Skill Up

Prévia do material em texto

2017
Developer Skills & Salary Report
What it means to work in 
technology today
Brought to you by
Foreword
This year’s Skill Up report shows the 
same two mega trends we have 
seen over the past few years.
• Technology options for developers 
continue to grow 
• Developers have ever more influence and 
control over the choice of tech stack
There have never been so many great new tools 
and technologies for all to use to build great 
software. The challenge of course is how we all 
discover, choose, learn and deploy constantly 
changing software options. 
Fortunately, learning and problem solving 
resources and tools are improving all the time 
as well.
We hope this report helps with those choices. 
We always hope to be part of your own eco-
system of learning.
D.Maclean 
Dave Maclean, CEO & Founder
@davemaclean
Packt SkillUp 2017 > Foreword
Contents
 Executive Summary 3
1 Demographics and salaries 5
 2017’s Skill Up survey had a truly global reach 6
 Average salary 7
 Industry role breakdown 9
 Salary by job role 11
2 Tools 13
 Top tools 14
 Tools and salary 16
 Breaking it down by job role 17
 New tools and migration 18
3 Learning tech today 21
 Educational background 22
 How much time people spend learning 23
 Learning methods 24
 Non-developers but tech active vs. Building software solutions 25
 Why we learn 26
 Barriers to learning 28
4 Tech Pros at Work 31
 Technical barriers 32
 Barriers to success 34
 Personal Development 36
 Job satisfaction 37
5 Emerging trends and the future of tech 39
 Top trends 40
6 Diversity in tech 43
 Gender diversity 44
7 Final Remarks 47
 
