Unless you've been living under a rock, you're familiar with what's been coined the Great Resignation: the pandemic-inspired trend of employees across all industries quitting their jobs in droves. Some analysts say this phenomenon hasn't trickled down to the software developer community just yet, but it likely will in the future. Instead, the skilled developer shortage poses a bigger threat that could be compounded by a belated arrival of the Great Resignation.

Tech ethicist and industry veteran Anne Currie hasn't seen the infamous Great Resignation have much of an effect on developers. "I'm quite surprised, but I think it might just not have hit yet. I think that more disruption will be coming," Currie told SDxCentral.

Gartner analyst Ed Anderson echoed Currie's observation. "I'm not sure that I would refer to it as the Great Resignation," he said. "There certainly has been a lot of shuffling as people have sought out other opportunities."

An MIT study identified a 13% average attrition rate for the enterprise software industry between April and September 2021, but Anderson credits that trend to the lack of available talent to satisfy the needs of the growing industry.

As software eats the world, the demand for developers goes up. When there aren't enough qualified developers to go around, competitive wages become the swords with which companies fight for talent. This gives skilled developers plenty of attractive options, leading to the job shuffling Anderson pointed out.

Fortunately, the skills gap is a well-recognized issue. Here are a few ways the industry is combating the talent shortage.

According to OutSystems CTO Patrick Jean, the Great Resignation is putting extra pressure on the labor market and rendering it "seemingly impossible" to find and retain development teams.

Low-code/no-code (LCNC) technology like OutSystems' promises to alleviate the skills shortage by creating "an experience that attracts and retains talent by freeing developers up to focus on creativity and innovation, instead of the more mundane aspects of software development," Jean wrote in an email to SDxCentral. "It also opens the door for more companies to hire developers with non-traditional paths to the field, rather than just the computer science majors from top universities."

To survive in a competitive atmosphere, businesses need to deliver more software and differentiated technology. Low-code platforms like OutSystems provide a quicker way to build enterprise-grade applications without requiring massive development teams or long-term maintenance, Jean explained. "Using the same SaaS that competitors use is just keeping up, it’s not innovation," he added.

LCNC has gained more traction in recent years with GlobalData identifying a fivefold increase in LCNC venture capital funding from 2020 to 2021. GlobalData also recorded a 19.6% growth in LCNC patents between 2015 and 2021, and Gartner expects 70% of new enterprise applications will be built using low-code technology by 2025.

This past and expected growth means that "the way we build software must change," Jean said. "I’m excited to see this growth unfold and more businesses embrace low-code to build software that makes a difference, opening up the development process to anyone who wants to participate."

Cisco's Networking Academy directly addresses the skills shortage by providing a skills-to-jobs program focused on areas like cybersecurity, networking, and network automation, Laura Quintana, VP and GM of Cisco Networking Academy told SDxCentral in an earlier interview.

Networking Academy courses are offered at 40% of community colleges in the U.S., which enables the program to reach a diverse student population in terms of cultural and racial identity and age. Cisco reported 29% of program participants in the U.S. are underrepresented minorities.

The program allows students to orient themselves in the tech world through exploratory courses in areas like networking, cybersecurity, and programming skills. They can continue up the ladder of expertise and acquire the competencies associated with a specific tech job, and certain learning pathways give students the option to sit for a certification exam. In pathways without a certification option, the program offers digital badges for students to showcase their education to future employers.

And it seems to work. Since Cisco began measuring and reporting on the Networking Academy in 2005, the vendor claims 2.9 million students who participated in a certification-based course have attributed their experiences in the academy to successfully finding a new job. Of students completing certification-ready courses, 51% attribute their participation to landing a new job, and 71% credit their participation with providing a new job opportunity like a promotion.

Even if the Great Resignation hasn't yet reached its full impact on the developer community, it may be lurking around the corner.

Five main factors are pushing employees out the door, according to an MIT study that analyzed 34 million online employee profiles to identify U.S. employees who quit, retired, or were laid off in 2021.

The study found toxic workplace culture is the most important factor driving employees to quit their jobs, and it's 10 times more important in predicting turnover than compensation. Employees identified a lack of focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion, as well as unethical behavior and feeling disrespected as elements of a toxic culture.

Another top contributing factor in the Great Resignation is working at highly innovative companies. When employees talked online more positively about innovation at their company, they were also more likely to talk negatively about a manageable work-life balance and were more likely to quit their jobs.

"Staying at the bleeding edge of innovation typically requires employees to put in longer hours, work at a faster pace, and endure more stress than they would in a slower-moving company," the study's authors wrote. "The work may be exciting and satisfying but also difficult to sustain in the long term."

The other factors the study identified are job insecurity and reorganization, failure to recognize employee performance, and poor managerial responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.