UK is the first and only country formally to leave the EU, after 47 years. The European single market, it left is centre around “four freedoms” namely free movement in goods, services, people, and capital. Experts have made known that movement of services and people have both been lost through this exit.
In this article, we use some selected variables from the 2020 Stock Overflow Survey dataset as bases to determining the similarity and differences between developers in these Germany and the UK. The dataset has 3,890 developers from Germany and 3,896 from UK.
As unit of measure is the percentage differences of some selected factors present in each countries variables.
We calculate the percentages of the selected factors for developers in each country and then calculate percentage differences between similar factors for developers for both countries and then determine the magnitude of these percentage difference for the given factor, and then present a graphical visualisation.
Finally, we test the hypothesis to ascertain, if direction magnitude of the measure (percentage differences) for the given factors are statistically significant or not and then draw our conclusion.
The null hypothesis is that percentage difference for the considered factor is statistically insignificant as against the alternative that the difference is significant. The hypothesis test is done using 95% confidence interval.
In cementing the bases for our research, we make following assumption about our dataset.
- The sampling method for each population of developers is simple random sampling.
- The samples are independent.
- Each sample includes at least 10 successes and 10 failures.
- Each population is at least 20 times as big as its sample.
Please here for further details from the source of our information
Let begin now with our first question
- How are the type of developers distributed in Germany and UK? Can we conclude with certainty that certain type of developers are more or less in Germany than UK using percentage difference as a unit of measure?
First of all, the graph depicts the percentages of the different type of developers in Germany and UK.
Just taking a look at the graph beside, we see how Developer types are distributed in the two countries in percentages. For example we see percentage wise that there are more Developer, back-end in Germany than in the UK. On the other hand, we have slightly higher Developer, full-stack in UK than in Germany.
Next we calculate the percentage differences for the various developer types for both countries and present these difference using the graph below.
At the first glance, in the graph above, the zero-line shows percentage difference where Germany has an upper hand and graph below favours UK. Using this graphical representation on might conclude that for example there are more System administrators in Germany than in UK and more Developer, back-end in UK than Germany.
But are these differences significant? Let find out. The table below presents the outcome of test of null hypothesis that the difference of the considered factor is insignificant as against the alternative that the difference is significant at the 95% level. To reject the null hypothesis the p-value must be less 0.05 and vice versa.
Developer Type- difference between Germany and UK:
FACTOR OR DRIVER: Developer, back-end
p-value: 1.106287651785176e-05
This difference is statistically significant with 95.0 %
FACTOR OR DRIVER: Developer, full-stack
p-value: 0.05427314808454909
This difference is not statistically significant with 95.0 %
FACTOR OR DRIVER: Developer, front-end
p-value: 0.08680795609948472
This difference is not statistically significant with 95.0 %
FACTOR OR DRIVER: Developer, desktop or enterprise applications
p-value: 3.693009385122824e-08
This difference is statistically significant with 95.0 %
FACTOR OR DRIVER: Developer, mobile
p-value: 0.033356297024197706
This difference is statistically significant with 95.0 %
FACTOR OR DRIVER: DevOps specialist
p-value: 0.0003168188585813051
This difference is statistically significant with 95.0 %
FACTOR OR DRIVER: System administrator
p-value: 1.2017728320595883e-06
This difference is statistically significant with 95.0 %
FACTOR OR DRIVER: Database administrator
p-value: 0.34891388083918684
This difference is not statistically significant with 95.0 %
FACTOR OR DRIVER: Developer, embedded applications or devices
p-value: 1.0360742226289194e-05
This difference is statistically significant with 95.0 %
FACTOR OR DRIVER: Academic researcher
p-value: 2.5267823903024944e-12
This difference is statistically significant with 95.0 %
FACTOR OR DRIVER: Data scientist or machine learning specialist
p-value: 0.004231538657279066
This difference is statistically significant with 95.0 %
FACTOR OR DRIVER: Developer, QA or test
p-value: 0.01704355675022426
This difference is statistically significant with 95.0 %
FACTOR OR DRIVER: Designer
p-value: 0.015809478544689684
This difference is statistically significant with 95.0 %
FACTOR OR DRIVER: Educator
p-value: 5.843353784103808e-12
This difference is statistically significant with 95.0 %
FACTOR OR DRIVER: Engineer, data
p-value: 0.019816320824266785
This difference is statistically significant with 95.0 %
FACTOR OR DRIVER: Scientist
p-value: 1.3697641397208742e-07
This difference is statistically significant with 95.0 %
FACTOR OR DRIVER: Product manager
p-value: 1.1276977893826949e-07
This difference is statistically significant with 95.0 %
FACTOR OR DRIVER: Data or business analyst
p-value: 0.012212144034667156
This difference is statistically significant with 95.0 %
FACTOR OR DRIVER: Developer, game or graphics
p-value: 0.07646269104872316
This difference is not statistically significant with 95.0 %
FACTOR OR DRIVER: Engineering manager
p-value: 0.07950758307356243
This difference is not statistically significant with 95.0 %
FACTOR OR DRIVER: Engineer, site reliability
p-value: 0.3449878336250086
This difference is not statistically significant with 95.0 %
FACTOR OR DRIVER: Senior executive/VP
p-value: 0.20744235658106108
This difference is not statistically significant with 95.0 %
FACTOR OR DRIVER: Marketing or sales professional
p-value: 0.2016635549121238
This difference is not statistically significant with 95.0 %
The table beside depicts outcome of the hypothesis test as indicated above. On the left hand side of the graph, we have factors for which we reject the null hypothesis, meaning percentage differences are significant. In the second column, we have factors for which the null hypothesis was not rejected meaning, potentially no significant percentage differences between the variables between both countries.