Executive 
Summary
Modern technology is complicated. 
We know that.
With this, our third Skill Up survey, we’ve tried 
to piece together the puzzle to help you better 
understand exactly what’s going on. With that 
understanding you can make better decisions 
about the tools you decide to use, how you use 
them, and how you learn about them. We’ve 
also investigated wider questions about the 
tech industry - from its status and value in 
organizations and industry today, through to 
urgent issues around diversity. 
This represents a change of direction from 
the previous two surveys we have done which 
focused much more closely on the software 
itself. We made the decision to concentrate 
instead on questions around work and learning 
as we believe these are ultimately the areas that 
are defining modern software. It’s been a truism 
that software changes rapidly. With this report 
we’re focusing more closely on what that means 
for the people that use it - people like you.
Based on 4,731 respondents from 43 countries 
around the world, our 2017 Skill Up report has 
found that:
• Full-stack development is dominating 
as a technical role across industries
• 60% of respondents have either a 
‘reasonable amount of choice’ or a 
‘significant amount of choice’ over the 
tools they use at work
• Job satisfaction doesn’t correlate with salary
• 28% of respondents believe software 
and technical expertise is used ‘poorly’ 
or ‘very poorly’
Packt SkillUp 2017 > Executive Summary 3
• 47.57% of respondents say their manager 
has less technical knowledge than they do
• Developers need to work in an 
environment they love - IDEs are among 
the most loved tools
• 64.1% of respondents say that time 
is biggest barrier to their professional 
development
• 62.62% of respondents say that we 
need diversity in the tech workforce
• There’s a container revolution 
happening - Docker is being learned 
across today’s tech workforce
• Python remains consistently popular 
across job roles
• 40% of respondents dedicate time to 
learning every day - a further 44% 
dedicate time once a week
• Young tech workers are driven to build skills 
for their career but can lack motivation, and 
find it hard to find the right resources
This report will go through those key findings in 
more detail, covering these core topics:
• Demographics and salaries
• Tools 
• Learning tech today
• Tech pros at work
• Emerging trends and the future of tech
• Diversity in tech
1 Demographics and salaries
Packt SkillUp 2017 > Demographics and Salaries 5
Top 10 Countries
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
USA
UK
GERMANY
BRAZIL
ITALY
CANADA
POLAND
8
9
10
SPAIN
AUSTRALIA
INDIA 2.71%
2.74%
3.61%
3.66%
3.66%
4.14%
5.12%
5.97%
7.13%
29.77%
Average Salary 
Let’s take a look at the average salary around the 
world. Here’s the breakdown of what it looks like 
when taken as an average for each continent:
2017’s Skill Up survey 
had a truly global reach
This means the results give an overview of 
where tech is growing and where tech 
professionals are really making an impact 
and delivering value.
Packt SkillUp 2017 > Demographics and Salaries 76 Packt SkillUp 2017 > Demographics and Salaries
Salary average by continent
North America
West & Central Asia
Sub-Saharan Africa
Oceania
South & 
South-East Asia
East Asia £74,520
£71,538
£70,000
Mesoamerica
Caribbean Islands
£55,000North Asia
South America
Europe £75,916
£80,175
£80,852
£82,215
£90,378
£90,491
£104,695
As you can see, the highest salary average 
is in North America, but what’s particularly 
striking is how stable the differences are - while 
geographical differences emerge in the data, 
there’s no area that is noticeably underpaid. 
Is it possible then that we’re starting to see 
a stabilization of the value of technical skills 
across the planet?
(*31.49% responded from 33 other countries)
Industry Role Breakdown
Respondents to this year’s survey were drawn 
from many different industries, performing a 
wide variety of roles. Software solutions once 
again wins out but there are also a sizable 
proportion of people working in financial 
services and education.
Let’s take a look at how the roles break down 
across each industry - it’s worth noting that for 
the purposes of the survey, we specified the 
roles and asked respondents to box themselves 
according to the role they most identify with. 
Packt SkillUp 2017 > Demographics and Salaries 98 Packt SkillUp 2017 > Demographics and Salaries
Respondents were drawn from a diverse 
range of age groups too. The majority were 
working full-time, but there were a small but 
not insignificant number of people who were 
working part-time. This was most true of the 
youngest age range (18-24) where 26% of 
respondents are working part time. 
This demonstrates the competitive nature 
of today’s job market. But it also raises a 
question about the skill gap. On the one hand 
we might be seeing young people working 
part time to train up on skills that are difficult 
to learn in established educational institutions. 
Or alternatively, perhaps young people simply 
aren’t getting hired - do they not have the skills, 
or are organizations simply not looking 
hard enough?
Age
Gender
35-45
FemaleMale Prefer not to disclose
25-3418-24 45-60 60+
Industry
Employment Status
Employed, 
working 
full-time
82.0%
Employed, 
working 
part-time
8.2%
Not 
employed, 
looking 
for work
5.1%
Not 
employed, 
NOT looking 
for work
2.3%
Retired
1.6%
Disabled, 
not able 
to work
0.7%
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
34.2%Software Solutions
Education
Financial Services/Banking
Government/Civil Service
Retail/eCommerce
Research
Media & Entertainment10.3%
8.4%
8.3%
9.2%
6.8%
6.4%
8
9
10
5.7%
5.1%
3.1%
Tech Hobbyist
Health
Design
11 2.3%Marketing
 Top job roles in each industrySoftware Solutions
Full-stack Developer
Back-end Developer
Web Developer
Education
Academic/Researcher
Full-stack Developer
Web Developer
Financial Services
Full-stack Developer
Back-end Developer
Data Scientist/Analyst
Government/Civil Service
Full-stack Developer
System Administrator
Data Scientist/Analyst
Design
Web Developer
Game Developer
Hobbyist
Health
Full-stack Developer
Data Scientist/Analyst
System Administrator
Research
Academic/Researcher
Data Scientist/Analyst
Full-stack Developer
Retail/eCommerce
Full-stack Developer
Web Developer
Back-end Developer
Tech Hobbyist
Hobbyist
Non-developer but tech-active
Full-stack Developer
Media and entertainment 
Game Developer
Full-stack Developer
Web Developer
Marketing
Web Developer
Full-stack Developer
Data Scientist/Analyst
Employment Status
Salary by job role
Let’s take a look at what the best and worst paid 
roles are across our survey:
...the way 
today’s job roles 
sit alongside 
the stack is 
changing...
“
Packt SkillUp 2017 > Demographics and Salaries 1110 Packt SkillUp 2017 > Demographics and Salaries
Full-stack developers dominated the survey. 
In total, 983 respondents identified with 
the full-stack role, making up more than 
20% of the overall responses. On the one 
hand, this might be because our survey 
simply reached a lot of full-stack developers. 
But it’s certainly not unreasonable to 
suggest that the full-stack developer role 
is, today, the best descriptor of what many 
developers are being asked to do at work..
We also found a large number of data 
scientists working across different industries. 
We weren’t completely surprised, as we’re well 
aware at Packt just how much data science 
has grown over the past decade. But when 
you set this in the context of relatively few 
back-end developers and designers, and - as 
we’ve seen - the growth of the full-stack role, 
it’s possible to infer that the way that today’s 
job roles sit alongside the stack is changing. 
You could even suggest it’s collapsing, as 
the expertise of developers and analysts is 
stretched more broadly than ever before. The results here aren’t hugely surprising, but it’s 
nevertheless worth noting that working in Big 
Data can translate into big bucks. Gone are the 
days of referring to it as a ‘trend’ or ‘revolution’ - 
the fact that Big Data roles command some of 
the highest salaries in tech highlights the fact it 
is now an established part of the landscape.
Security Engineer also proves lucrative - and 
with security issues gaining wider visibility 
thanks to a huge number of high-profile cases, 
it’s an area that is likely to become even more 
important in tech over the next couple of years.
Top 5 earners by job role Bottom 5 earners by job role
Hobbyist 
Game Developer
Academic
Web Developer
Technical Support
C-Suite Level Manager
Big Data Engineer
Mid-level lead/Manager 
Security Engineer
Information Architect
 Top job roles in each industry
Software Solutions
Full-stack Developer
Back-end Developer
Web Developer
Education
Academic/Researcher
Full-stack Developer
Web Developer
Financial Services
Full-stack Developer
Back-end Developer
Data Scientist/Analyst
Government/Civil Service
Full-stack Developer
System Administrator
Data Scientist/Analyst
Design
Web Developer
Game Developer
Hobbyist
Health
Full-stack Developer
Data Scientist/Analyst
System Administrator
Research
Academic/Researcher
Data Scientist/Analyst
Full-stack Developer
Retail/eCommerce
Full-stack Developer
Web Developer
Back-end Developer
Tech Hobbyist
Hobbyist
Non-developer but tech-active
Full-stack Developer
Media and entertainment 
Game Developer
Full-stack Developer
Web Developer
Marketing
Web Developer
Full-stack Developer
Data Scientist/Analyst
Top 5 earners by job role Bottom 5 earners by job role
2 Tools
Packt SkillUp 2017 > Tools 13
