State of Devs 2026

benoau

Lot of very sad data but a couple of bright points: - 50% are thinking somewhat-to-very unlikely they'll be changing careers in the next 5 years - 42% are hopeful or excited about the tech industry

woah

Wonder what the selection bias is like on something like this

anramon

That header alone made me exhausted.

austin-cheney

From looking at their data it looks like decades of failing up is reaching a breaking point. I can look back in my career and I have had some stellar leaders, some of which had never tried to write code a day in their life. I have also had just as many terrible managers. At the last job I worked with somebody who thought they were my manager. They weren't and did not even have the same employer. They were my peer. Nonetheless they withheld client communications until my own employer was forced to fire me. Their employer fired them shortly after. Could it have been the fraud, the dereliction of duty, the toxic leadership? Who knows, there are just so many to choose from. How did we get here? Well, in the corporate non-software company world there is clearly an 80/20 rule at play. 80% of the developers provide 20% of the total development value. Most of my career has been in non-software company web businesses like Travelocity and Expedia. I have also spent time in finance, where that company employed more developers that most large companies have total headcount. Most of these people were some form of JavaScript framework in the browser and Java outside the browser doing the backend web things. Most of these people really sucked at what they do. They weren't terrible people, some few were, they just weren't properly mentored and worked in an environment where failure and coloring books was more of the expectation than the exception. To be more clear, in case the analogy was ambiguous, most developers are intentional over paid commodities to be hired and fired as rapidly as they could be found. After a couple decades of this madness this is the baseline culture of user-face web software. Essentially: drop out of high school, go to a 6 week boot camp, put text on screen with React for $140k per year. Or, plan B, pay way too much for a computer science bachelor's degree and start at 20% higher compensation. Not surprisingly there is a lot of insecurity there (I saw it screaming from the shadows at every job). Say anything about it and the resentment comes alive in all its wonderful forms. Less surprisingly, over time those people get promoted into management where neglecting skill development becomes the standard for the next wave of new hires, as if to say: "STFU, go back to your coloring books". It really comes full circle when people then use their inability to innovate as a badge of honor to justify their continued employment.

ChrisArchitect

Related: Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2026 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49978972

sandeepkd

My hunch is that in the long run its going to be net negative in software. A lot of companies exists as of today cause a lot of people were able to just focus on building without constantly worrying about the fear of lay off. With the concept of job security based on talent and effort being dismantled, everyone would always be in a constant look out mode now.

beardbandit

> Within the next 5 years, how likely do you think it is that you will have to change careers due to reasons beyond your control? When I filled this out myself in July, I was "somewhat unlikely" If you ask me again now, only a few months later, I'm probably leaning towards "Somewhat likely". Insane how fast this space is moving.

gouggoug

> Nearly half of this year's survey respondents had experienced job insecurity and insufficient wages. Insufficient wages, really? I understand you might be underpaid compared to your peers, but do developer really suffer from "insufficient wages"? edit: I assumed this was US centric. It isn't. I could see insufficient wages outside the US.

smackeyacky

At the start of the year when AI started being useful I really did experience a productivity gain. Having just started a new job, Claude was instrumental into quickly getting me going on an unfamiliar code base. Now? I’m swamped with the dumbest jira tickets in history created by lazy AF project managers and business analysts who are using AI to create a pile of unmanageable slop while looking like superstars as they blithely point to their neatly arranged tickets. I guess I could try to cope by pointing the AI back at it but for the first time I’m forced to color outside the lines just so I can deliver. None of it lines up with their garbage and so we’re now playing a stupid game of “let’s not and say we did” while I tick of useless tickets that shouldn’t even be in the project. It is exhausting. Not due to the potentially increased velocity but due to the towering pile of slop getting shovelled over that needs fake responses. I don’t know what to do about that.