{"id":1213,"date":"2019-02-25T14:20:00","date_gmt":"2019-02-25T12:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arc.dev\/employer-blog\/?p=1213"},"modified":"2025-06-11T12:17:07","modified_gmt":"2025-06-11T04:17:07","slug":"analysis-of-job-descriptions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arc.dev\/employer-blog\/analysis-of-job-descriptions\/","title":{"rendered":"We Analyzed 7832 Words from Software Engineer Job Descriptions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

You need to hire a software engineer and have\u00a049 seconds to make a killer impression<\/a>\u00a0with your job description \u2014\u00a0and<\/em>\u00a0you\u2019re competing with Google, Facebook, and the like in order to get the best possible candidate for your company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To help you write the job description that attracts the right candidates, we did an in-depth analysis of developer job descriptions \u2014 from companies ranging from 1-10,000+ employees \u2014 on Stack Overflow\u2019s job pages to see what words are the most common. By looking at these words, we can see what qualities and skills are most in demand and what the market looks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We looked at\u00a0Back-End Developer,\u00a0Front-End Developer,\u00a0Full-Stack Developer,\u00a0Senior Developer, and\u00a0Engineering Manager\u00a0job descriptions and included tips for improving your own description for each of those job positions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By knowing what you\u2019re up against, you can write a better job description to attract software engineer you\u2019re looking for. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Methodology<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The methodology of this post was relatively simple. We looked at the job descriptions posted on Stack Overflow Jobs, using the categories back-end, front-end, full-stack, senior developer, and engineering manager to find job descriptions to examine in greater detail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although we looked at job descriptions from a variety of company sizes, from a lone wolf employee to a 10,000+ strong company, we showed a preference for companies sized 51-200 as a happy medium for company size. We also gravitated towards companies with more detailed job descriptions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To make the lists, we copied the text of the job descriptions from Stack Overflow and extracted only the words relevant to job responsibilities and requisites, and ended up analyzing over 7,800 words from 40+ job descriptions. When ranking the words to populate our lists for each category, we only used words that appeared more than once.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read More<\/strong>: How to Hire Software Developers: 18+ Expert Tips & Essential Strategies<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overall Software Engineer Job Description Trends<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"most<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Experience is Important<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s no escaping it. By and large, experience was the word that appeared most frequently in (almost) every category. While it\u2019s fair for the word \u201cexperience\u201d to appear in job descriptions \u2014 in fact, it would be downright strange if it didn\u2019t \u2014 the frequency at which it appeared across the board may be surprising.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Job descriptions requesting \u201c3+ years of experience\u201d or \u201cexperience in working with teams,\u201d along with a list of technologies isn\u2019t out of the norm, but, contrary to expectations where the word only appear once or twice, the word \u201cexperience\u201d shows up much more often than that. Other examples include \u201cwork experience\u201d and \u201cexperience working with X\u201d followed by individual points of emphasis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More so than team, work, or specific technologies, companies looking for software engineers repeatedly wanted experience, be it for front-end, back-end, full-stack, or senior developers. If we were to remove experience from the list, other words that crop up often across the board are \u201cteam\u201d and \u201cwork.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read More<\/strong>: How to Implement a Welcoming Software Developer Onboarding Process<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s no “I” in Team<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Team is the next word that appears frequently across software engineer job categories. It appears in the top five of every job category except for back-end developers, in which it ranks sixth in terms of frequency. It appears fourth for front-end developers, fifth for full-stack developers, and third for engineering managers and senior developers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This means that there is considerable\u00a0emphasis on teamwork in today\u2019s job market. This is especially true for engineering managers, where \u201cteam\u201d shows up as much as three times as often as it does for back-end developers, where it appears the least often. Candidates are expected to \u201ctalk to your team,\u201d be a \u201cmotivated team member,\u201d work \u201ctogether with your team\u201d to write code, and invited to join an \u201cestablished, high performance team.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whether it\u2019s because companies want to seem approachable and inclusive, or because the nature of software engineering requires extensive teamwork, contrary to stereotypes of the lone wolf developer, the ability to work and jive well with a team is an important quality prospective candidates (and hiring personnel) should keep in mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Work It<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Finally, the last word that appears across the board is \u201cwork.\u201d \u201cWork\u201d appears in three out of five job categories \u2014 the exceptions are front-end developers and engineering managers. It ranks fifth for back-end developers and second for full-stack and senior developers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re wondering about the context in which \u201cwork\u201d appears, it\u2019s not always linked with the word experience. While companies do talk about \u201cwork experience,\u201d they also emphasize what the candidate will \u201cwork on,\u201d the team that they will \u201cwork with,\u201d as well as the \u201cwork at scale\u201d that they will be potentially doing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, companies mention that they want candidates who \u201clove their work.\u201d In placing value on the meaningful work the candidate will do, as well as the environment they can provide for developers to \u201clove their work,\u201d companies are hoping to attract the best talent in today\u2019s competitive hiring landscape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read More<\/strong>: Andela vs Toptal vs Turing vs Arc: Which is the Best Andela Alternative?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ready to write your own tech job descriptions?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Check out our entire set of tech job descriptions and choose the one which fits your hiring needs best:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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