Let’s dive into the interesting stuff - what tools 
are tech professionals using today? And what 
does this tell us about industry pressures 
and trends?
Top Tools
Let’s begin by looking at the top tools in our 
survey - this will give us a snapshot of what’s hot 
across the tech landscape today:
Packt SkillUp 2017 > Tools 1514 Packt SkillUp 2017 > Tools
Surprise surprise - Python comes out on top. 
Git remains the version control system of 
choice, and Java also rides high. It’s a consistent 
performer, forming the backbone of lots of the 
software we use every day. 
‘General purpose’ is the key phrase here. So 
much for greater specialization and more 
fragmentation. We want a ‘jack of all trades’ tool.
Let’s break it down by job role.
Top 30 tools being used
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
11
12
13
14
15
10
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
26
27
28
29
30
25
xcode
Most popular tools by job role
Web Developer
Technical Support
System Administrator
Security Engineer
Quality Assurance/Tester
Mobile Developer
Mid-level lead/Manager
Information Architect
Hobbyist
Game Developer
Full-stack Developer
DevOps Engineer
Database Administrator
Data Scientist/Analyst
Cloud Engineer
C-suite level Manager
Business Analyst
Big Data Engineer
Back-end Developer
BI Developer
Academic/Researcher
Product Owner
Penetration Tester
Non-developer but tech-active
xcode
Python dominates across a number of different 
job roles. Security engineers, information 
architects, cloud engineers, and technical 
support (among others) are all using it. 
Its accessibility and flexibility are the key 
reasons for its success. You don’t need to be a 
programming expert to pick it up; but you do 
need to be a committed problem-solver.
It’s also worth noting Docker’s prominence 
here. This emphasizes the impact the container 
software is having across the tech landscape. 
While containerization is a quieter revolution 
than big data may have been - at least in terms 
of wider visibility - for those of us working with 
software, it’s just as important.
Later, we’ll look at the tools respondents said 
they were going to learn in the next 3 months 
- that will give us an indication of the extent 
to which the popularity of tools is feeding the 
hype-cycle and driving a pattern of migration. 
So much 
for greater 
specialization 
and more 
fragmentation. 
We want a ‘jack 
of all trades’ tool.
“
Breaking it down by job role
We’ve seen a broad overview of what’s valuable 
for all of our respondents. But it’s worth 
breaking this down into job roles, so we can see 
how different tools are being used in different 
areas, and how the use of different tools impacts 
the salary earned within each given role. 
This is where things get really interesting. 
For web developers, the tools that are boosting 
respondents’ salaries aren’t the expected hyped 
frameworks - instead, it’s Fiddler that stands out 
on top. Fiddler, for readers who don’t know, is a 
web debugging proxy that logs all HTTP traffic 
between a computer and the internet - and it’s 
not particularly new, having been around 
since 2003. 
SQL Server also performed well in the salary 
stakes. While not outdated, it isn’t particularly 
trendy either, suggesting that technical novelty 
doesn’t translate into earning power. New 
tools open up new opportunities and allow 
us to work in new ways, but it’s important to 
remember that it only really takes on that value 
once it has properly proven itself. That, after all, 
is how the hype-cycle works. Indeed, in many 
circumstances, the newest technology is simply 
too ‘immature’ forwide adoption - legacy code, 
skill gaps, even pure close-mindedness can slow 
the pace of innovation. 
Packt SkillUp 2017 > Tools 1716 Packt SkillUp 2017 > Tools
Tools and salary 
Let’s now take a look at what tools proved the 
most valuable - or, to avoid being coy, what tools 
are earning their users the most money. 
The big winners are all big data-related - Splunk, 
Kafka, and Hadoop being the top three. The 
median salary of respondents that mentioned 
Splunk was an impressive $100,000.
However, the inclusion of configuration 
management tool Chef and container 
orchestration software Kubernetes indicate that 
being able to successfully manage and control 
software infrastructure is becoming a high-
value area. DevOps is the unspoken trend here 
- but maybe the term doesn’t quite capture the 
broad scope of change that is happening.
There were a couple of surprising anomalies 
in our data, however. We were surprised, for 
example, to see PowerPoint and OneNote 
make an appearance. This could mean a 
couple of different things. On the one hand, 
we could say the Microsoft Office tools are the 
building blocks of a successful career - and 
form the foundations of our more experienced 
respondents’ skill sets (which would make sense 
if they were building their careers a decade or 
so ago).
Salary Vs Tools
Web Developer
Technical Support
System Administrator
Security Engineer
Quality Assurance/Tester
Mobile Developer
Mid-level lead/Manager
Information Architect
Hobbyist
Game Developer
Full-stack Developer
DevOps Engineer
Database Administrator
Data Scientist/Analyst
Cloud Engineer
C-suite level Manager
Business Analyst
Big Data Engineer
Back-end Developer
BI Developer
Academic/Researcher
Penetration Tester
Non-developer but tech-active
xcode
xcode
xcode
SSMS
SSIS
Top Tools by Salary
Tools that lift salary above 
role average
Top tools people will be learning
Top tools people will be learning by job role
Packt SkillUp 2017 > Tools 1918 Packt SkillUp 2017 > Tools
It’s also worth noting the predominance of 
Python. It’s not a particular surprise - in fact, 
we’re well aware of its popularity at Packt. 
But in this case, it’s interesting to see that it’s 
boosting the salaries of those in administrative 
roles and those working with infrastructure. It’s 
likely that this is testament to Python’s scripting 
power. In a world where automation and 
speed are becoming essential to modern tech 
professionals and their organizations, Python 
sits very comfortably - and certainly makes you 
incredibly valuable.
Another interesting role here is data scientist/
analyst - Hadoop, Spark and SAS all lift 
respondents well above the median salary. This 
is evidence that you’re at your most valuable 
when you’re working with Big Data. It’s likely 
that organizations using these tools probably 
have more money to invest on large-scale 
projects - it makes sense to make sure you’ve 
got the right people in place.
We couldn’t move on without noting the 
appearance of Excel - whatever you think of 
it, it’s still an important part of the technical 
landscape. We liked seeing Docker and Excel 
sit side by side as two of the most valuable 
tools for information architects. It’s a nice 
demonstration of how our sense of technical 
chronology doesn’t always hold - we innovate 
and seek out new ways of doing things, but still 
depend upon established tools, even when they 
feel outmoded.
New tools and migration 
Let’s now look at what’s on our respondents’ 
radar - what is everyone planning on learning in 
the next 3 months?
Once again, Docker sits in a very significant 
position across a range of job roles. This 
underlines the fact that we’re seeing a core set 
of technologies take up a huge share of the 
market. Rather than seeing fragmentation, 
with technologies emerging that are specific 
to specialized roles, we’re instead seeing 
specialization being drawn together through 
what looks like a larger migration towards 
containerization. 
That’s certainly borne out in the tools listed by 
DevOps and cloud engineers - Kubernetes and 
Ansible both emerging as important software 
for managing and orchestrating modern 
software. This also reflects our earlier discussion 
around salary - this is what organizations are 
demanding of their tech teams, and those 
tech professionals that make up those teams 
understand that those tools are their route 
to promotion.
Once again, Python makes its presence felt 
in our survey. It’s becoming tech’s esperanto, 
crossing disciplines and job roles in a way that 
continues to surprise. The message, then, is clear 
- stop procrastinating and start learning Python!
Tools & Trends
Web Developer
Technical Support
System Administrator
Security Engineer
Quality Assurance/Tester
Mobile Developer
Mid-level lead/Manager
Information Architect
Hobbyist
Game Developer
Full-stack Developer
DevOps Engineer
Database Administrator
Data Scientist/Analyst
Cloud Engineer
C-suite level Manager
Business Analyst
Big Data Engineer
Back-end Developer
BI Developer
Academic/Researcher
Product Owner
Penetration Tester
Non-developer but tech-active
Scapy Armitage
Top tools people will be learning
Tools & Trends
3 Learning tech today
Packt SkillUp 2017 > Learning tech today 21
At Packt, we’re well aware that the key 
challenge of a changing technical landscape is 
simply learning new things. So, in this section 
we wanted to focus on attitudes to learning - 
how people learn, where they learn and why 
they do it.
Educational background
There’s a lot of discussion today around how 
people should learn programming. Should we 
be teaching code in school? What’s the best way 
for adults to re-skill and change career? 
We wanted to gauge the importance of 
educational background for our respondents. To 
do this we looked at educational background 
and set it against years of experience. 
Those who have been working in the tech 
industry for over 10 years have a high level of 
education. But there’s probably more than one 
