Digital transformation is the new normal for businesses. With intensified digitization, turning digital is no more a choice, nevertheless an indispensable adoption for businesses. A pivotal hand that helps realize this business need is of software developers.
Conversely, companies and recruiters are feeling the actual pain. 86% of technical recruiters in a survey agreed that to find and hire software developers is a real challenge. It indicates that hiring techniques that helped in the pre-digital era work no more, and recruiters and businesses must evolve their hiring strategies.
Table of Contents
Traditional hiring techniques and challenges involved
Visibly, the global shortage of software developers is rampant. The US labour statistics indicate that by the last quarter of 2020, 1.4M software engineering jobs remained unfilled.
The USA alone faces a developer shortage that could amount to an unrealized output of $162B alone if the situation continues. Furthermore, the global talent shortage could reach 85.2M professionals if this trend continues to 2030. This explains why it is challenging to hire software developers.
Traditionally, hiring has been occurring through tried and tested strategies. Leveraging LinkedIn and other job portals. Employee Referrals. Experimenting with job postings to captivate candidates’ attention. And such.
Besides, recruiters sieve through hundreds of resumes to find candidates and hire them only to be surprised that they are indirectly increasing their churn rate. According to the 2021 Bureau of Labor Statistics report, the average turnover rate for a software developer is 57.3%.
If you are a recruiter tired of your endless search to hire software developers for your company, try these techniques that might ease your task. These techniques are novel and add value to the hiring strategy of startups as well as established businesses. Let’s move on to know them in-depth.
#1: Host programming challenges
Also called hackathons, programming challenges are potent enough to attract the elite tech talent you would love to hire for your organization.
On the other hand, sponsoring hackathons is also a great idea to capture the candidate attention.
Conduct programming challenges based on your current/upcoming tech requirements. Organizing hackathons imparts the following benefits:
- Helps to personalize recruitment and pools the cream of the crop tech talent under one roof, saving your time and effort at a go.
- Plumps your resume database, so future searches for candidates become effortless.
- Elevates your brand positioning as an industry expert that can attract and retain top talent in the long run.
#2: Source code sharing platforms
Businesses believe in this: sell where the customer is. Similarly, recruiters must search for candidates where they exist.
Source code sharing platforms are hubs of software developers, where they discuss, share and learn tech aspects. Hence, you can find many profiles that may be the correct fit for you. Github, Stack overflow, LaunchPad and Bitbucket are great places to start.
Source code sharing platforms are for collaboration among software developers. Approaching the candidates directly for recruitment might be against the platform regulations.
Instead, introduce yourself as a professional recruiter but refrain from making an invitation there. However, the candidate details such as role, email and current company can help more than you can imagine.
#3: Developers personal blogs and video channels
Expert developers share their knowledge through various media. YouTube channels and blogs are the most chosen platforms for techies.
Gain expertise in keyword search for finding the right software developer with a proven skillset to land in their blogs and channels.
And what next? As a recruiter, you know what to do.
#4: Technical conferences
Meetups, conferences and seminars are proven ways to gather brilliant technical minds onto a single platform. Organize and sponsor tech conferences to bring software developers under one roof; thus, your candidate search becomes effortless. However, never directly start a seminar with your intention to hire software developers.
Instead, organize the event in the most captivating way. In the end, request interested candidates to leave their details so you can follow up later. It is a win-win strategy that elevates your brand appeal.
#5: Knowledge sharing platforms
Discussion websites such as Quora, Medium, Reddit can be troves for software developers. They are the places where they answer user queries, share their ideas, and discuss tech-related issues and challenges.
With a simple search for the kind of developer (skill and experience), you can find them easily on such knowledge-sharing platforms. Besides, by reading their contributions, you can estimate their tech expertise and handpick the candidates that exactly matches your requirements.
#6: Slack groups
For most developers, a workday begins with slack. A peep at the statistics of this communication and collaboration platform for techies indicates that the daily active users are a staggering 12 million!
Request your existing employees or connections that might have a Slack account. With their invitation, join groups that might contain the targeted audience that suits your hiring needs.
However, always stick to the platform regulations and refrain from inviting the candidate for a potential offer. Instead, collect the details of the candidates with their permission and follow them up the way you do!
#7: Competitor websites
As fascinating as it sounds, your competitor websites are the least explored sources to find elite tech talent. The website pages such as Our Team, Employees Speak, Awards, Projects, Accomplishments etc., could leave you with stunning information about their creamy talent.
Similarly, their social media channels and YouTube videos could offer valuable candidate details.
#8: Freelance sites
It is a general notion that freelance sites host freelancer profiles only. However, many candidates on such platforms might be looking for a secure full-time job or an interesting contractual position.
Research for passive candidates that might open up if your offer matches their dream job requirements.
#9: Paid campaigns
Paid strategies include advertising on search engines and social media. It is a proven technique most companies adopt to hire software developers.
If your company has not leveraged this technique, it is the right time to get started with this foolproof tactic to hire software developers.
#10: Social media groups
While looking for candidate profiles on social media is a known strategy, filtering for potential candidates from related tech groups is something you must not miss.
Besides, they offer you a chance to take a sneak peek at the candidate’s expertise by following their conversations, shares and ideas.
#11: Technical websites
Websites that discuss “how-to”, “guides for”, “tech trends” are rich resources when it comes to hiring software developers. Such websites contain articles contributed by tech experts. Look for the candidate details on the Author’s Bio or Our Contributors page.
#12: Recruitment marketplaces
If there is a sure-shot way to find candidates ready to spring into a new job, it is to explore recruitment marketplaces. They are the pools of global candidates that you can access with a single click.
You can easily find your dream candidate by sorting the candidate profiles according to your requirements. Additionally, on recruitment marketplaces, you don’t need to think twice about collecting candidate details or pitching to them in contrast with other platforms we have seen a little ago.
#13: Collaborate with a resourcing partner
Hiring brings challenges of its own. Plus, to hire software developers means getting ready to face further challenges. Every day counts when it comes to filling a vacant techie position. The cost of a vacant tech position can impact business turnover and the success rate of seizing the incoming opportunities.
Here’s why tying up with a resourcing partner to hire software developers comes to your rescue. By doing so, you can bring down the time and effort your recruitment team must otherwise invest.
Additionally, collaborating with a resourcing partner to hire software developers helps to scale hiring seamlessly, which means you are ever ready to grab the business headed your way!
Cloudely helps global companies with tech hiring. We are a chosen resourcing partner to hire software developers for businesses big and small.
Connect with us to know how we can help you find elite tech talent in the shortest time you could ever imagine. Send your hiring needs to us at hello@cloudely.com. Join our fanbase on LinkedIn.
