Almost 40% of people who are hiring for positions in tech this year said they regularly recruit developers from nonacademic backgrounds, up significantly from 23% in 2021.
And another 41% do so at least some of the time, according to a survey from CodinGame and CoderPad. Similarly, 30% said they’d be willing to remove CVs from the hiring process entirely, focusing instead on interviews and tech assessments, with another 27% saying they’d consider doing so.
That comes as almost 50% of recruiters surveyed called finding qualified candidates a challenge, as many are faced with a push to hire candidates after early pandemic hiring freezes and, in some cases, a wave of resignations. Some 65% of recruiters surveyed said they consider bias an issue in technical recruitment, which may also lead them to consider a wider candidate pool.
CodinGame creates games for developers to build their skills, and CoderPad offers a remote job interview platform allowing for collaborative programming.
The survey indicates that recruiters are also becoming more flexible about remote work: About one-third say they’re offering 100% remote opportunities, with another 29% offering some kind of hybrid opportunity, with employees in the office only some of the time.
The remote work offers match what surveyed tech workers say they want, with 33% preferring to work entirely remotely and 37% preferring to be in the office only part of the time. Generally, the developers CodinGame and CoderPad surveyed gave more positive responses about their happiness with their work arrangements the more they’re allowed to work remotely.
The survey comes as companies continue to struggle with planning any return to the office as the omicron-variant-driven wave of the pandemic continues to infect large numbers across the country. It was conducted from October through December last year and included 14,000 developers and recruiters from 131 countries.