thing going on here. On the one hand, it’s worth 
noting that a lot of people will go back into the 
education system to retrain or receive a specific 
How much time 
people spend learning
If informal and self-directed learning is the 
way most tech professionals develop their 
knowledge and skills, how much time do they 
actually dedicate to it?
Packt SkillUp 2017 > Learning tech today 2322 Packt SkillUp 2017 > Learning tech today
qualification in an area to support their 
career progression. 
But equally, we also think that what we’re 
seeing is reflective of a growing tendency for 
people to go straight into the workforce and 
learn skills there. Indeed, considering the pace 
of change, it’s difficult to see how curriculums 
and courses could be stabilized in a way that 
would be useful to young tech professionals - 
the best way to learn about the industry is to 
simply get to work. 
Alongside this, we also wanted to find out what 
respondents thought actually mattered when it 
came to their education and their current role.
The majority of respondents believe informal 
self-directed learning to be the most important. 
Interestingly, the importance of one’s academic 
education is positively correlated to the level of 
education but in every instance, informal, self 
directed learning still comes top.
Perceived importance of education types
Time spent learning
Informal, self 
directed learning
Formal on-the-job 
training and/or 
certification
My academic 
experience/
qualifications
Formal training 
and/or certification 
outsideof my role
I dedicate 
time every day
I dedicate 
time every week
I dedicate time 
every month
44.16% 9.69%
0.64% 1.66%3.16%
I dedicate time every 
three months
I dedicate time 
once a year
I rarely/never 
dedicate time
40.70%
Perceived importance of education types
Time spent learning
Informal, self 
directed learning
Formal on-the-job 
training and/or 
certification
My academic 
experience/
qualifications
Formal training 
and/or certification 
outside of my role
I dedicate 
time every day
I dedicate 
time every week
I dedicate time 
every month
44.16% 9.69%
0.64% 1.66%3.16%
I dedicate time every 
three months
I dedicate time 
once a year
I rarely/never 
dedicate time
40.70%
We asked people ‘How much time do you set 
aside to actively learn/improve your technical 
skills and knowledge?’
Here’s what people said:
Perceived importance of education types
Time spent learning
...considering the pace of change, it’s difficult to see how curriculums and 
courses could be stabilised in a way that’s useful to young tech professionals 
- the best way to learn about the industry is to simply get to work.“
Clearly, if you work in tech you dedicate a lot of time to learning - in fact, 
given the results here, you could legitimately say that learning is a crucial 
component of every tech professionals’ day to day work.“
Learning methods
If the majority of respondents are learning 
on a regular basis in an informal and 
self-directed manner, the next question 
is obvious - how are they learning and 
what resources are they using? 
What we found wasn’t unexpected but was 
nevertheless interesting. Younger respondents are 
taking advantage of the wealth of free information 
available online, while older respondents are using 
more traditional learning methods. 
Non-developers but tech active 
vs. Building software solutions
At Packt we’re aware of a type of tech 
professional who may not necessarily be a 
developer or engineer, but nevertheless uses 
technology to perform their role in a more 
effective and impactful way. We wanted to see 
to what extent this distinction applied to reality, 
and whether it would give us any useful insights 
on our data.
Packt SkillUp 2017 > Learning tech today 2524 Packt SkillUp 2017 > Learning tech today
Learning methods
StackOverflow
Free video courses
Formal training
18-24
StackOverflow
Free video courses
Formal training
25-34
Purchased video courses
StackOverflow
eBooks
35-45
Print Books
eBooks
Purchased video courses
45-60
Print Books
Purchased video courses
eBooks
60+
Where do people learn?
Non-developers but tech active v. Building software solutions Importance of learning triggers
Learning establishment
Hackathon
Community Meetup 
18-24
While commuting
At workplace
Hackathon
25-34
While commuting
At workplace
Conference
35-45
At workplace
At home
Conference
45-60
At home
Community Meetup
Conference
60+
Use software to improve
Build software solutions that are used by end users
Build Software
StackOverflow
Project documentation
Collaboration
Use Software
Formal training
Free video courses
Print books
Learning methods
StackOverflow
Free video courses
Formal training
18-24
StackOverflow
Free video courses
Formal training
25-34
Purchased video courses
StackOverflow
eBooks
35-45
Print Books
eBooks
Purchased video courses
45-60
Print Books
Purchased video courses
eBooks
60+
Where do people learn?
Non-developers but tech active v. Building software solutions Importance of learning triggers
Learning establishment
Hackathon
Community Meetup 
18-24
While commuting
At workplace
Hackathon
25-34
While commuting
At workplace
Conference
35-45
At workplace
At home
Conference
45-60
At home
Community Meetup
Conference
60+
Use software to improve
Build software solutions that are used by end users
Build Software
StackOverflow
Project documentation
Collaboration
Use Software
Formal training
Free video courses
Print books
It will be interesting to see how this change 
in learning behaviors impacts the future of 
software. Indeed, it feels as though this is a point 
that is rarely considered in wider discussions 
around education and the ‘tech skills gap’. 
Perhaps we should be empowering people 
to go out and teach themselves? Whatever 
happens, we are seeing a shift in how we 
understand notions of authority and expertise.
In the survey we asked users which description 
they most identify with. Do they:
• Use software to improve efficiency 
and innovatively solve problems in a 
non-developer role
• Build software solutions that are used 
by end users
Learning methods
StackOverflow
Free video courses
Formal training
18-24
StackOverflow
Free video courses
Formal training
25-34
Purchased video courses
StackOverflow
eBooks
35-45
Print Books
eBooks
Purchased video courses
45-60
Print Books
Purchased video courses
eBooks
60+
Where do people learn?
Non-developers but tech active v. Building software solutions Importance of learning triggers
Learning establishment
Hackathon
Community Meetup 
18-24
While commuting
At workplace
Hackathon
25-34
While commuting
At workplace
Conference
35-45
At workplace
At home
Conference
45-60
At home
Community Meetup
Conference
60+
Use software to improve
Build software solutions that are used by end users
Build Software
StackOverflow
Project documentation
Collaboration
Use Software
Formal training
Free video courses
Print books
We also asked respondents where they do 
their learning. Again, we saw differences 
around age groups. 
Learning in a more social environment is 
preferred by younger respondents; those in 
the top age bracket, meanwhile, prefer to learn 
in private. As a side note, it’s intriguing to see 
that the 25-34 category, and 35-45 category 
are more likely than anyone else to learn on 
their commute. 
While these aren’t the most watertight of 
definitions, and are something to explore in the 
future, you do get a nice view when you model 
responses to learning methods against how 
respondents identified.
Learning methods
StackOverflow
Free video courses
Formal training
18-24
StackOverflow
Free video courses
Formal training
25-34
Purchased video courses
StackOverflow
eBooks
35-45
Print Books
eBooks
Purchased video courses
45-60
Print Books
Purchased video courses
eBooks
60+
Where do people learn?
Non-developers but tech active v. Building software solutions Importance of learning triggers
Learning establishment
Hackathon
Community Meetup 
18-24
While commuting
At workplace
Hackathon
25-34
While commuting
At workplace
Conference
35-45
At workplace
At home
Conference
45-60
At home
Community Meetup
Conference
60+
Use software to improve
Build software solutions that are used by end users
Build Software
StackOverflow
Project documentation
Collaboration
Use Software
Formal training
Free video courses
Print books
For those that ‘build software solutions 
for end users’ they are most likely to use 
StackOverflow - it stands out as the go-to 
learning method/resource. 
Learning methods
Where do people learn?
Non-developers but tech active v. Building software solutions
Importance of learning triggers
For those that ‘use software to improve 
efficiency and innovatively solve problems in 
a non-developerrole’, formal training within a 
specific institution remains the main method of 
learning. But it’s worth noting that there’s a mix 
of materials and methods - videos, for example, 
are popular, and print books are still used. 
Perhaps this is a little glib but this data tells us 
that roles are developing in different ways - for 
some, there is still a certain degree of stability. 
Industry consensus and what constitutes 
Packt SkillUp 2017 > Learning tech today 2726 Packt SkillUp 2017 > Learning tech today
Although not necessarily surprising, this does 
show that the emphasis is on problem solving. 
In fact, the decision to learn something is a 
form of problem-solving - it requires some 
kind of commitment to trying something that 
you think will work. From this perspective, it’s 
nice to see that people learn new things on 
recommendations of colleagues - even when 
you learn alone, perhaps, there’s a community 
that informs your learning.