So we can conclude that potenitally there are more QA or test Developers, Designers and Back-end Developers in UK than in Germany. On the other hand Germany has more Desktop or enterprise applications Developers, Mobile Developers, DevOps specialist, System administrators, embedded applications or devices Developers, Academic researchers, Data scientist or machine learning specialists etc. than UK.
Most likely, there are equal number of Full-stack, Front-end, Database administrators, Game or Graphics Developers, Engineering managers, site reliability Engineers, Senior executive/VP Marketing or sales professionals in both countries
2. How is the main branch for Developers in both countries distributed?
From the graph below we see that there are more students in UK are learning to code as as compared with couterparts in Germany. On the hand, Germany has more respondents who are just hobby coders and a slight more developers who are no longer coding.
Now let us look at the significance of the percentage differences of these factors for developers in both countries.
Job Tpye- difference between Germany and UK:
FACTOR OR DRIVER: I am a developer by profession
p-value: 0.00011963932578322307
This difference is statistically significant with 95.0 %
FACTOR OR DRIVER: I am a student who is learning to code
p-value: 8.924047974018007e-07
This difference is statistically significant with 95.0 %
FACTOR OR DRIVER: I am not primarily a developer, but I write code sometimes as part of my work
p-value: 0.3453948032481061
This difference is not statistically significant with 95.0 %
FACTOR OR DRIVER: I code primarily as a hobby
p-value: 0.001518250847129946
This difference is statistically significant with 95.0 %
FACTOR OR DRIVER: I used to be a developer by profession, but no longer am
p-value: 0.09869566331007057
This difference is not statistically significant with 95.0 %
As we can see, there are potentially more students learning to code in UK as in Germany and a slightly higher professional developers in UK as in Germany. More developers in Germany code mainly as a hobby. Equally, the difference in the vaiariable for developers that have retired is insignificant. Meaning there are no percentage difference between these factors.
3. How are Developers in these countries distributed with regards to the company size?
The graph above depicts the percentage differences between developers using the organisational structure.
Organizational Size Variables- difference between Germany and UK:
FACTOR OR DRIVER: 20 to 99 employees
p-value: 0.010536113601592198
This difference is statistically significant with 95.0 %
FACTOR OR DRIVER: 100 to 499 employees
p-value: 0.01297667225610532
This difference is statistically significant with 95.0 %
FACTOR OR DRIVER: 10,000 or more employees
p-value: 0.0692190161278138
This difference is not statistically significant with 95.0 %
FACTOR OR DRIVER: 1,000 to 4,999 employees
p-value: 0.29693247528560596
This difference is not statistically significant with 95.0 %
FACTOR OR DRIVER: 10 to 19 employees
p-value: 0.006857664159626145
This difference is statistically significant with 95.0 %
FACTOR OR DRIVER: 2 to 9 employees
p-value: 0.3091563328051793
This difference is not statistically significant with 95.0 %
FACTOR OR DRIVER: 500 to 999 employees
p-value: 0.02102589557691381
This difference is statistically significant with 95.0 %
FACTOR OR DRIVER: Just me - I am a freelancer, sole proprietor, etc.
p-value: 0.008208581397273537
This difference is statistically significant with 95.0 %
FACTOR OR DRIVER: 5,000 to 9,999 employees
p-value: 0.0004833406226361056
This difference is statistically significant with 95.0 %
Apart from organsations having 2 to 9 employees, 1,000 to 4,999 employees” and 10,000 or more employees, the rest of the factors are significant, so we reject our null hypothesis. Using the significance of the test we would conclude that more developers in Germany, work in companies having employee size between 20 to 500. On the other hand, there seems to be more self-employee developers in Uk than Germany. This is also the case for companies having employee structure between 500 to 1,000 and 5,000 to 9,999. From the above finding, we will not be reluctant to conclude that potentially more developers work in small and mid-size enterprises in Germany since the percentage difference is significant and the other hand, likely more developers work in large enterprises in UK than in Germany.
4.What are the main factors when considering two jobs offers with same the same compensation, benefits and locations?
Let now consider the result of test.
