Industry Trends & Research
09.04.2018
Why the War for Tech Talent is so Competitive — and 3 Ways to Win

The Karat Team

A 2017 PwC study showed that 77% of HR directors felt that failure to hire tech talent would be a threat to their business. Any recruiter or hiring manager will tell you: software engineering roles are painfully difficult to fill. The demand for this skillset shows no signs of slowing and the supply shows no signs of increasing. This is driven and further exacerbated by:
- Sheer lack of software engineers.By 2020, there will be 1 million more IT jobs to fill than computer science students in the United States who can fill them.
- The drive to invest in products and proprietary technology.Firms spent $250 billion on these investments in 2016.
- Non-tech firms are aggressively hiring tech talent, too.JP Morgan expects to spend $10.8 billion on technology and its development just this year.
- Technical interviewing is incredibly time consuming.Many companies spend more than 100 hours on interviewing in order to hire a single software engineer, yet most miss their hiring goal by 40%.
What can companies do to hire the tech talent they need in this hyper-competitive market?
In our experience conducting first-round technical interviews on behalf of companies like Intuit and Indeed, we’ve identified three effective approaches that will keep you ahead of the competition.
- Optimize your current software engineering team’s time
- Interview and assess more candidates
- Create a flexible and responsive candidate experience
To learn more about the challenges facing companies hiring tech talent, and the three approaches to staying ahead of the competition, download our infographic here.
Interested in talking to our experts about how to gain your competitive advantage in the war for tech talent? Drop us a line at Karat.com.
Related Content

Global Hiring
03.12.2025
Top Nearshore Software Hubs in Europe and Americas 1. Belgrade, Serbia - ranked #2 in Europe, #9 globally 2. Gdansk, Poland - #3 in Europe, #12 globally 3. Sofia, Bulgaria - #4 in Europe, #18 globally 4. Warsaw, Poland - #5 in Europe, #20 globally 5. Sao Paulo, Brazil - #1 in LATAM, #38 globally

Industry Trends & Research
03.05.2025
GCCs are flocking to Bangalore and attracting more of India's elite software engineers. Learn more about what is drawing top employers and engineers to the city.

Industry Trends & Research
02.26.2025
The latest tech hiring trends are showing a significant tech talent migration. Historically, elite software engineers have been concentrated in three U.S. tech hubs; San Francisco, Seattle, and New York. According to Karat’s 2025 Top Cities to Hire Software Engineers report, which is based on data from over 500,000 technical interviews, those traditional strongholds of […]