But it’s when we break it down by age that we 
can get a deeper perspective:
Here we can see that the drive for younger 
respondents is developing a career. Strangely, 
in that youngest age group, respondents were 
less likely to say that there is a problem they 
need to fix and don’t know how - is this perhaps 
because of their status or what they’re being 
asked to do? Or are we seeing a reflection of a 
difference in attitude to other age groups?
Why we learn
The practical aspects of learning technology 
are interesting, but it’s the ‘why’ that really digs 
deeper into the motivations of individual tech 
professionals. For us, that’s where we start to see 
what’s really driving change. 
Reasons for learning a new topic
There is a problem that I need 
to fix and dont know how
I believe a new tool will allow me to 
solve a problem more e	ectively at work
I am curious about a new 
tool/language from something I read online
I am curious about a new tool/language 
that I heard about from a colleague
I want to expand my skillset to 
apply for a new role
A new update or change in a 
language or tool I work with
I am specifically asked to begin 
using a new tool by work/manager
good practice doesn’t change as fast as you 
might expect in the face of wider disruption. 
But for those building software for end users, 
that ‘consensus’ or ‘fixity’ isn’t there. It rests on 
community contributions and wider discussion 
on forums like StackOverflow. Similarly, it might 
also tell us something about the nature of the 
problems that group of respondents are dealing 
with, and the pressure to find solutions quickly.
Importance of barriers to learning
Not motivated to learn
Resources aren’t accessible
No relevant resources 
18-24
So many things to learn
Not motivated to learn
Learning isn’t necessary
25-34
Don’t have enough time
Not motivated to learn
Resources aren’t advanced
35-45
Don’t have enough time
Resources aren’t advanced
No relevant resources
45-60
No relevant resources
Resources aren’t advanced
Resources aren’t accessible
60+
Importance of barriers to learning
Build Software
Resources aren’t advanced
Not enough time
No relevant resources
Use Software
No accessible resources
Don’t know where to start
No motivation to learn
Why people learn
Expand skillset to 
apply for a new role
Asked to begin 
using a new tool by 
work/manager
New tool/language
from a colleague 
18-24 25-34 35-45 45-60 60+
Expand skillset to 
apply for a new role
Asked to begin 
using a new tool by 
work/manager
New tool/language
from a colleague 
New tool will allow to 
solve a problem more 
effectively at work
Problem that needs 
to be fix and 
dont know how
Asked to begin 
using a new tool by 
work/manager 
A new update 
or change in a 
language or tool
New tool will allow to 
solve a problem more 
effectively at work
Problem that needs 
to be fix and 
dont know how 
A new update 
or change in a 
language or tool
Problem that needs 
to be fix and 
dont know how 
New tool will allow to 
solve a problem more 
effectively at work 
We asked respondents to rank a number of 
different learning triggers according to how 
likely they were to lead them to learn something 
new. This is how respondents rated our reasons:
Why people learn
Packt SkillUp 2017 > Learning tech today 2928 Packt SkillUp 2017 > Learning tech today
Barriers to learning
At Packt, everything we do is dedicated to 
helping tech pros learn. But we know that 
there are a huge range of barriers to doing so 
effectively. In this section, we’ll take a look at 
what our survey respondents said were their 
biggest barriers to learning. 
Once again, if we break these responses down 
by age, we get an interesting look at the split 
across the generations: 
Younger respondents have the time, but 
apparently lack motivation and can’t find the 
right way into a topic. Of course, if, as earlier data 
highlighted, they’re interested in building their 
skillset for their career, they’re going to need to 
buck their ideas up and get motivated!
But in all seriousness, it’s worth thinking about 
this lack of motivation - perhaps it is directly 
related to the difficulty in finding a good way 
into a topic. If you’re not sure where to start, 
then it can be difficult to set yourself goals and 
commit to learning regularly. 
But equally, what if it’s also related to the nature 
of today’s tech job market? Perhaps what we’re 
seeing is a generation of younger technology 
workers finding it difficult to understand exactly 
how they should develop their skillset and how 
to advance their careers given the rapid pace of 
Importance of barriers to learning
Not motivated to learn
Resources aren’t accessible
No relevant resources 
18-24
So many things to learn
Not motivated to learn
Learning isn’t necessary
25-34
Don’t have enough time
Not motivated to learn
Resources aren’t advanced
35-45
Don’t have enough time
Resources aren’t advanced
No relevant resources
45-60
No relevant resources
Resources aren’t advanced
Resources aren’t accessible
60+
Importance of barriers to learning
Build Software
Resources aren’t advanced
Not enough time
No relevant resources
Use Software
No accessible resources
Don’t know where to start
No motivation to learn
Why people learn
Expand skillset to 
apply for a new role
Asked to begin 
using a new tool by 
work/manager
New tool/language
from a colleague 
18-24 25-34 35-45 45-60 60+
Expand skillset to 
apply for a new role
Asked to begin 
using a new tool by 
work/manager
New tool/language
from a colleague 
New tool will allow to 
solve a problem more 
effectively at work
Problem that needs 
to be fix and 
dont know how
Asked to begin 
using a new tool by 
work/manager 
A new update 
or change in a 
language or tool
New tool will allow to 
solve a problem more 
effectively at work
Problem that needs 
to be fix and 
dont know how 
A new update 
or change in a 
language or tool
Problem that needs 
to be fix and 
dont know how 
New tool will allow to 
solve a problem more 
effectively at work 
change. With new roles emerging which 
require a mix of both established tools and a 
working knowledge of emerging technologies, 
it’s hard for younger developers to stack up to 
what many organizations need. 
Again, it’s interesting to look at responses to 
this by breaking them down into our two 
groups of respondents:
Here, you get a clear sense of the problems 
that face both groups of people. Respondents 
who ‘use software to improve efficiency and 
innovatively solve problems in a non-developer 
role’find it challenging to properly manage the 
field of knowledge. If they can’t find resources 
that are accessible enough and don’t know 
where to begin, it’s unsurprising that they 
wouldn’t be motivated. For these people, 
their focus isn’t on the technology, it’s on the 
problems at hand - it might be the case that 
software can sometimes complicate things as 
much as solve them. 
Importance of barriers to learning
Not motivated to learn
Resources aren’t accessible
No relevant resources 
18-24
So many things to learn
Not motivated to learn
Learning isn’t necessary
25-34
Don’t have enough time
Not motivated to learn
Resources aren’t advanced
35-45
Don’t have enough time
Resources aren’t advanced
No relevant resources
45-60
No relevant resources
Resources aren’t advanced
Resources aren’t accessible
60+
Importance of barriers to learning
Build Software
Resources aren’t advanced
Not enough time
No relevant resources
Use Software
No accessible resources
Don’t know where to start
No motivation to learn
Why people learn
Expand skillset to 
apply for a new role
Asked to begin 
using a new tool by 
work/manager
New tool/language
from a colleague 
18-24 25-34 35-45 45-60 60+
Expand skillset to 
apply for a new role
Asked to begin 
using a new tool by 
work/manager
New tool/language
from a colleague 
New tool will allow to 
solve a problem more 
effectively at work
Problem that needs 
to be fix and 
dont know how
Asked to begin 
using a new tool by 
work/manager 
A new update 
or change in a 
language or tool
New tool will allow to 
solve a problem more 
effectively at work
Problem that needs 
to be fix and 
dont know how 
A new update 
or change in a 
language or tool
Problem that needs 
to be fix and 
dont know how 
New tool will allow to 
solve a problem more 
effectively at work 
For those who ‘build software solutions for end 
users’ we see a different story. The problem 
isn’t the accessibility of resources, but instead 
being able to find resources that are advanced 
enough to be useful. These people likely have a 
much narrower focus. For them, their toolchain 
is relatively static - it’s about getting the most 
out of those tools. For the previous group, 
one of their key problems is understanding 
and managing a toolchain that feels like it’s 
constantly in flux.
Importance of barriers to learning
Biggest learning challenges
There are two key learning challenges: the first is managing a complex and 
changing field of knowledge. The second is possessing the knowledge and 
skills needed to push boundaries and redefine your field.“
4 Tech Pros at Work
Packt SkillUp 2017 > Tech Pros at Work 31
While it’s interesting to see what tools people 
are using and how they learn, none of this 
really matters if it isn’t making an impact in the 
workplace. In this section, we’ll look at what it’s 
like to be a working tech professional. 
Packt SkillUp 2017 > Tech Pros at Work 3332 Packt SkillUp 2017 > Tech Pros at Work
Technical barriers
Let’s start off by looking at what barriers people 
face - or think they face - in using technology in 
an impactful and effective way at work. 
 
