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Ask HN: Best way of recruiting developers?

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Re: Ask HN: Best way of recruiting developers?

#12

Post by itamarst »

aembleton wrote: post #7
dagw wrote: post #6

Which part of the process are you having problems with? Aren't you getting any applicants at all? Are you getting applicants, but none that match your needs? Are you getting enough good applicants, but can't convince them to work for you? Different problems require different solutions.

We're not getting enough good applicants.

How do you define good applicants? I.e. what is the lack you're seeing?

Re: Ask HN: Best way of recruiting developers?

#13

Post by dagw »

aembleton wrote: post #7
dagw wrote: post #6

Which part of the process are you having problems with? Aren't you getting any applicants at all? Are you getting applicants, but none that match your needs? Are you getting enough good applicants, but can't convince them to work for you? Different problems require different solutions.

We're not getting enough good applicants.

What are a few things you require for someone to be a "good applicant"

Re: Ask HN: Best way of recruiting developers?

#15

Post by tixocloud »

Points 1 and 2 are great options. If you have the time, you can also host engineering-based events, talk about tech, etc.

Good developers are hard to find for the fact that there's a high probability that they are in great demand. Everyone's clamouring for their attention.

Also, for the applicants that you do get, are they fundamentally terrible at coding/problem-solving or do they just not know the tech stack you're using? If it's the latter, you might want to re-evaluate as good to great developers are capable of picking up languages easily. You just need to give them some room to ramp up.

Re: Ask HN: Best way of recruiting developers?

#16

Post by mrfusion »

Free stuff you can do:

Treat them with respect and dignity

Respond to them promptly

If you find someone you want to hire make the offer immediately.*

* I've had companies seemingly devastated that I took a different job in the three weeks they took to get back to me after the interview. True story!

Re: Ask HN: Best way of recruiting developers?

#18

Post by mattmanser »

aembleton wrote: post #7
dagw wrote: post #6

Which part of the process are you having problems with? Aren't you getting any applicants at all? Are you getting applicants, but none that match your needs? Are you getting enough good applicants, but can't convince them to work for you? Different problems require different solutions.

We're not getting enough good applicants.

This is worth a read:

https://blog.codinghorror.com/we-hire-the-best-just-like-eve...

There's also (the slightly contradictory) advice that because the bad programmers are the ones without jobs, a large proportion of your application will be from a tiny percentage of the developer spectrum.

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