30% of developers in the Netherlands are looking to move roles within next 12 months: OfferZen report

Software developer job marketplace in the Netherlands registered record job offers from companies in 2021. The Dutch tech industry reached a combined value of €296B in 2021 and these companies also saw record venture capital funding. This uptick is also being seen in the software developer job marketplace.

Remote work becomes table stakes

According to the State of the Software Developer Nation report from OfferZen, over two thirds of the survey respondents are foreigners now working in the Netherlands. The report also reveals that remote jobs are now the preferred mode of working for software developers in the country.

While remote work has become table stakes, two in three developers have not received a budget for their work from home setup. The survey shows that 8 per cent did not receive any monetary benefits in their current roles. By not offering these basic perks of working from home, the OfferZen report shows that companies could miss out on talent and lose their team members to competitors.

The report also reveals that there is an increase in salaries for developers in the Netherlands, which is in line with the growth of the tech industry. The ability to work from anywhere (or remote) has become a deciding factor for tech workers and has even led to Ian Goodfellow, Apple’s director of ML, leaving the job. Goodfellow has reportedly quit by saying in a note that “more flexibility would have been the best policy.”

The report shows that 9 in 10 developers in the Netherlands now work in a remote set up. The data shows that 70.4 per cent developers are doing hybrid work from the office as well as from home while 21.2 per cent are working fully remotely. With only 8.4 per cent developers still working from a traditional office in the Netherlands, it is likely that developers in the Netherlands will become fully or partially remote by next year.

Cryptocurrency and Python interest developers in the Netherlands

The survey by OfferZen also found that software developers in the Netherlands are most excited for technologies built on top of blockchain. They also see AI as the most promising industry with 47.8 per cent voting for artificial intelligence. It was followed by cloud technology at 32.5 per cent, cybersecurity at 29.8 per cent, crypto at 26.9 per cent, and Fintech at 25.5 per cent.

The big takeaway being that crypto has grown massively in terms of desirability and is in touching distance of becoming the third most exciting industry for developers in the Netherlands. AI’s dominance bodes well for Python, which was voted by 29.4 per cent as the most desired programming language.

However, the survey shows that Go is fast catching up with 29.4 per cent desirability. In fact, Python has declined in desirability over previous year while Go has grown by over 5 per cent. TypeScript, Rust, and JavaScript round out the top five list of the most desired programming languages in the Netherlands.

The choice of programming language among software developers in the Netherlands also varies depending on their role. The backend and full stack developers prefer Go while TypeScript and JavaScript are preferred by the frontend developers. However, when it comes to the most used programming language, JavaScript beats Python, TypeScript, and others with a healthy margin.

JavaScript is used by 50.9 per cent of the surveyed developers while Python and TypeScript are used by 34.3 per cent and 33.1 per cent developers, respectively. Java and C# round out the top five list with 25.7 per cent and 20.8 per cent, respectively. When it comes to programming skills and trends, JavaScript is losing both popularity and usage while Python and Go are gaining in terms of use as well as desirability.

With 20.1 per cent vote, React has become the most desired framework by backend developers. It is followed by Spring Boot at 19.4 per cent and Vue.js at 15.7 per cent. React has also overtaken Node.js to become the most widely used framework by software developers in the Netherlands with Spring Boot becoming the most used by backend developers.

AWS is the most widely used cloud platform

This should not really come as a surprise to anyone following the tech ecosystem in the Netherlands. According to the survey by OfferZen, AWS is the most used cloud platform by software developers in the Netherlands with 43.9 per cent surveyed developing voting for Amazon’s cloud platform.

It is followed by Microsoft Azure at 25.5 per cent and Google Cloud Platform at 14.5 per cent. However, Azure takes the top spot among enterprise customers and remains the most used among companies with more than 10,000 employees. The survey also shows that AWS enjoys a share of 60 per cent with organisations employing 201 to 500 developers.

Retention is the key challenge

The report also reveals that senior developers in the Netherlands are earning €64,000 per year. With demand for senior developers at an all-time high, OfferZen predicts that this salary figure will increase further. The report further states that one in five developers in the Netherlands want to start their own company within five years.

Developers are also choosing poor management as the major reason for leaving their current role. Among the survey participants, 52.4 per cent chose poor management as their reason while 50.4 per cent chose better salary. These reasons were followed by poor work-life balance (40 per cent), lack of growth opportunities (33.7 per cent), and lack of career opportunities (28.2 per cent).

A sign proving that “great resignation” is not over, 30 per cent of software developers in the Netherlands are looking to move jobs this year. “More than half of developers who don’t believe they can grow at their current companies are either actively looking for a new role or will start looking within the year.”

The survey also shows that developers in the Netherlands want challenging projects and earning potential to grow. This is especially true for those in the role of tech lead, who are prioritising challenging projects and earning potential as factors while choosing their next role.

Developers have Master’s degree but want to upskill

The report also shows that most developers in the Netherlands are self-taught and proving that learning to code is not restricted to the classroom. With 41.6 per cent of software developers in the Netherlands having initially learned to code by teaching themselves, it is a great sign of how software developers have gained knowledge.

The study also shows that almost 41.7 per cent female software developers are likely to have learned to code at university while one in three developers still use books to level up their coding skills. Lastly, around 40.6 per cent surveyed developers had bachelor’s degree while 26.3 per cent have a master’s degree. The software developers in the Netherlands are also living, breathing example of practical experience being the best teacher and “making mistakes is a key part of any developer’s education.”

OfferZen State of the Software Developer Nation report: what you need to know

The State of the Software Developer Nation is the second annual survey of software developers in the Netherlands. Conducted by OfferZen, a developer talent marketplace helping developers find best roles, has surveyed the developer community in the Netherlands to paint a picture of the industry in the Netherlands.

While it is not representative of the entire developer population in the Netherlands, it does refer to a group of developers and the report says 82 per cent of the survey participants were male while 16.6 per cent were female. Around 1.2 per cent of the respondents identified themselves as non-binary, genderqueer, or gender non-conforming while 0.2 per cent identified themselves as other.

Around 31.6 per cent of the participants were in the age group of 31 to 35 years while 29.4 per cent belonged to the age group of 26 to 30 years. In terms of industry, 14.9 per cent participants currently work in FinTech services followed by 14.1 per cent in SaaS development and another 12.7 per cent in Cloud Technology.