Are you looking for the answers on recruiting the best Software developers in 2023? Good, you have got yourself in the right place!
The recruitment field is one of many that experience profound changes across the board. The trends, tips, practices, and many other factors which fall into the basket, may seem to be a lot to take into account.
That’s why we put together this guide with all you need to know as you kickstart recruiting the most suitable software developer for your team. Here we will explore how to find, interview, and assess candidates.
Build Your Employer Brand
Let’s begin from the start:
How do you even attract software developers?
The competition for top talent search is intense in today’s job market. That’s particularly true when it comes to seeking software developers, especially if you want to recruit a highly specialized developer.
According to Stripe, entry to software developers is a more significant peril than admission to capital. Surveys like the ones made by Reveal indicate that looking for the most talented developers is to become harder and more competitive than ever before.
So, how to attract the best developer?
First, you must create and sustain an employer brand that echoes prospective candidates’ needs and can create an idea that your team is a suitable place where they can get access to means for professional growth and personal stability.
You can do so by showcasing your company’s unique culture and character in a way that makes it easy for the candidates to see themselves as part of your team.
But it includes even more than that.
A great brand is built on the details. Every single word of your job posts can tell a lot about yourself and the company culture. That’s why you need to try speaking in the prospective candidate’s language.
That’s why, the first step you need to do is to think in terms of
How do you want to set your brand?
What feeling do you want to channel? What impression do you want to make?
Get Clear on Your Needs
Let’s say you need to recruit software developers. But let us ask you – why? What are your needs and expectations?
Before you start running the marathon of interviews and testing the applicants’ skills, determine what kind of role is most suited for the project at hand. Do you really need to get a specialist who can join the team full-time or part-time, or maybe the project only needs some brief support (freelance basis)?
On top of that, there are other considerations you must take into account, but not limited to:
What is the commitment expected of the dev role?
- Are they needed to work in-house or remotely?
- What kind of involvement will the developer have?
- Do you want a developer to take the lead in making decisions or carry out what you tell one to do?
- What experience is needed? Does he/she need to have expertise in a similar environment?
- What is the compensation rate?
- How important is the project to your team? (If the project isn’t that important and you need someone for some time, consider freelancers or outsourcing. There are some great companies like TechBiz Global that specialize in providing high-quality experts for short-term projects).
At the end of the day, one takeaway you should take is that you should employ questions to narrow down the portfolio of a person you’re looking for. It’s essential to be transparent about what you want from the person and project before going any further.
What to Look For When Hiring Software Developers
When hiring a software developer, you need to decide if one’s knacks align with expectations.
It would be best if you don’t hesitate to look at their projects and contribution to their previous teams, companies, and products. In other words, you should focus on their experience.
Of course, if you possess the capacity and means to train someone, you can go for a more junior developer. If not, then focusing on finding a senior developer would be your priority as they can work autonomously and proactively.
If you want to be sure that your next developer can support your business goals, look for developers that write maintainable code. Thus, it may turn out a better way to save your company’s money, resources, and the precious time of your team.
It’s also important to know if your next developer can work proactively with the team just as on their own. Thus, be sure that the prospective team member will possess an adequate amount of soft skills.
Meaning that apart from knowing how to write code, they also must possess skills in communicating complex ideas. Let’s be honest; not all your teammates will possess technical knowledge. That said, having people from tech units, who are smooth in communication will be a valuable asset in making sense of difficult terms for the rest of the team.
Set The Salary
Ultimately, determine the salary you can offer to your developers. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the medium annual wage for software developers was $110,140 in 2020. And as talent search becomes competitive, you need to be sure that you will be able to provide competitive wages in order to ensure a high retention rate within your engineering team.
So, now as we made some basics clear. Let’s take a look at how to source your applicants.
Finding Your Software Developers
There are many ways to source software engineers. If you will apply a pinch of creativity and willingness to succeed, you can quickly fill your pipelines and end up with enough applicants to choose from.
Let’s take a look at some ways you can attract more prospective candidates:
Personal Networks
A personal network is one of the top go-to ways to source candidates. Never ditch asking people from your close circle or colleagues if they know anyone who would be a good fit for the team. Trust us; you may be amazed at how many know someone who might be a good fit for a vacant position.
Job Boards
Job boards are a popular way to seek software developers. Boards like Indeed and Glassdoor contain databases of millions of resumes. A good thing about them is that they allow recruiters to filter by location, skills, and experience level; thus, enabling them to find the perfect fit for their teams.
Social Media
Social media platforms are another useful tools for finding developers. For instance, LinkedIn and Twitter are filled with software developers seeking next career opportunities. Yet, in order to be successful with social media as a funnel to source potential candidates, you need to be proactive there and promote your company regularly.
Recruitment Companies
If your team doesn’t have resources or skills in sourcing high-quality specialists, you should consider asking for help from recruitment companies. Like TechBiz Global, recruitment companies have vast databases of qualified candidates and can assist you in finding the ideal developer for your company.
