Feed the curiosity of your developers before it's too late

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Developers are the most curious employees. It's ingrained in the very nature of a role working in a dynamic landscape of languages, tools, security threats, and technologies. Unfortunately, companies drop the ball to reinforce developers' desire to learn, grow, and experiment. This failure leads them to use their limited free time to learn or even seek other job opportunities. In fact, 58% of security and development professionals say they currently suffer from burnout. Additionally, 42% of those who have not quit their job plan or might plan to leave their current job this year.

Although many of these perpetual problem solvers spend time developing their skills, they may feel overwhelmed by all the seemingly priority or interesting learning opportunities. So how do we really cater to developer curiosity and desire for growth?

This is a question I often face in my role. It became clear to me that the answer comes down to helping developers use their learning time effectively by intentionally providing space for them to explore their interests, connecting multiple modes of learning, and encouraging all different career paths. available.

Today's tech career path is a lattice, not a line

While career growth was once thought of as a simple trajectory, today's developer path is more like a lattice, branching off in a variety of directions to suit one's particular interests and talents. As technology and tools continue to rapidly evolve, new skill sets emerge every day, paving the way for new roles like privacy engineer, cloud architect, and vice president of DevOps. It is important to recognize that not all developers will even choose to stay in traditionally technical roles; product management and pre-sales also offer creative problem-solving challenges.

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With ever-changing career options, organizations and managers have a responsibility to show their tech talents the diversity of paths to follow. They should help developers focus on what they love doing the most, and ultimately guide them to the relevant skills and learning offerings to chart a path that matches their needs and interests.

Don't underestimate collaborative learning

A crucial part of creating a space for professional learning is providing opportunities for active peer-to-peer learning. From fostering stronger employee relationships to increasing engagement, collaborative learning is essential.

Furthermore, according to Dr. Saul McLeod of the University of Manchester, there is a significant gap, called the "zone of proximal development", between what one can learn on one's own and what the one can learn with the encouragement and encouragement of others. Support. Collaborative learning can help people bridge this gap, greatly expanding their knowledge of a given topic.

One way for companies to increase collaborative learning is to run programs that inspire people to be creative and innovative as a team. At SAP, we run the Innovator Challenge, a global program where participants have approximately six months to create something...