The tech talent war rages on, as hiring managers continue to face difficulties finding and retaining in-demand developers, according to a Friday report from Digital Ocean.

Lack of a formal software engineering education tops the list of developer hiring challenges for managers by far, the report found. Some are turning to coding bootcamp graduates to fill open positions: 23% of hiring managers said their company had filled a few jobs with these candidates, while 7% said they had filled many jobs with bootcamp grads.

While some bootcamp graduates are getting hired, some hiring managers differentiate between those with a traditional four-year degree in computer science or engineering and those without one, the report found. Some 55% of hiring managers said they look at all candidates equally, while 23% said it depends on the position they are interviewing for. Meanwhile, 14% said they prefer to hire graduates of college programs, and 8% said they prefer to hire coding bootcamp grads.

SEE: IT Hiring Kit: Programmer (Tech Pro Research)

Hiring managers ranked the following top hiring challenges in terms of difficulty:

  1. Lack of formal software engineering education (39%)
  2. Limited pool of candidates with relevant job/technical skills (18%)
  3. Lack of soft skills/workplace competencies (15%)
  4. Losing top candidates to competing offers (15%)
  5. Salary demands too high (13%)

When evaluating a job, developers prioritize opportunities for internal growth and development (39%), competitive salaries (39%), a culture that fits their personality (38%), the ability to work remotely (27%), and freedom to use certain technologies (23%).

Hiring managers should take note of these needs, to better tailor job descriptions to in-demand developers.

The big takeaways for tech leaders:

  • 39% of hiring managers said a lack of formal software engineering education is the top challenge to hiring developers. — Digital Ocean, 2018
  • When evaluating a job, developers prioritize opportunities for internal growth and development (39%), competitive salaries (39%), a culture that fits their personality (38%). — Digital Ocean, 2018

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