Version 1 Driving Growth in the Tech Industry

Intro

In November 2022, we distributed a survey to each of the Developers working at Version. We wanted to give our developers the chance to share where they were in their careers at the time of the survey and the steps going forward. For the purposes of this survey, we defined a software developer as somebody who writes code as part of their role.

At the time of rolling out the survey, we had over 1,200 developers out of the 2,800 people employed by Version 1. We wanted to ensure everyone had the opportunity to discuss their experience, the industry trends and how to develop their careers further.

The survey ran from 22nd November to 6th December and during this time, over 50% of our developers’ provided answers to the survey.

Methodology of the Developers Survey

The Developer Survey was developed when Version 1 was doing an analysis of its business plan. We wanted to provide more clarity as to how many people were in specific roles, the capabilities of each of our Developers and the areas we could expand in, to provide more for our customers.

Version 1 is continuing to carry out our ambitious growth plans whilst ensuring every staff member can utilise their current skillset and expand their knowledge whilst moving forward with the demands in the market.

CTO Brad Mallard was very much involved throughout the process of creating and distributing the survey to over 1,200 employees in November 2022.

Peer learning

The survey demonstrates Version 1’s commitment to lifelong learning. As an organisation, we cater to those who are just starting out in their IT career via our Early Careers Programme or Digital Academies through to seasoned professionals with over 25 years of industry experience.

Interestingly, over 30% of participants indicated they learn about new technology from colleagues. 60% of respondents have five or more years of professional development experience which is particularly beneficial to our peer learning initiatives such as Version 1 Communities which connects people from the same technology domain across the organisation allowing them to come together and share experiences and insights with one another.

CTO Brad Mallard has also introduced quarterly challenges which staff members can take part in. The first was The Great GPT Tech Off where teams would develop a beneficial use for Chat GPT and demonstrate this to the judging panel. There were also prizes on offer to the winning team. The most recent challenge is “Back to the Sustainable Future” which is based on current and future trends and how we could potentially utilise technology (that may not even exist yet) to become the most sustainable technology consulting company in the market in 2035.

Communities Hub

Our Communities Hub is an initiative that was launched in April this year and the idea was to bring employees from different backgrounds together. It provides new and existing employees with the opportunity to introduce themselves, share their own experiences and build their networks in a rapidly growing organisation.

With remote and hybrid working becoming the norm and having offices across the globe, the Communities Hub gives everyone in the business the opportunity to socialise and participate in monthly calls to build upon their existing knowledge.

Since launching earlier this year, the communities have grown and remain active and readily available for any new joiners to start socialising. The platforms are there for any Version 1 query the member may have or to discuss the current industry trends.

John Brennan, Solutions Architect, who worked on the Developer Survey said:

Through the Version 1 Developer Survey, we’ve gained a clear understanding of our developer’s changing needs and interests. The findings of the survey encouraged us to drive forward with our Version 1 Communities initiative which is helping to connect technologists within our organisation and drive greater opportunities for peer learning and collaboration.

Going forward

Version 1 operates with a continuous improvement mindset and that is why we feel it is important to conduct and share our Developer Survey on an annual basis. The insights gained from our survey provide areas in which we can improve our developer experience. This allows us to tackle blockers and maintain our excellent standards for our customers. The focus is not just on our customers but also on providing a rewarding environment for our people to grow. Since January we have already been expanding the training material on offer, we are continuously on the lookout to support our staff throughout our growth and ensure they have all the tools and materials they need to progress.

The technology industry is also ever-evolving, we expect AI to feature more heavily in this year’s survey after the surge in GPT at the start of 2023 and suspect other trends will appear before the survey is distributed again in November.

John continued,

We are excited to be running this survey again later this year where we will be asking our developers about emerging trends in AI and the use of AI as part of their development workflow.

Careers at Version 1

You can hear more from Samantha Devlin, a Principal Software Engineer here at Version 1 and others on our YouTube channel to see what a typical day at Version 1 looks like for them.

If this sounds like an organisation you would like to work for, check out our current vacancies here.