Upskilling and Reskilling Your Go and Rust Developers

In an era of rapid technological change, it is becoming increasingly important for businesses to ensure that their software developer teams are able to keep up-to-date with the latest advancements. If you are an employer looking for ways to retain top tech talent in your developer squads, upskilling and reskilling them is a surefire way of incentivising them to stay. 

There are also other rewards to be reaped from upskilling and reskilling your developers, including an advantage over you competitors, better productivity, and remaining agile amid an ever-complex digital landscape. 

While popular programming languages like JavaScript, HTML, and Python have dominated the coding world for decades, new and emerging languages like Golang and Rust are fast becoming go-to options for developers. Both of these languages possess their own unique benefits; Golang is renowned for its simplicity and efficiency, while Rust has a reputation for its memory safety and concurrency. 

Whether you hire a Golang or Rust developer is ultimately dependent on your specific needs, but one thing is for sure - upskilling and reskilling them will demonstrate that you are committed to their professional development and future-proofing your business’ software capabilities. 

In this guide, we’ll explore the reasons why investing in upskilling and reskilling your Golang or Rust developer team is important, the benefits that each language can bring to your business, and ways you can successfully upskill and reskill software professionals. 

Why Investing in Software Developers is Important 

It’s no secret that there is currently somewhat of a crisis in software recruitment, and many companies are feeling the impact. With a chronic shortage of available software developer talent and intense market competition to worry about, businesses recognise the need to implement strategies designed to attract and retain developers. One such strategy is to invest in upskilling and reskilling existing software staff, so let’s explore the reasons why: 

1. Employee Retention

Demonstrating to your developers that you are invested in providing them with learning and development opportunities is a great strategy for boosting retention rates and team morale. Given the rise of AI and other innovative technologies, software developers are becoming ever-more conscious of keeping up with the pace of change. 

Research conducted by LinkedIn found that 94% of employees are more likely to stay at a company if it invested in their career, and 68% of developers prefer to upskill at work. By facilitating the professional development of your software experts, you have a greater chance of keeping them at your organisation. 

2. Competitive Advantage 

High turnover rates among developers and engineers are making the market all the more competitive for companies looking to recruit exceptional candidates. In this climate, it is vital for these organisations to discover a competitive edge that sets them apart from their rivals. Upskilling and reskilling existing staff is an effective strategy for getting ahead of the game, especially given how important continuous learning and development is for software professionals. 

A report revealed that 55% of staff feel the need to seek upskilling opportunities outside of work, and 38% of employees considered their organisation’s learning and development programme to be unsatisfactory. These statistics suggest that many companies are late to appreciate the advantages of upskilling and reskilling staff, so now is the time to seize the moment and establish a market-leading learning and development programme. 

3. Future-Proofing 

The rise of AI and machine learning technology has already revolutionised many aspects of our personal and professional lives, and staff are increasingly occupied with finding ways to rejuvenate their skillset to prepare for the AI-driven future. In fact, 59% of upskillers are focusing their efforts on gaining a greater understanding of AI principles and best practices. 

This is especially the case for software developers and engineers, given AI’s potential for automating repetitive tasks such as testing and debugging. If you are dedicated to future-proofing your company and your staff’s careers, then it is essential to make sure that your upskilling programme addresses concerns around sweeping technological change. 

4. Better Productivity and Flexibility

With the harsh realities of a competitive hiring market looming, it is understandable that companies may find it difficult to achieve their business objectives. If your top Golang or Rust developer is poached by a rival firm, then how will you meet your productivity targets? Though this is merely a hypothetical question, it highlights the inextricable link between staff retention and better productivity. 

Statistics back this up, as a recent survey found that 93% of CEOs who introduce upskilling programmes see increased output. Another factor to consider is that the average half-life of digital skills is between 2 and 5 years, so facilitating regular training opportunities can help your team to become more agile and better equipped to solve issues. 

5. Saves Money

When it comes to the battle between hiring new talent to fill a skills gap or upskilling current employees to save money, there is a clear winner, and as you might expect, it’s certainly not the former. By providing your developers with the right training programme, you could save between 70 and 92% of what it would cost to recruit a new hire. 

These impressive savings will come from not having to allocate funds for onboarding expenses, job postings, or HR personnel. The costs involved with constant recruitment could seriously eat into your profit margin, and upskilling your existing workforce is a guaranteed way to avoid unnecessary financial burden. 

Are you a company looking to hire a Rust or Golang developer? To learn more about our expertise in software recruitment and how we can support you in your candidate search, be sure to visit our Golang and Rust pages. 

What Golang and Rust Developers Can Bring to Your Team 

So far, we have explored the reasons behind why you should introduce an upskilling programme for your software developer teams. Future-proofing is a key advantage of upskilling and reskilling developers, and that same logic should also be applied to the programming languages that your business uses. Though coding mainstays like JavaScript and Python won’t be going away any time soon, upskilling your developers in Golang and Rust will prepare them for the new era of computer programming.  

Let’s explore each of these modern programming languages in a little more detail, examining their backstories, uses, and features. 

Golang 

Golang is a programming language that has gained popularity among developers since its launch in 2012. It was created by Robert Griesemer, Rob Pike, and Ken Thompson, Google engineers who were looking for an alternative to C++. Golang is known for its simplicity, security, and speed, which has made it a go-to for many programmers. It is an open-source programming language that allows developers to design scalable and secure software. Golang is often used for building large-scale distributed systems and high-performance applications. 

