Study: More Than Half of Developers Say the Ability to Work Remotely is a Top Priority

If you’re a developer, chances are you’re enticed by the ability to work somewhere that’s, well, not your employer’s office.

Stack Overflow’s recent survey of more than 60,000 developers found that this population of the workforce prioritizes the ability to work remotely as the foremost factor when it comes to taking a job. In the study, 53 percent of devs cited it as a top priority.

In fact, many devs are already working remotely on a regular basis. Stack Overflow found that 64 percent of devs surveyed report working from home (or a location that wasn’t the office) at least one day a month, with 11 percent saying they work remotely in a full-time capacity.

These findings are released as remote work becomes increasingly popular and the “digital nomad” movement continues to heat up. A shift toward service-oriented jobs (see chart below) and millennial values that favor quality of life over purely financial perks are two underlying factors. Millennials are also more than 23 percent more likely to travel abroad than previous generations.

The remote work trend has given rise to a flurry of platforms and services designed to cater to this audience: Workfrom provides tips on the best locations for working remotely; NomadHouse offers curated “work” retreats abroad; Outsite offers co-living options in beautiful places; and AND CO offers a suite for managing all of the back office operations of a business on-the-go.

Many prominent corporations also tout a 100 percent remote workforce, including Buffer, Zapier, Causecast, Invision and Github.

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