Professional Societies
Additionally, you can try societies like The Association of Software Professionals, etc. Although the most practical place to source candidates is online, you may overlook some potential ones nonetheless. Thus, looking through what professional societies can offer you – can be handy in ensuring that you have got to the limit of your reach unto the database.
Conferences
Be sure to participate in conferences because they can help you meet software developers. On top of that, they are suitable for building your network of people, which later will play out to your advantage in sourcing candidates (recalling the first point we discussed on networking!).
Hiring Events
Hiring events are another option. Such events are less personal, but these can offer you a chance to present your company, especially to freshman software developers.
Campus Recruiting
Campus recruiting is another alternative. Colleges are always filled with talented developers. By visiting campuses, you can grow your network and build connections with people who may be helpful to your team in the near future. It also lets you make your company known among the young specialists who might later try to join your team.
Blogs and Open-Source Projects
Ultimately, peek at blogs and open-source projects, which you can discover on GitHub. These will enable you to find candidates with the skills your team needs. Then, you can reach out and invite them to an interview.
How do you interview software developers?
Once you have a pipeline of candidates, it’s time to determine the candidates who will be allowed to go to the next round.
The first step is to invite them to an interview.
Here are some tips and tricks you should take into account before the talks:
Determine Your Hiring Criteria
The interview is one of the most crucial parts of hiring a new candidate. You should know what you want from your candidates: their experience, their skills (both professional and interpersonal), achievements, etc.
On top of that, you must have hiring criteria to ensure there is an objective assessment preventing biases that may affect your decision-making. Only with a pre-decided list of prerequisites, you can start assessing all candidates.
Keep It Conversational
Aim for a friendly conversation. An interrogation-style interview won’t help you much. It will only stress out both parties involved. This will make the whole experience less pleasant experience for candidates. And to some degree, it may affect your employer brand; thus, always aim at picturing yourself and the company as a nice place, conversational, and chill.
Ask Open-Ended Questions
This approach will grant you a better understanding of the candidate’s capabilities and character. Ask interviewees open-ended questions, such as how they would address a particular situation and least favorite parts of the job. This approach will get you to know them better and learn enough about why they’re suitable for the job.
Get an Understanding of Your Candidates’ Technical Skills
Of course, you will be able to assess your candidates’ technical skills via a designated test. Yet, remember that interviews are an excellent place as well to start assembling a view of their hard skills.
Focus Equally on Soft and Hard Skills
Indeed, you will be hiring a software developer to work on technical tasks. And for that reason, the candidate will need a bunch of hard skills.
But unlike many, don’t overlook soft skills. For instance, communication skills or how the candidate understands your business. These skills may also play a vital role in the long run, because apart from knowing how to code, the person will be a part of a team of people and will play one’s part in making your business grow.
How Do You Assess Software Developers?
Technical assessments are a key part of your hiring process. At this point, you want to be sure that your candidate can construct a quality code.
There are many ways of assessing people, but one specific type of take-home seems to be a top-notch pick among many.
Take-home coding assessments evaluate how well the candidate can program and solve problems. They are generally based on tasks developers would perform as part of their job.
There are a few things to keep in mind as you construct a coding assessment:
- Make sure the assessment isn’t time-consuming. It’s essential to ensure candidates can do the task within reasonable time constraints; otherwise, a longer one can create a bad candidate experience. Plus, evade delivering a complex one. Why so? Let’s say, if you get a complicated assessment test, it will take too much of your team’s time to evaluate it later.
- Keep things simple – a difficult coding assessment will be challenging to complete (and let’s not even start when it comes to assessing it!). Try to use moderately simple tasks (but tricky enough so that you genuinely assess the candidate’s skills). For instance, ask the developer to build a signup form instead of creating the entire app.
- Provide feedback – always! This is crucial for the right candidate experience. If the candidates have invested their time in your vacancy, talks, and anything else that evolves it – providing feedback is a proper way of expressing gratitude. Otherwise, you will appear rude, which may play against your employer’s brand in the long run.
Of course, there are other alternatives for assessing a candidate’s abilities:
One of them is pair programming and screening questions. This type of assessment includes a member of your team sitting down with the candidate, and together, they solve a problem.
A good thing about it is that you can not only assess a candidate’s ability to code but and work ethic.
The Takeaway
There you have it! Now you know a little more about the tips and tricks of hiring a software developer for 2023. We have tackled the foundations and what needs to be taken into account in the long run.
Of course, recruiting a software developer is hard work as it includes a lot of hard skills assessment efforts, and it needs people who can actually speak the tech language. If you or your team seem to struggle, feel free to approach our team anytime. Team TechBiz Global consists of the brightest talents and specialists in their field, and we are always ready to assist others in IT recruitment or consulting-related matters anytime.