Who doesn’t need software engineers these days? Startups are hunting for fresh talent to get their ideas off the ground, while larger companies are always hungry for more programmers to outrun the competition in the tech race. There just seems to be one problem: hiring skilled developers who can bring real value to your team is an infamously difficult task.
After all, there’s just so much to consider, so many causes for concern. You can’t simply jump into recruiting without proper preparation; learning why hiring developers is challenging, how to find developers, and how to get developers to find you is the key to a solid foundation for recruitment.
Then, the recruitment process itself has multiple stages, each of them distinct and complex, presenting plenty of pitfalls and potential missteps. It’s even trickier now due to the COVID-19 pandemic, you have to be ready to carry out the recruitment process remotely.
This comes with its own set of challenges, which can be new even for experienced professionals. Also, in order to even have a recruitment process in the first place, you need recruiters, and you need to make sure they’re the right people for the job.
Last but not least, there’s the issue of knowing what makes a good developer and whether a candidate is a good fit for you and your company. This is an overwhelming task; however, once you grasp the logistics, it will be a very simple process.
Table of Contents
1. Use A Headhunting Firm Or Recruit By Yourself
You can take either one of two routes when hiring a candidate. Either approach a headhunting agency, which can be costly but they would guarantee great candidates. Most headhunting agencies efficiently process each and every candidate.
These companies choose the one that is the most appropriate for your needs. So, you can hire top 1% engineers for your startups with Gaper, Toptal, and Turing.
As investing such amounts in new hires could possibly pay off in the future, the initial cost will delay the moment you start seeing a return on your investment.
The alternative to headhunters is to take the recruitment effort upon yourself. It is a significant challenge, but depending on the size of your company, this solution may prove more cost-effective.
One of the issues with “insourcing” your software engineer recruitment is that you may not have the right skillset onboard to find good hires.
Another potential obstacle could be your project managers trying to tackle the task themselves. They may know their way around software development, but are they competent enough as recruiters to get the job done?
2. What Are Developers Looking For?
Say goodbye to the good old days when employees wanted to work at a company because it had a big name, paid high salaries, and offered gym discounts or free meals. Developers, especially those with excellent skills, want much more than that.
HackerRank researched around 71,000 developers from across 100 countries. The purpose was to find the main motivations of developers when searching for a job offer. The results were surprising because neither Junior nor Senior level developers had ‘competitive compensation’ as their first option.
The research showed that engineers preferred to have professional growth and learning experience over anything. Secondly, they appreciated having a fine line between their work and social life.
In conclusion, before starting to recruit, know precisely what you are going to offer. Talented candidates care about being able to have a better work/life balance, which translates into having the opportunity to work remotely.’
3. How to Recruit Software Developers?
The first step in successful recruitment is to find out what kind of developer you are trying to find.
This means having a mind-sketch with both hard and soft skills that you find valuable. The next step consists of headhunting software engineers in the right places.
The most powerful option in modern recruitment is social media. But with tons of social media platforms, how do you know which one is the best to look for possible candidates? Let’s look at some statistics on social media recruitment:
- 87% of recruiters use Linkedin.
- 55% of recruiters use Facebook
- 47% of recruiters use Twitter
4. How to Excel At Interviews?
You are looking to hire a new software developer with a specific set of skills, but you can’t only rely on their resumes. Nor can basic questions like What is your biggest weakness?
You need to think of something smarter and more cutting edge. A way to do that is by structuring interviews into two different parts: Technical interviews and personality interviews.
Interview questions are never the same in the tech industry. It depends on what type of software engineer you want to hire and what for. If you want to hire a professional, you or the person interviewing the candidates needs to know about the subject.
You can’t ask about something you don’t know anything about. Personality interviews are equally important. Imagine hiring a candidate who has impressive hard skills but has terrible communication skills. This has serious productivity consequences that could harm your company.
Find the time to ask the right questions; doing so will give you a notion of how this person operates and if you would like to have them on the team.