We asked survey respondents how much choice 
they have over the tools they use at work:
This highlights that the question of choice and 
control is a big one for tech pros - nearly 80% 
have at least a reasonable amount of choice, 
around half a significant degree of choice. This 
highlights that to be a tech professional isn’t 
simply about shipping code, it’s about making 
decisions about what tools to use and what 
solutions are needed for different problems. 
 
We also asked users how they think their 
organization deploys the software and technical 
expertise at their disposal:
said they have 
‘no choice at all’
said ‘a small 
amount of choice’
said ‘A reasonable 
amount of choice’
said ‘a significant 
amount of choice’
said they have ‘complete control 
over what I use in my professional life’
said very poorly
said poorly
said satisfactorily
said it deploys 
it well
said it deploys 
it exceptionally
said they have 
‘no choice at all’
said ‘a small 
amount of choice’
said ‘A reasonable 
amount of choice’
said ‘a significant 
amount of choice’
said they have ‘complete control 
over what I use in my professional life’
said very poorly
said poorly
said satisfactorily
said it deploys 
it well
said it deploys 
it exceptionally
said ‘much more 
knowledge than me’
said their manager possessed 
‘a lot less knowledge than me’
said ‘slightly less 
knowledge than me’
said ‘the same level of 
knowledge as me’
said ‘more 
knowledge than me’
Barriers to learning
Software Solutions
Short terms goals conflicting 
with long terms plans
Rapid pace of strategic change 
Technical debt/legacy issues
Education
Organisational culture
Lack of investments in projects
Management’s technical knowledge
Government/Civil Service
Organisational culture
Technical debt/legacy issues
There are no clearly defined goals
Design
Lack of investments in projects
Rapid pace of technical change
Lack of skills to execute projects
Research
Management’s technical knowledge
Lack of investments in projects
There are no realistic goals
Retail/eCommerce
Technical debt/legacy issues
Rapid pace of strategic change 
Organisational culture
Tech Hobbyist
Marketing
Lack of skills to execute projects
Management’s technical knowledge
Rapid pace of technical change
Media and entertainment 
Team Resources
Short terms goals conflicting 
with long terms plans
Lack of skills to execute projects
Short terms goals conflicting 
with long terms plans
Team Resources
There are no clearly defined goals
Health
Organisational culture
Team Resources
Rapid pace of strategic change 
Financial Services
Technical debt/legacy issues
Short terms goals conflicting 
with long terms plans
Organisational culture
While it would be nice to pull out a 
provocative headline here, results are actually 
spread quite evenly. Still, it’s useful to note that 
there’s a not insignificant group of people that 
really don’t rate the way technology is used in 
their organizations.
 
