Top Software Leaders Share Their Talent and AI Strategies in Karat’s 2024 Tech Hiring Trends Report

Karat’s annual survey of software leaders signals an uptick in tech hiring and shows differentiation for companies that are accelerating interview scheduling, working with talent evaluation partners, and centralizing the hiring process

SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Karat, the world’s most trusted talent evaluation partner, released its fourth annual Tech Hiring Trends report today. The report reveals improving sentiment around technical hiring and software engineering performance as forward-looking hiring targets are up across the U.S. and India compared to last year.

Karat’s 2024 Tech Hiring Trends report is based on a survey conducted by The Harris Poll of more than 400 software leaders. The report highlights the shifting talent landscape, rising engineering quality, and talent strategies of top performing companies, featuring exclusive insights from engineering leaders at organizations including Tesla, Walmart, Deloitte, and more.

“We’re in the midst of a multi-year shift in tech talent strategies, and it’s encouraging to see hiring targets trending up as leaders look ahead to 2025,” shared Jeffrey Spector, Karat co-founder and president. “As hiring picks back up and the value of strong software engineers continues to grow, it’s going to be challenging for leaders to balance the growing volume and pace of hiring with the consistency and quality controls they sought to implement over the past two years.”

Despite persistent worries about AI eliminating the need for tech workers, this year’s report highlighted the growing value that strong software engineers produce for top employers, as well as the widening gap between high and lower performing organizations. 69% of top-performing engineering leaders said that a strong engineer was worth at least 3x their salary, up from 60% last year. At the same time, lower-performing leaders are seeing diminishing returns, with just 39% giving their developers a 3x valuation.

“The gap between the winners and losers of today’s AI-driven tech landscape is growing. One reason for this gap is that just 68% of engineering leaders are very confident that qualified candidates are receiving job offers, but that percentage increases dramatically for top-performing leaders,” added Spector. “In a world where one out of every three hires aren’t being made with confidence, it’s important to understand how competitors are using centralized hiring processes, talent evaluation partners, and speed to win the race for top talent.”

Roles relating to the development and implementation of AI systems, including AI engineers, data analysts, and full-stack developers, were among the highest priorities for engineering leaders this year. There was also a strong correlation between organizations leveraging AI tools on the job, and satisfaction with the performance of engineering teams.

Report highlights and best practices

1. The value strong engineers create is growing: Top Performing engineering leaders estimate a higher ROI from their engineering teams.
2. Global competition is heating up: Hiring targets are growing. While engineering leaders are finding it easier to identify and hire software engineers in the United States, leaders in India are finding some aspects more challenging compared to last year.
3. Top Performing companies are more likely to be leveraging AI tools on the job and believe that these tools can make their engineers and the hiring process more efficient.
4. Best practices: Moving fast, interviewing more candidates at each stage, and centralizing the hiring process are all strategies that help companies hire with confidence.

To download the full report, visit https://karat.com/resource/tech-hiring-trends/.

About Karat

Karat makes it easy to hire great engineers. From application to offer, Karat is helping the world’s largest companies improve the quality, efficiency, and equity of their technical hiring process. Through innovative assessments, live expert-led technical interviews and unmatched talent insights, Karat makes it possible to hire quickly and confidently while giving every candidate an equal opportunity to show what they can do. Learn more about why global leaders like PayPal, Atlassian, and Citi trust Karat to help them hire top talent and build exceptional engineering teams at www.karat.com.

About The Harris Poll

The Harris Poll is one of the longest running surveys in the U.S. tracking public opinion, motivations and social sentiment since 1963. It is now part of Harris Insights & Analytics, a global consulting and market research firm that strives to reveal the authentic values of modern society to inspire leaders to create a better tomorrow. We work with clients in three primary areas; building twenty-first-century corporate reputation, crafting brand strategy and performance tracking, and earning organic media through public relations research. Our mission is to provide insights and advisory to help leaders make the best decisions possible. To learn more, please visit www.theharrispoll.com.