Yuval Goldstein reviews the results of an international survey that asked 305 developers about their jobs, their happiness and what contributes to it, their salaries, bosses, working-hours, team-mates, tools that they use and their productivity.

1. THE SECRET OF DEVELOPER HAPPINESS?
A SURVEY AMONG SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS
Alphageeks IL, meetup #5,
@yuvalgo, yuvalgo@gmail.com

2. About the Survey
 Who would answer a survey about their job?
 Are we good/productive?
 How people and environment affects us?
 Are we happy at our jobs?
 305 developers/managers answered in 3 days
 Mostly from www.dzone.com and twitter links
 DISCLAIMER

3. Survey Population - Developers
7, 2% 32, 10% 20, 7%
CIO/CTO/C*O/Architect
Developer / QA / Graphic Design
/ Business Analyst
Other
246, 81%
Team leader of some sort
(blank)

4. Questions asked
 Are you happy with your current position?
 Do you respect your direct boss?
 Are you looking for another job?
 Are you happy with your current salary?
 Would you recommend your friend to work in your team?
 Do you do code reviews in your team?
 Are you productive using the tools that you use (language, IDE, source control,
database, build tools, runtime server platform)?
 How professional are the people in your team?
 How many hours do you work in an average week?
 Does your team write developer tests code (unit testing, integration testing)?
 How good are your team's deliverables?
 Does your company communicate strategy, goals and customer feedback to you
effectively?
 What is your favorite color?

5. My thoughts before the survey…
 We’re generally happy with our jobs
 The people around us have a great effect on our
happiness
 We’re earning a lot but not satisfied with it
 We’re working a lot of hours

6. How many hours a week do you work?
 Less than 40 hours a week?
 40-50?
 50-60
 60 +

7. 87% working less than 50 hrs
7, 2%
107, 35%
40-50 158, 52%
50-60
Less than 40
More than 60 (OMFG)
33, 11%

8. Satisfied with your salary?
60% are satisfied!
40, 13%
It's great, I'm happy
80, 26%
It's ok, not great
41, 14% 144, 47%
It's terrible terrible terrible
Not happy, need more
cash!

9. Do you respect your direct boss?
Only 45%...
He's ok but could be better
98, 32% 97, 32%
I dont respect my boss at
all
I love my boss 41, 13% 69, 23%
I respect my boss

10. Good intra-communications?
20, 6%
110, 36%
97, 32%
All the time
Kinda..
Sometimes
Strategy who?
78, 26%

11. Methodology VS. Mythology
 Do you conduct code reviews in your team?
 Do you write developer (unit/integration) testing?
 Are you using productive tools?
 Is your team doing a good job?

12. Do you do code reviews in your team?
Not really… (only 8% do it all the time)
24, 8%
All the time 161, 53% 120, 39%
For 1 out of 3 or 5 tasks
Not at all

13. Productive tools? 51: yes, 49 no
39, 13%
Excellent tools, very
productive! 114, 37% 37, 12%
I hate the tools I'm using,
NOT productive at all
I think the tools that I use 115, 38%
makes me productive
Productivity could be better

14. How professional is your team?
71% says theirs good!
53, 17%
Just barely 155, 51% 35, 12%
Not at all
They are good 62, 20%
They're OK

15. How good is your team (2) ?
47% says theirs good!
Little bugs, allmost alwayes
24, 8%
on time
62, 20%
We are allmost ok, some
bugs, sometimes late 119, 39%
We are good but have some
100, 33%
bugs, you know, the
occasional late build
We're terrible, lots of bugs,
never on time

16.  47% != 71%

17. Only 29% Happy with their current
position 
28, 9%
60, 20%
I like it 117, 38%
I like it a lot.
It's Ok 100, 33%
No

18. Would you recommend your friend to
work in your team? Only 23% would
71, 23%
113, 37%
Maybe
No
Yes 121, 40%

19. Looking for another job?
85% aren’t ?
45, 15%
108, 35%
Actively looking
Keeping an open ear
No 152, 50%

20. But why…. ?
 Developers are not happy at their current position
 So they wouldn’t recommend a friend joining
 But they aren’t leaving their jobs
 Fail, 

21. Excellent tools and technical environment,
Happy? – 51%
10, 26% 10, 25%
I like it
I like it a lot.
It's Ok 9, 23% 10, 26%
No

22. Happy with your job? (29%)
60, 20%
117, 38%
I like it 28, 9%
I like it a lot.
It's Ok
No 100, 33%
Great team, happy? (50%) Love their boss, happy? (63%)
2, 5%
15, 24% 17, 27%
I like it
14, 34%
I like it a lot. 13, 32%
I like it
It's Ok 16, 26% 14, 23% I like it a lot.
No
It's Ok
No 12, 29%

23. Happy with your job? (29%) Less than 40 hours, happy? (30%)
60, 20%
22, 21%
117, 38%
I like it 28, 9% 44, 41%
I like it 8, 7%
I like it a lot.
I like it a lot.
It's Ok
It's Ok
No 100, 33% 33, 31%
No
Happy with their salary, Happy? (%65)
6, 15%
15, 37%
I like it
8, 20%
I like it a lot.
It's Ok
No
11, 28%

24. My thoughts VS. Real-Life
Before
 We’re generally happy with our jobs:
 The people around us have a great effect on our happiness
 We’re earning a lot but not satisfied with it
 We’re working a lot of hours
After:
 Only 29% happy: Things could be better!
 If the money’s good and the boss is good, we’re good (65%)
 We don’t work more than 50 hours
 Testing, Code reviews: get real!
 Productivity: not really…

25. Favorite Color == BLUE
39, 13%
64, 21% 146, 48%
Blue
Green
Other
Red
56, 18%