We also asked a slightly provocative question -
Here’s how people responded:
What these results show us is that there’s 
a slight imbalance of technical knowledge 
in today’s organizational hierarchies. To a 
certain extent, this is understandable given a 
managerial role requires a broad perspective 
against a specific level of expertise. But 
it’s nevertheless worth noting that the 
organizations of our respondents are not 
dominated by technical leaders. 
 
If almost 50% of respondents see their 
manager as having less knowledge than them, 
is there perhaps a problem with progressing 
technical people to more senior positions? 
Does our wider business culture undervalue 
technical knowledge?
How would you rate your manager’s knowledge of technology?
Packt SkillUp 2017 > Tech Pros at Work 3534 Packt SkillUp 2017 > Tech Pros at Work
Barriers to success
We also asked respondents what they thought 
the main barriers to success were in their 
respective organizations.
 
We broke this down by industry to find out if any 
common stereotypes hold up. Below, you’ll see 
the 3 biggest barriers listed under each industry:
said ‘much more 
knowledge than me’
said their manager possessed 
‘a lot less knowledge than me’
said ‘slightly less 
knowledge than me’
said ‘the same level of 
knowledge as me’
said ‘more 
knowledge than me’
Barriers to learning
Software Solutions
Shortterms goals conflicting 
with long terms plans
Rapid pace of strategic change 
Technical debt/legacy issues
Education
Organisational culture
Lack of investments in projects
Management’s technical knowledge
Government/Civil Service
Organisational culture
Technical debt/legacy issues
There are no clearly defined goals
Design
Lack of investments in projects
Rapid pace of technical change
Lack of skills to execute projects
Research
Management’s technical knowledge
Lack of investments in projects
There are no realistic goals
Retail/eCommerce
Technical debt/legacy issues
Rapid pace of strategic change 
Organisational culture
Tech Hobbyist
Marketing
Lack of skills to execute projects
Management’s technical knowledge
Rapid pace of technical change
Media and entertainment 
Team Resources
Short terms goals conflicting 
with long terms plans
Lack of skills to execute projects
Short terms goals conflicting 
with long terms plans
Team Resources
There are no clearly defined goals
Health
Organisational culture
Team Resources
Rapid pace of strategic change 
Financial Services
Technical debt/legacy issues
Short terms goals conflicting 
with long terms plans
Organisational culturesaid ‘much more 
knowledge than me’
said their manager possessed 
‘a lot less knowledge than me’
said ‘slightly less 
knowledge than me’
said ‘the same level of 
knowledge as me’
said ‘more 
knowledge than me’
Barriers to learning
Software Solutions
Short terms goals conflicting 
with long terms plans
Rapid pace of strategic change 
Technical debt/legacy issues
Education
Organisational culture
Lack of investments in projects
Management’s technical knowledge
Government/Civil Service
Organisational culture
Technical debt/legacy issues
There are no clearly defined goals
Design
Lack of investments in projects
Rapid pace of technical change
Lack of skills to execute projects
Research
Management’s technical knowledge
Lack of investments in projects
There are no realistic goals
Retail/eCommerce
Technical debt/legacy issues
Rapid pace of strategic change 
Organisational culture
Tech Hobbyist
Marketing
Lack of skills to execute projects
Management’s technical knowledge
Rapid pace of technical change
Media and entertainment 
Team Resources
Short terms goals conflicting 
with long terms plans
Lack of skills to execute projects
Short terms goals conflicting 
with long terms plans
Team Resources
There are no clearly defined goals
Health
Organisational culture
Team Resources
Rapid pace of strategic change 
Financial Services
Technical debt/legacy issues
Short terms goals conflicting 
with long terms plans
Organisational culture
Organizational culture continually crops up, 
particularly in public services - government/
civil services, health and education all marked 
organizational culture as a big problem above 
the overall average. In fact, across our whole 
survey, 38% of respondents said organizational 
culture was either ‘often a barrier’ or a ‘huge 
barrier’.
 
A number of other barriers listed include ‘short 
term goals conflicting with long term plans’ - it’s 
interesting to see that this is most markedly true 
within marketing. Overall, 16.61% of respondents 
said this was a ‘huge barrier, with a further 
31.31% saying this was ‘often a barrier’.
 
Respondents also see that ‘technical debt/
legacy issues’ as another large barrier. 15.31% 
said that it was a ‘huge barrier’ while 27.85% 
said it was often a barrier. It’s clear that the past 
weighs heavily on many tech professionals and 
their organizations. 
This was most true in retail and eCommerce, 
government/civil service and financial services/
banking. For financial services in particular, 
we can see a problem in which secure, stable 
systems - designed specifically to remain 
unchanged - are halting the pace at which the 
industry can be disrupted. In this context, then 
its not hard to see why it’s relative unknowns 
like Monzo that look set to make the biggest 
impact in the future.
Packt SkillUp 2017 > Tech Pros at Work 3736 Packt SkillUp 2017 > Tech Pros at Work
Personal Development
We also wanted to find out what our 
respondents believe the main barriers to 
their personal development are.
 
Below is how people responded.
Job satisfaction
From asking all the questions above, we’ve tried 
to infer just how satisfied our respondents are 
with their jobs. We created a satisfaction index - 
zero being neutral about your life at work. 
 
When we break it down by age this is what 
we found:
Not a 
barrier
Very rarely 
a barrier
Some-
what of 
a barrier
A barrier A huge barrier
I have too much 
work to do to 
develop myself
8.55% 13.47% 36.41% 27.69% 13.89%
My manager is not 
interested in 
developing my role
31.46% 24.61% 21.83% 13.27% 8.84%
There is no 
investment in new 
technical projects
19.81% 24.42% 28.18% 18.53% 9.05%
There is no long term 
technical strategy 18.51% 21.36% 27.61% 20.46% 12.06%
Short-term goals 
conflict with long 
term planning
12.91% 18.73% 31.26% 24.87% 12.23%
Managing technical 
debt holds back my 
development
17.94% 21.58% 32.78% 19.22% 8.49%
Organizational 
culture 21.74% 21.23% 26.21% 18.29% 12.53%
I have no clearly 
defined goals 25.58% 27.36% 26.83% 14.20% 6.03%
I have no 
realistic goals 32.65% 27.01% 23.92% 11.19% 5.23%
There’s an interesting mix here, but by far the 
most significant barrier is being overworked. 
People are set clear and realistic goals, and also 
feel management is interested in developing 
them, but perhaps they are simply being asked 
to do too much. 
So, the youngest respondents were the most 
satisfied, even in spite of the challenges they 
face. However, those more advanced in their 
careers, from age 35, are more disillusioned. 
Perhaps this is related to the sense that career 
progression can be difficult in technology - or, 
on the other hand, the pressures and demands 
placed on you become more complex and even 
harder to find solutions for. 
Broadly speaking, the roles in which people 
are most satisfied are those that are most likely 
to be writing code. Pentesters, QAs, game 
developers and web developers. These are roles 
that require you to get your hands dirty, to 
get creative. 
 