Golang is a statically typed, compiled language designed to be simple, efficient, and reliable. It is primarily used for building web applications, cloud services, and distributed systems. Golang has a growing and active community with a growing number of libraries and frameworks available. It also has a set of tools purpose-built for development, debugging, profiling, and deployment.

Rust 

While Rust is often compared with Golang due to its growing praise among developers, it has its own distinctive set of strengths and features. Developed in 2010 with the sponsorship of Mozilla, was created as an alternative to C++ and is known for its memory safety, concurrency, and performance features. It has gained recognition for its ownership system, which sets it apart from other languages and enhances safety.

Though Rust is considered slightly more complex than Go, this has in no way diminished its popularity. In fact, a survey conducted by Stack Overflow from 2022 revealed that Rust is the most admired language among the developer community, and that 85% of Rust-users said that they would continue to use the language in the future. Varied and reliable, Rust can be used for developing a range of application types, particularly those that require scalability, such as operating systems, gaming engines, and browsers. 

If you are interested in learning more about the importance of these programming languages and how they compare with each other, we invite you to have a read through our Comprehensive Guide to Golang vs. Rust. We hope that it helps you understand the value of training your developers in Golang and Rust. 

Ways of Upskilling and Reskilling Your Developers 

Now that you have a clearer understanding of the benefits of providing continuous learning opportunities for developers, particularly in modern programming languages like Golang and Rust, it’s time to determine your upskilling strategy. There are plenty ways you can enhance a developer’s theoretical and practical grasp of these languages, so let’s delve into 5 of the most tried-and-tested: 

1. Hackathons 

What better way to upskill a developer than by putting their computer skills to the test? Hackathons are essentially get-togethers where the participants are tasked with building a new software program, or improving an existing one. Not only do hackathons encourage collaboration and innovation, they’ll also help your developers to learn new skills and enhance the ones they already possess. You could organise your own internal hackathon, giving your developers a chance to get away from their day-to-day tasks and boost their coding and problem-solving abilities. 

2. Online Resources 

Many businesses leverage online resources to upskill and train their developers. A prime example is the market-leading CRM platform Salesforce, a cloud-based software company that encourages their developers to upskill by taking certifications via their learning portal Trailhead. 

Even if you don’t have your own training platform like Salesforce does, there is an abundance of learning tools online that you can incorporate into your developer training programme. HackerEarth is one such tool, a coding platform that hosts coding contests, data science competitions, and hackathons. 

3. Industry Events and Webinars 

Another strategy for supporting your developers practice their craft and discover new techniques is by allowing time for them to attend industry events and webinars. By taking part, they’ll have the opportunity to find out more about the latest trends and technologies, the most up-to-date best practices, and listen to a host of diverse perspectives. 

This will benefit the quality of their work, as they’ll be able to apply their newfound knowledge to their tasks and projects. If you are upskilling a Rust developer, be sure to check out the Rust Foundation’s website for information about the latest events and webinars.  

4. In-House Mentoring 

In-house mentoring should be a fundamental part of any learning and development programme, particularly when it comes to upskilling junior members of staff. When you hire promising graduate talent for a developer role, nurturing their tech skills is likely to pay dividends. 

You could pair them with a more senior member of staff who is well-versed in newer languages like Golang and Rust and can transfer their knowledge over to the junior developer. Research shows that in-house mentoring is a valuable upskilling strategy, and those who participate in mentorship programs are 22% more likely to stay at a company than their non-mentee counterparts. 

5. Code Reviews

If you have implemented an upskilling and reskilling programme for your developers, you need to ensure that it has actually achieved the desired outcomes. While your developers may attend all the industry events and mentoring sessions, this doesn’t necessarily correlate with an improved skill set. To check on their progress, it would be beneficial to organise regular coding reviews, collaborative activities designed to assess code. 

Remember to explain to your developers that you’re not trying to catch them out with these reviews, you merely want to support them in bettering the quality of their code. A survey conducted by DevSecOps found that the vast majority of developers claimed that code reviews are valuable to their professional development. 

Upskilling and reskilling software developers, especially in modern programming languages like Golang and Rust, is a crucial strategy for businesses to stay competitive in an era of rapid technological change. By investing in the continuous learning and development of their developer teams, employers can achieve multiple benefits, including higher employee retention, a competitive advantage, future-proofing their workforce, improved productivity, and cost savings.

Investing in the continuous learning and development of software developers is not just an option—it's a necessity for businesses looking to thrive in the dynamic digital landscape. Upskilling and reskilling initiatives lead to a skilled and motivated workforce, equipped to navigate through challenges and drive success.  

Inspiring Innovation Through Cutting-Edge Software Recruitment 

Whether you are a business looking for new talent, or a software professional looking for the latest Golang or Rust developer jobs, we are here to support you. We have been connecting exceptional software developers with clients throughout the UK, Europe, and the USA for many years. 

With unrivaled expertise in the software recruitment space, our consultants are passionate about helping candidates and clients to bring their recruitment goals to fruition. We encourage you to get in touch today, and one of our recruiters will speak with you about your career ambitions or talent acquisition strategy.