Wanna be a developer? Your coworkers want to learn Go and like to watch, er, Friends and Big Bang Theory

Google's Go programming language, all but disallowed by the web giant's own Fuchsia team for its excessive memory consumption, tops developers' to-do lists. That's according to a survey by tech talent platform HackerEarth.

At the end of last week, the biz released data gathered from 16,000 programmers, more than 20 per cent of them women, in 76 countries. Its survey found that 29 per cent of students and 32 per cent of working professional developers wanted to learn Go.

That appears to jibe with a recent Hired survey that found Go was the most sought after language by employers, and that only seven per cent of developers cited Go as their primary coding language. If companies are looking to hire Go developers, sooner or later, prospective employees can be expected to get the message.

The HackerEarth data also indicates that SQL is the most widely known language by professional developers (52 per cent), followed by Java (50 per cent), HTML/CSS (46 per cent), Python (40 per cent), Java 8 (39 per cent), C++ (36 per cent), JavaScript/Node.js (34 per cent), and Bash/Shell/PowerShell (19 per cent).

The languages professional developers most wanted to learn, after Go, are: Python (24 per cent), Kotlin (21 per cent), JavaScript/Node.js (20 per cent), Bash/Shell/PowerShell (18 per cent), TypeScript (18 per cent), Scala (15 per cent), and R/Rscript (14 per cent).

What students most aspire to, after Go, are: JavaScript/Node.js (29 per cent), Kotlin (28 per cent), C# (26 per cent), Bash/Shell/PowerShell (24 per cent), Python (22 per cent), Swift (21 per cent), and Dart (20 per cent).

In terms of operating systems, students prefer Windows (73 per cent) and also use Ubuntu Linux (69 per cent), macOS (36 per cent), and Arch Linux (13 per cent). Professionals, meanwhile, skew toward Ubuntu Linux (66 per cent), Windows (61 per cent), macOS (57 per cent), and CentOS (11 per cent).

Asked about what annoyed them about the interviewing process, working professional developers overwhelmingly (45 per cent) complained about the lack of feedback after an interview. They also grumbled about excessive interview rounds (14 per cent), misleading job descriptions (14 per cent), long waits between interview rounds (12 per cent), lack of relevant technical questions (10 per cent), and non-negotiable payment packages (5 per cent).

Asked what would make them more productive, respondents said: less meetings (70 per cent), multiple monitors (61 per cent), a policy to limit interruptions when wearing headphones (59 per cent), clutter-free workspace (59 per cent) unlimited coffee/food all day (53 per cent), and a work environment that's not so bright it interferes with screen viewing (38 per cent). None, it appears, asked for a pony.

The happiest developers turned out to be those working the longest hours. Some 70 per cent of those working less than 40 hours per week were unhappy and unhappiness declined with more demanding jobs. Fourteen per cent of workers putting in 40-50 hours reported unhappiness; thirteen percent of those working 50-60 hours were unhappy. And only three per cent of those working more than 60 hours a week were unhappy.

The survey doesn't indicate whether any of these individuals have families or were confused by non-stop work.

Asked about their happiness – which must have been a shock – those working at large enterprises reported being the most unhappy (69 per cent), compared to just 14 per cent for a growth stage startup (11-200 employees), 7 per cent for an SMB (201-500 employees), 5 per cent for a small/medium enterprise (501-1000 employees), and 5 per cent for an early stage startup (1-10 employees).

Finally, students and experienced developers were asked their favorite TV show. It is '90s sitcom Friends (42 per cent and 43 per cent respectively), followed closely by Big Bang Theory (41/39), and Game of Thrones (38/41). ®