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Seniors are harder than ever to find, with the demand for experienced tech candidates remaining strong in the current hiring market. Our data shows that they’re out there – the trick is knowing where to look and how to assess their level of seniority.
Seniors are still in high demand as companies look for experience that drives immediate impact
A common trend in the current tech hiring market is increased demand for experienced candidates, as companies look for team members who can make an immediate impact.
This trend in demand for experienced professionals is mirrored on OfferZen: the majority of open positions in 2024 require a minimum of 3 years of experience, while fewer than 10% of roles are entry-level, requiring less than two years of experience.
So, how easy is it to fill these roles in the current tech job market?
There are experienced devs to fill these roles if you know where to look
In general, more experienced candidates, like seniors and tech leads, tend to stay in their roles for longer periods than their junior and intermediate candidates. However, that’s not to say this means there aren’t any around.
Your success in finding experienced candidates depends on where you look. On OfferZen, for example, nearly half of actively job-hunting candidates have more than six years of experience.
However, it’s worth keeping in mind that more experience does not always translate to higher levels of seniority.
In these cases, a developer’s technical ability and work history is a better gauge of someone’s seniority.
For example, a developer with more than six years of experience and a history of leading a team or delivering on complex projects is more likely to be at the senior level than a more experienced developer without this background.
Get a snapshot of the experience levels of the available tech talent pool. Download our South African Tech Talent Insights Report to get exclusive access to OfferZen’s proprietary data drawing from over 60 000 tech profiles to help you:
- Explore available talent by skills and experience
- Benchmark hiring budgets
- Identify talent hotspots
Further reading:
- 2024 AI Skills and Impact Report
- State of South Africa’s Software Developer Nation
- 2024 Software Developer Salary Benchmarking Report
- Decoding the 2024 tech job market
- Report: South African Computer Science Graduates
- The data-driven approach to building diverse tech teams
- Management red flags that kill retention