What Student Developers Want in a Job (techrepublic.com)

Organizations desperate for software engineering talent tend to follow similar plays when it comes to attracting student developers about the enter the workforce, including offering perks like free food, beer, and ping pong. However, student developers have a much stronger appetite for other workplace elements when making employment decisions, according to a Tuesday report from HackerRank. From a news writeup: The three most important criteria students look for in job opportunities are professional growth and learning (58%), work/life balance (52%), and having interesting problems to solve (46%), according to a survey of 10,350 student developers worldwide. These far outpaced compensation (18%) and perks (11%), which they view as "nice to haves" rather than deal breakers, the survey found.

For many student developers, a computer science degree is not enough to teach them the skills they will need in the workforce, the report found. Nearly two-thirds (65%) said they rely partially on self-teaching to learn to code, and 27% say they are totally self-taught. Only 32% said they were entirely taught at school, the survey found.

Comments

Re:When surveyed, people lie!

[JaredOfEuropa]

The reality is that is you offer a candidate a lower than expected "nice to have" salary, say: 50% less, they'll walk to the next employer who is offering more.

To some extent that is correct. But salary is a hygiene factor: if it's lower than expected it leads to dissatisfaction, but paying above expectation does not yield a lot of extra satisfaction. I look for different things in jobs now that I am older. But even when I was young, I usually picked lower paying jobs, with opportunities for learning and growing and interesting work, over crappy but well-paying jobs. And I've done a few crappy but well paying jobs as well... and it sucked. Pay is poor compensation for that.