Job satisfaction is lowest in those roles where 
the problems aren’t purely technical - they’re 
also about people. Managers and information 
architects, for example, are tasked with not only 
technical issues, but instead solving issues that 
arise out of human interaction with technology. 
Of course, game developers and web developers 
are building software for humans - but largely, 
it’s through code that they can solve their 
problems. For the dissatisfied, their challenges 
lie in changing the behavior and attitudes of 
people as much as it is about changing the way 
software works.
 
With the youngest respondents apparently the 
most satisfied with work, it’s unsurprising that 
there was little correlation between satisfaction 
and salary. Our challenge to the younger 
generation of tech professionals is find a way to 
keep having fun. Don’t let work become a chore.
18-24 25-34 60+ 35-45 45-60
5 Emerging trends and the future of tech
Packt SkillUp 2017 > The future of tech 39
What’s going to define the future of technology? 
What are tech pros going to be working on in 
the months and years to come?
Packt SkillUp 2017 > The future of tech 4140 Packt SkillUp 2017 > The future of tech
Top trends
We simply asked respondents to “List no more 
than three trends that you think will have the 
biggest overall impact for consumers and 
businessesover the next 12 months.”
Here’s a word cloud that gives you an overview:
The big mentions here can be grouped 
around these key areas: 
 
• Cloud Computing
• Big Data, AI & Machine Learning
• Automation
• Containerization
Perhaps these were not unexpected - and 
certainly we know we’ve been talking about 
these things a lot. But it’s worth also thinking 
about why these things keep coming up - 
and what they have in common. Our take 
is that all these things are about improving 
efficiency, reducing the difference between 
impact and effort. Cloud, for example, makes it 
easier to manage applications and share data; 
data itself helps to ensure that we’re using 
resources effectively, that our decisions are 
more intelligent, and more informed than they 
otherwise might be. Automation, meanwhile, 
takes the strain out of boring tasks so tech pros 
can focus their energy elsewhere. Similarly 
containerization is changing the very nature of 
the way we build and deploy software, allowing 
developers and engineers to make changes and 
fixes much more quickly. 
Machine Learning
Big data
Cloud Computing
Deep Learning
Artifical Intelligence
Data Science
Open Source
Internet Things
Virtual Reality
Continuous Integration
Data Analysis
Data Analytics
Learning Cloud
AI Machine Learning
A
I M
ac
h
in
e
Augmented Reality
Devops Cloud
Cloud Services
Net Core
Cloud Big
Cloud Big Data
B
ig
 D
at
a 
M
ac
h
in
e
Learning Data
Machine Learning Cloud
All these trends are about working smarter. 
6 Diversity in tech
Packt SkillUp 2017 > Diversity in tech 43
Diversity across the tech landscape is something 
that has been elevated as a major problem over 
the last ten years. A lot of this is down to the 
hard work done by talented women bringing 
these issues to light, taking on the status quo. 
Packt SkillUp 2017 > Diversity in tech 4544 Packt SkillUp 2017 > Diversity in tech
Gender diversity
We wanted to find out what our survey 
respondents thought of the issue.
For context, 91% of our respondents 
were male, 5% were female, and 3% 
preferred not to disclose.
Despite the sample including only a small 
number of women, respondents believed that 
the industry has an issue with gender diversity 
- almost half of those asked agreed or strongly
agreed that it was a problem.
Respondents were more divided over how 
they felt about the ethnic diversity of the tech 
industry. As a global survey, it is likely that 
representative diversity will differ considerably 
for our respondents depending on where they 
are living and working. 
Strongly 
disagree Disagree
Neither 
agree or 
disagree
Agree Strongly agree
The tech industry 
has a gender 
diversity problem
10.75% 13.54% 28.47% 31.06% 16.18%
The industry has 
an ethnic diversity 
problem
15.09% 22.17% 36.56% 17.20% 8.99%
We need diversity in 
the tech workforce 5.10% 4.72% 27.54% 30.28% 32.34%
There is plenty of additional research to 
demonstrate the underrepresentation of 
minorities in the tech industry - particularly in 
the west. This visualization by Information is 
Beautiful highlights the scale of 
underrepresentation at many of the largest 
tech companies on the planet.
Over 60% of respondents felt that diversity 
was a needed and important quality for the 
tech workforce, and less than 10% believed it 
was unnecessary. There is clearly still a lot of 
work to do around the world to make tech a 
better place for women and ethnic minorities 
to build their careers and flourish. But we are 
hopeful that the will is there to make it 
happen.
7 Final Remarks
Packt SkillUp 2017 > Final Remarks 47
This year’s survey has provided a broad 
perspective on what it’s like to work in 
technology in 2017. Most interestingly, we’ve 
seen that real change is happening not within 
languages, and frameworks, but instead at 
a higher level. Machine learning, cloud and 
containerization, are all helping to transform the 
way tech professionals work and, indeed, the 
wider scope of what different roles are being 
asked to do and being asked to build. 
 
This means that understanding the technology 
landscape can be incredibly valuable for 
anyone who works in technology. While on the 
one hand open source culture has become 
mainstream, empowering developers to 
build their own tools and solve problems in 
responsive and creative ways, disparate areas 
are being brought together in ways that 
might have surprised us 5 years ago. Full-stack 
developers are starting to think about cloud in 
almost as much detail as an administrator or an 
architect would. If you’re building websites or 
applications, you might be starting to build up 
a picture of how you can begin to tackle 
machine learning. 
 
Wherever you work, whatever tools you use, 
and however you use them, we’ll continue to 
support you.
 
Thanks for reading this year’s report. 
Follow @PacktPub on Twitter and find 
us on Facebook for more insights and 
more discussion.
 
Thank you to all who took part in this year’s 
survey - we really appreciate it. 
Spend less time learning and more time coding with practical 
eBooks and Videos from over 3,500 industry professionals. 
Practical learning for experienced developers.
What you get with a Mapt subscription.
Access every Packt eBook 
and Video ever published.
From Angular to Zurb, 
PHP to Python, read and watch 
over 4,000 eBooks and videos 
covering every key topic in tech. 
50+ new titles published 
every month.
Whether you are 
learning new tech, checking your 
existing knowledge, or solving a 
problem, Skill Plans guide you to 
what you want 
to learn. Fast.
Take out a Mapt Pro subscription 
and every month you’ll receive 
any eBook or video to keep 
forever, even if you cancel your 
subscription.
Learn better with Skill 
Plans built for you.
Get a DRM-free eBook 
or video every month.
 Save 50% on subscriptions with the code SU2017M50 
 Visit mapt.io/skill-up-2017