actively looking for a job more in line with their expectations, while 42.7% say they are open to any opportunity that might lead to an improvement in their professional life.
Younger developers want to reinvent themselves
Particularly if we focus on Generation Z, i.e. employed developers aged 25 and under, 60.9% said they intended to review their current professional life in some way reinventing yourself as a freelancer, entrepreneur or simply changing company.
Only 6.5% say they have no intention of moving from their current workplace in the near future.
“The data we collected does not show developer dissatisfaction with their workplace or professional life“, he claims David Leoncinoco-founder and marketing manager of BitBoss “On the contrary, almost 8 out of 10 developers say they are substantially satisfied with their professional situation, however there is a strong inclination to always look for new opportunities and to look favorably on the idea of changing their professional life if the right conditions arise”.
Work flexibility and adequate salaries as decisive needs
So what are developers looking for and what are the conditions that might push them to make a change in their career?
76.7% of employed developers would be willing to change jobs if they were offered a higher salary, while 45% believed that greater opportunities for career advancement would be a key factor in their choice.
Furthermore, 78.4% of developers state that they evaluate the offer of a new job much more positively if the company offers the possibility of working remotely, even in a hybrid form. The quality of the work team would also play an important role: for 4 out of 10 developers, working with an inappropriate team would be enough to push them to look for new job opportunities.
If we then look at the world of freelance developers, 79.6% of them are not willing to sacrifice their freedom in favor of a permanent employment contract in the company.
The flexibility of place and working hours is a fundamental value for 76.7% of freelance developerswhile the freedom to be able to independently choose their customers and projects is essential for 1 developer out of 2.
READ ALSO: Big Resignations: How to make people fall in love with companies once more
Training (even online) is essential for developers
The ability to keep up with new technologies and innovations is a fundamental theme in order to be able to analyze the great predisposition of code professionals to change their professional life. “We live in a world in which new technologies, new programming languages and new working methods continually emerge and 84.3% of the developers who participated in our research see the emergence of new technologies in a positive way, because they find new career and professional growth opportunities”.
67% of developers try to learn at least one new programming language or a new technology at least once a year and almost 90% of them consider constant self-study essential, even if you have a permanent job and are already developing on a professional level. In a training and updating context, online resources and communities play a central role, representing a fundamental aid for 60% of developers or online courses, used by 6 out of 10 developers for training and updating.
The relationship of Italian companies with innovation
“Companies need to understand the key factors that drive developers to choose one job over another. It is not just an economic question, but to guarantee a certain working flexibility, adequate work teams and the right degree of innovation” says Leoncino.
According to the research conducted by BitBoss, another factor that should not be underestimated when it comes to career choices concerns the company’s degree of innovation and the technologies used: between
in fact, 62.5% of developers who are not working and who are currently looking for a job consider the adoption of new technologies by the company to be fundamental in their choice.
Regarding the propensity of companies to innovate, more than half of the developers surveyed say that their company has a good propensity to innovate and this number includes both professionals employed in large companies and those who work in small companies.
However, the developers recognize that the main brake on innovation within companies is the lack of time and resources to devote to these activities, a motivation given by 58.8% of the interviewees.
The second stopping factor however seems to be the lack of foresight on the part of companies that do not seem to perceive the need to innovate. Almost 1 in 2 developers attribute to it the lack of propensity for innovation of the company they work for.
“It is necessary to develop the culture of innovation within Italian companies. Culture that should start from the top and cascade down to the bottom of the corporate pyramid. It is necessary to enter into the perspective that technological and digital innovation represents an investment that leaves a positive sign in the long term, capable of giving companies a competitive advantage over the competition and that investment in innovation is never a waste of resources”.
At this link you can see the complete results of the research: The State of Software Development in Italy.
