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Ask HN: Good ways to find local talent in small town?

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Ask HN: Good ways to find local talent in small town?

#1

Post by sf56 »

We're in Northern California about three hours outside San Francisco in the Sierra Foothills. I think overall this proximity to the Bay Area is a positive thing, but sometimes I get the feeling it creates a bit of a talent vacuum. The best of the best end up in the Bay Area, and because this area isn't terribly exciting most young people end up leaving when they finish high school anyway.

I'm curious if anyone else is in a similar situation and has any ideas. We've tried recruiters, Craig's List, and even help run a local tech group for some outreach. We've also experimented with remote team members with varying results. For now we're focused on finding someone local. Any other ideas or guidance?

Re: Ask HN: Good ways to find local talent in small town?

#2

Post by bartonfink »

I once read an interesting solution to this specific problem on the old Joel on Software forum. In addition to offering a competitive salary for people to work at an odd location, you could offer a relocation bonus for people to leave. This assuages a large concern that some folks might have: that they'd love to work at your company, but if things go sour, they'd be stuck in Pigs Knuckle, Arkansas without any other job opportunities. I'm sure there are wrinkles to iron out, but that would directly target a mostly unrealized objection to relocating to a less desirable area.

Re: Ask HN: Good ways to find local talent in small town?

#3

Post by MichaelCrawford »

bartonfink wrote: post #2

I once read an interesting solution to this specific problem on the old Joel on Software forum. In addition to offering a competitive salary for people to work at an odd location, you could offer a relocation bonus for people to leave. This assuages a large concern that some folks might have: that they'd love to work at your company, but if things go sour, they'd be stuck in Pigs Knuckle, Arkansas without any other j…

"Stuck in Lodi again."

I don't remember who wrote this but an artist once wrote "If I was going to get out of Lodi I was going to have to paint my way out."

Re: Ask HN: Good ways to find local talent in small town?

#5

Post by liquidcool »

Lot of unanswered questions:

How do other employers (not necessarily tech) motivate candidates to move there? Any natural attractions? Lots of outdoorsy people move to places like Colorado, Montana, Wyoming for hiking, camping, etc.

Is your salary competitive? If it's high compared to the cost of living, do you demonstrate that?

Is this just a job or a genuine opportunity? If the latter, how are you demonstrating that?

If it's really just a job (and that's OK), I'd figure out how to make remote developers work out. You have a lot of developers who already live in small towns with low cost of living, but it's their town and they don't want to move to yours. If you can leverage that, it's a win/win.

Re: Ask HN: Good ways to find local talent in small town?

#6

Post by LarryMade2 »

I'm in the Calif. Foothills, I usually find most things on Craigslist,or the CA Jobs site.

Either you must not be near me, or it isn't the technologies I'm interested in, or I wans't what you were looking for.

I can offer that up in the hills you aren’t going to have a diverse skills environment. Either you will get some home-grown techs (like me), not very many of them, they usually move to SV or somewhere more tech friendly; or transplants from other places. So the more specific you are in what you want the less chance of finding talent. If you are willing to entertain other skillsets (if you are locked-in, maybe add in training option for highly skilled people in other platforms) you might have better luck.

Good luck

Re: Ask HN: Good ways to find local talent in small town?

#7

Post by auxym »

liquidcool wrote: post #5

Lot of unanswered questions: How do other employers (not necessarily tech) motivate candidates to move there? Any natural attractions? Lots of outdoorsy people move to places like Colorado, Montana, Wyoming for hiking, camping, etc. Is your salary competitive? If it's high compared to the cost of living, do you demonstrate that? Is this just a job or a genuine opportunity? If the latter, how are you demonstrating tha…

>Lots of outdoorsy people move to places like Colorado, Montana, Wyoming for hiking, camping, etc.

This one is interesting. I spent 2 months in a ski town in western canada this winter. The classic story of ski towns is that many, many people would love to live there (often so much as to create a housing problem) but the only jobs are in restaurants, hotels, bars. I've heard of a trained mechanical engineer working 3 years as a town tour guide until she landed an actual engineering gig for the local hydro company. The microbrewery in town is owned by a trained nuclear physicist who really just wanted to live in the mountains and still make a living.

If you're in a nice place for nature, do try and market to the outdoorsy crowd, I think there's a good few engineers in there.

Re: Ask HN: Good ways to find local talent in small town?

#8

Post by brudgers »

I once spent a long day interviewing in Lufkin Texas for a job in College Station. At some point someone observed, "Nobody moves to Lufkin unless their from Lufkin." I wasn't the best of the best, but I was good enough that they paid my way out for the interview, and when they didn't offer me the job in College Station but one in Lufkin instead, the observation was in fact astute.

If the young are leaving, I'd suggest focusing on finding someone older who is more amenable to the lifestyle. If there aren't any old developers locally, then there won't be any really good young one's. But you might get an older developer to relocate to a place without any action.

Good luck.

Re: Ask HN: Good ways to find local talent in small town?

#10

Post by sf56 »

brudgers wrote: post #8

I once spent a long day interviewing in Lufkin Texas for a job in College Station. At some point someone observed, "Nobody moves to Lufkin unless their from Lufkin." I wasn't the best of the best, but I was good enough that they paid my way out for the interview, and when they didn't offer me the job in College Station but one in Lufkin instead, the observation was in fact astute. If the young are leaving, I'd sugges…

Thanks very much for the insight. This is definitely the approach we've taken up until now. Average age in our group is right around 40 and we're all family people who love the area and lifestyle it affords. The age thing isn't really the issue, just the number of applicants with relevant skills applying. I know they are around, maybe just a little more entrenched in their current roles. It is a lot of older people around, and I think because of that a lot of them (us) are already in a long term role or have moved on to consulting/contracting.
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