Terminal announced the results of their their inaugural Engineer 2020: Solving The Tech Talent Shortage Report today.
Terminal builds world-class remote engineering teams for high growth tech companies and has locations across Canada including Vancouver.
The research, commissioned by Terminal, aims to benchmark and offer insights into the market outlook of engineers in Canada and Mexico to give tech companies greater insight into how to recruit and build high-performing remote engineering teams.
North American engineers weigh in on the state of the tech industry, remote work, and the appeal of Silicon Valley.
In exploring a wide swath of topics ranging from the tech talent shortage to salary perceptions, a consistent theme surfaced that’s imperative for growing technology companies to address: Canadian and Mexican engineers alike believe there are cracks in the armor of American dominance as a global tech hub.
This report is based on a survey of software engineers across North America, primarily based where Terminal operates in Canada and Mexico. 86% of the respondents identified as male.
Here are the key findings:
1) Many engineers do not want to move to Silicon Valley, citing the high cost of living, preference for their current community or immigration concerns. For 57% of those against moving to the United States, it would take a salary boost of $100K or more – with another 13% saying no amount could make them consider moving.
2) Engineers value the opportunity to share working hours with engineers at HQ and favor a quieter work environment. To be most productive, 88% of engineers want to work in a similar time zone across their team and 60% prefer a quiet work environment.
3) Companies are embracing the Future of Work and going remote but it comes with another set of challenges including feelings of loneliness, isolation and a lack of visibility for remote workers. Engineers reported serious shortfalls working in a different physical location from HQ; 45% lack day-to-day interactions, 35% cite difficulty collaborating or not feeling part of a team, 30% worry about visibility for career development.
4) The inability to hire enough software developers due to the tech talent shortage puts the ones currently on staff at risk. Nearly half of engineers surveyed said that the shortage overworks them and more than 45% reported it limits their ability to grow.
5) It’s practically unanimous: the job interview process is broken. 90% of engineers had at least one issue with the general interview process, with top gripes including disorganization (70%), being interviewed by people who don’t understand the role (66%), long delays (66%), and too many rounds (58%).
6) Engineers felt companies need to look beyond degrees when considering candidates.Three in four engineers said they were self-taught while only 29% cited a degree.
7) Late-stage startups (pre-IPO) are the most preferred for engineers as they balance the need for job stability versus excitement. 87% of engineers see better opportunity at big tech companies for stability (and 60% for strong salary). But smaller companies (Series A-C) rank higher for the opportunity to create something new and make an impact.
