It is hard indeed to find the first job for a beginner developer.
But the moment they move up the ladder to a Middle, the game switches to the other side. Now it’s a company’s headache (and budgets) to cover the job opening. Most of the time, hiring a software developer turns into a race.
The cost to hire a software developer increases drastically. One day, you can see numbers like “$250 for the referral” on some recruitment websites. The other day, your friend on Facebook offers a thousand US dollars to anyone who brings in a successful candidate.
Plus, the money they lose every day without the needed professional in the software development team – moved deadlines, upset clients, delayed releases, unfixed bugs.
So when you come to the question “how and where can I hire a software developer”, look at the best practices used by tech giants like Google, IBM, Microsoft, GitHub, Twitter, or Facebook.
Best place to hire software developers
Software development to hire might be one of the top searches in Google.
So, the fight is real.
You can start by looking at the following sources:
- LinkedIn – a professional network where companies can post the open positions, but also reach out directly to potential candidates, talk to them, follow them, see their activity and even recommendations by others. Here, you can hire a web developer, a full stack developer, or a dedicated team. Plenty of agencies and software development teams have their pages on this site.
- Upwork, People Per Hour, Fiverr – marketplaces where you post a project and get offers from registered and verified specialists from all over the world. Ideal for short-term projects and remote format. You can post an order on the website design, mobile app development, SEO optimisation, copywriting – any digital stuff you need.
- Glassdoor, Indeed – general job postings websites where you can hire a developer for long term projects and for full time.
- GitHub – the best platform where to hire software developers, but only if you know exactly what you’re looking for. Here you can both hire senior developer or hire cheap developers. Their real projects will be visible on their profiles. And more mature professionals add more information about their background there, making the job easier for recruiters.
- Stack Overflow – similarly to the one above, this is also a community of developers of various levels and programming languages.
Another hint for you – check websites like Reddit or Quora. Look for the discussions that are similar to your inquiry – like, “where to hire a website developer” – there will definitely be recommendations for particular websites, agencies, or IT companies that deliver it well.
What will attract strong developers to your company
Of course, we cannot all be a Google or a Twitter. The latter worked remotely for many years already. Their flexible schedule model makes any developer envious and willing to apply for their job. They don’t think how to hire a software development team – they might have a strong inbound stream of job applications.
In Google, there’s a cool referral program. Their employees can give a month-long recommendation to someone to apply for their job openings. Hence the person is already verified by an existing team member, not a robot but a real human from the HR department will take a look at the referred application.
Show that you have an opportunity for growth. This can be achieved by sharing what you do as a team, what learning and professional growth opportunities are available for them.
Speak about your values. Diversity and inclusion must be on your agenda. Share about your culture on the website blog, LinkedIn company page, partner media outlets. Organise events around these topics to raise awareness inside the existing team and with the outer world.
Describe the project. If you want to hire a team of developers, not just one engineer, try to attract them via a picturesque description of the project that you want to build.
Salary transparency. Many times this question has been raised on social media: companies should post the salary with the job description. Or at least show the approximate number. This will bring the right applications and save a ton of time for the recruiters.
Know your product. Set up clear goals for your company or project, and figure out the technical stack you might need for it. On the websites like clutch.co you can hire a web development team. Whilst, on GitHub or StackOverflow, look to hire a game development team as well as deep tech engineers.
Employer brand
Software development companies need to keep the high mark to stay on the market. It doesn’t mean that other companies can relax though.
As promised, here is the list of best hiring tips from the tech giants.
They have a dedicated blog for engineers – check it here.
They speak about their core principles when choosing the development system for the product:
- Keep it very simple
- Don’t re-invent the wheel
- Go with proven and solid technologies when you can
You will find plenty of stories from the team on their channel. Is your company as open as theirs?
IBM
“Freedom defines me.“ – says the slogan on the employment page of the company.
Then, they follow it with the explanation of their work culture:
“At IBM we are unmatched in the breadth of what our developers can do: from open source contribution, to get involved in the biggest tech projects in the world. Quantum, Blockchain, Data Science, Cloud. You name it!”
So, the most inspiring here is the variety of innovative technologies that their employees can choose from.
They have one of a few quantum computers in the world. Any developer from any country can get access to it and try to perform their algorithms on it.
IBM Watson is the smartest AI machine on the planet. It already saved people’s lives.
Their cloud environment offers a whole marketplace of solutions.
Why would any developer don’t want to apply to IBM? 🙂
On the Facebook careers page, they focus on the culture of good leadership.
“How Software Engineering managers motivate and lead their teams” – catches the eye on the top of the page.
Then, they add a few testimonials from their team members, and a list of the companies under Facebook’s umbrella. So it’s also now about a variety of opportunities.
And again, a blog about working across their companies and subsidiaries.
Slack
The company was successfully bought by Salesforce just recently, so it’s interesting now to see how their hiring policy will (or won’t) change in the nearest future.
Even before that, Slack is popular with its employee benefits package. It doesn’t only include some healthy and insurance bonuses.
The team members at Slack get an additional $2,000 per year for professional development. What does that mean?
Every year, each person in a company can choose a conference, festival, webinar, training, courses, coaching – anything of the kind – where they could receive professional development opportunities. If their manager would approve it, they get it covered.
Other IT companies
If you take other big tech companies, they usually have an Instagram account or a community (on Discord, Circle, Discourse or other platforms) fully dedicated to the life in these companies.
One can see live pics, videos and vivid discussions on their pages. Those are not only a good format for informal chatter within the team, but a good magnet for newcomers. And they are managed by a team, not by a social media manager. Therefore, they look sincere and create a good employer image.
Summary
As a business owner or executive in a corporate company, you can always decide for yourself whether you would like to hire a Junior developer and grow them to the level you need. Or to hire a Middle-Senior engineer that would already bring the baggage of projects, achievements and broader understanding.
Keep your communication clear and your hiring policy – transparent.
Organize hackathons and meetups to source more active candidates.
Organize competitions to catch outstanding developers.
And keep your employer brand image high to get the best applications.
Or just drop us a message if you want us to put all this process on our shoulders. We will find the top IT professionals with many years of experience for your project. It can be website development, or building mobile apps, a new game design, anything you might need to stay on top of the competition.
***
SmartBrain.io – outstaffing platform providing top developers of Middle + / Senior level for the IT development projects of any complexity. Hire the best engineers starting from $40/hour.