Job Factors Variables- difference between Germany and UK:
FACTOR OR DRIVER: Languages, frameworks, and other technologies I’d be working with
p-value: 0.3993465943462401
This difference is not statistically significant with 95.0 %
FACTOR OR DRIVER: Flex time or a flexible schedule
p-value: 1.341625495202321e-13
This difference is statistically significant with 95.0 %
FACTOR OR DRIVER: Office environment or company culture
p-value: 0.005465181193663592
This difference is statistically significant with 95.0 %
FACTOR OR DRIVER: Opportunities for professional development
p-value: 0.0002198542519667164
This difference is statistically significant with 95.0 %
FACTOR OR DRIVER: Remote work options
p-value: 2.916126835315586e-07
This difference is statistically significant with 95.0 %
FACTOR OR DRIVER: How widely used or impactful my work output would be
p-value: 0.008098534029196155
This difference is statistically significant with 95.0 %
FACTOR OR DRIVER: Family friendliness
p-value: 8.201784239433278e-13
This difference is statistically significant with 95.0 %
FACTOR OR DRIVER: Industry that I’d be working in
p-value: 0.1056158445482292
This difference is not statistically significant with 95.0 %
FACTOR OR DRIVER: Specific department or team I’d be working on
p-value: 5.440903988214778e-05
This difference is statistically significant with 95.0 %
FACTOR OR DRIVER: Financial performance or funding status of the company or organization
p-value: 0.3665727165646386
This difference is not statistically significant with 95.0 %
FACTOR OR DRIVER: Diversity of the company or organization
p-value: 0.012026085615110853
This difference is statistically significant with 95.0 %
The result show that, more developers in Germany consider Family friendliness, Diversity of the company or organization and Office environment or company culture to be more important. In UK though Specific department or team, Industry they work in as well as how widely their impact are”, play the dominant role. The percentage differences for the rest of the other variables are insignificant.
5. How satisfied are Developers in Germany and UK?
Job Satisfaction- difference between Germany and UK:
FACTOR OR DRIVER: Very satisfied
p-value: 0.0050713925132066726
This difference is statistically significant with 95.0 %
FACTOR OR DRIVER: Slightly satisfied
p-value: 0.39442624629021916
This difference is not statistically significant with 95.0 %
FACTOR OR DRIVER: Slightly dissatisfied
p-value: 0.04790011091006872
This difference is statistically significant with 95.0 %
FACTOR OR DRIVER: Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied
p-value: 0.00949958572607462
This difference is statistically significant with 95.0 %
FACTOR OR DRIVER: Very dissatisfied
p-value: 0.45563077561382714
This difference is not statistically significant with 95.0 %
The null hypothesis is not rejected for factors such Slightly satisfied, Slightly dissatisfied and very dissatisfied. These means these percentage differences in these variables between both countries are not statistically significant. However, more developers in UK seem to be neither satisfied nur dissatisfied with their jobs. In Germany, slightly more developers are more satisfied with their jobs than their counterparts in UK.
6. Where are more Developers seek new Job opportunities?
Finally we consider the measure in the job search for both countries.
Job Search Variables- difference between Germany and UK:
FACTOR OR DRIVER: I’m not actively looking, but I am open to new opportunities
p-value: 0.012220201432946689
This difference is statistically significant with 95.0 %
FACTOR OR DRIVER: I am not interested in new job opportunities
p-value: 0.3009498403104873
This difference is not statistically significant with 95.0 %
FACTOR OR DRIVER: I am actively looking for a job
p-value: 0.0030727645202832652
This difference is statistically significant with 95.0 %
There are more developers in UK looking for jobs than their counterparts in Germany, whilst more developers in Germany, although they are not actively looking for jobs, however seem to be open to new opportunities.
- Potenitally there are more QA or test Developers, Designers and Back-end Developers in UK than in Germany. Whilst Germany has vastly Desktop or enterprise applications Developers, Mobile Developers, DevOps specialist, System administrators, Embedded applications or devices Developers, Academic researchers, Data scientist or machine learning specialists etc. than UK.
- Most likely, there are equal number of Full-stack, Front-end, Database administrators, Game or Graphics Developers, Engineering managers, Site reliability Engineers, Senior executive/VP Marketing or sales professionals in both countries.
- There is potentially more students learning to code in UK than in Germany and a slightly higher professional developers in UK as in Germany.
- Undoubtedly many developers in Germany, work in companies having employee size between 20 to 500. Whilst more developers in UK work in companies with 500 to 1.000 and 5,000 9,999 employees. Furthermore, most likely there are more more self-employed Developers in UK than in Germany
- More developers in Germany consider family friendliness, Diversity of the company or organization and office environment or company culture to be more important. In UK though Specific department or team, Industry they work in as well as how widely their work make an impact seem to play the dominant role.
- Seemingly, developers in UK seem to be neither satisfied nur dissatisfied with their jobs over Germany. In Germany, slightly more developers are more satisfied than their counterparts in UK.
- Potentially, more developers in UK are looking for jobs new job opportunities, whilst more developers in Germany, although they are not actively looking for jobs, however seems to be opened to new opportunities
Many thanks for reading.