This post was originally published in: https://prodigies.dev/blog/how-to-hire-the-perfect-engineer-for-your-software-company-in-2023/
Demand for skilled engineers in the tech industry is high. The latest data shows that only 11% of the 27 million tech workers are open to taking new jobs. The insufficiency of skilled professionals mixed with the recession and other global circumstances, has made it difficult for companies to hire the engineers it needs.
Despite the difficulties, every problem has a solution. Today, we have come up with a solution to your hiring problem. Here’s how you can hire the perfect engineer for your software company, even in 2023!
Understanding the market
If you can afford it, this might be the best time to hire like crazy. The recession and layoffs in global tech companies have left a lot of resources open for new positions which was not the case a few months ago. Especially if you are open to hiring a fresher or a junior professional, it is easier on you as there are more CS graduates than there are jobs. On the other hand, top-level positions do not have enough skilled resources available to fill them. However, this problem can be solved by taking a small risk and giving the middle managers a bit more credit. Even with 3-5 years of experience, a candidate with the right skill and mindset can take on the top-level job.
Hiring offshore engineers
We live in a global village. Globalization keeps rising, giving us the opportunity to build businesses that are truly global with teams spread across the world. Two of the most crucial globalization trends are (1) breaking taboos of remote or hybrid work and (2) the acceleration of technological change.
Among which, technological change – in particular – is responsible for making many mundane skills and tasks obsolete. At the same time, it is also creating demand for deeper and more intellectually challenging jobs. Most companies, currently, are facing skill gaps and reskilling is not an easy feat. That is where the consulting model comes into play.
Consulting model for software developers
Contract engineers from offshore
All models of hiring software developers are growing rapidly. However, offshore hiring is growing faster than in-house ones and contractual hiring is growing faster than full-time ones. But these trends are not significant enough to make a meaningful change over the industry in near future. If a developer wants to find a full time position, they are still able to find a job to do so.
As for your hiring preferences, contracting out your project can be a good option only if you find a trustworthy contractor with up to the mark quality. Contract engineers hired right can accelerate your project’s progress because of less time spent on onboarding and administrative activities.
Hiring a contractor
Making your first hire
Your payment capacity is low. Maybe you are offering equity. The best thing you can leverage to attract candidates is to sell a dream – the product you are building. So it is always better to make your first hire from within your network or the network of your network.
Hiring for an early stage startup
However, there might be instances where your product needs specific skills that your internal team does not cover. This kind of situation can arise from integrations or the application being introduced to a new platform. A short-term hire of an expert with relevant skills is the best course of action in this case. If you need maintenance later on, a contractual employee can easily do that for you.
Testing candidates’ soft skills
Testing your candidate for soft skills can ensure if they are the right fit for your company culture. Because a perfect engineer not only possesses all the required technical skills but also fits into the team in a collaborative manner.
But, testing soft skills really is not easy. The cheerful personality you are impressed with during a meeting might just end up vanishing while working within a team. You can never understand how an employee would perform as a team member until you actually place them inside the team. In such cases, a trial period can be your best course of action. This process can end up making you lose some time and money. But choosing the wrong team member can end up making you lose a lot.
While judging someone’s soft skills, your strategy should account for the following three aspects.
- Ability to communicate.
- Willingness to collaborate with others.
- Level of overall enthusiasm.
An engineer who has the right technical skills for your project and can harness the above mentioned soft skills can empower your team with positivity and help you achieve your goals – effectively and efficiently.
Recruitment platforms and the future of technical hiring
The present dominant model of hiring in the tech industry is sourcing through recruiters. Every decent engineer who is on LinkedIn frequently receives messages from recruiters trying to hire them for resource sourcing agencies. And the number of messages recruiters need to send to make one hire is gradually increasing, making it more and more difficult to sustain this model.
The future of recruitment calls for a better strategy where candidates’ skills data and employee matching processes can be truly utilized. And LinkedIn is currently not the way to do so. This creates a gap in the market that can potentially be taken advantage of by other companies who can match candidates in an intelligent way. This marketplace model of hiring can empower employers with sorting and filtering tools that help find a better match more efficiently.
The bottom line is that in order to ensure hiring the right candidate for the right job, recruiters should focus on what developers are interested in and then provide project information or conduct interviews accordingly.
Looking for more insight on hiring developers? Our blog section has plenty of articles focusing on finding the best candidates for your business. Go ahead and check it out!
