4 ms·

This is the biggest problem we've encountered scaling our startup. We're profitable, growing, have a great customer base and solid marketing, but our product si

This is the biggest problem we've encountered scaling our startup. We're profitable, growing, have a great customer base and solid marketing, but our product simply can't keep up with customer demands and opportunities to solve problems because we're unable to recruit engineers (despite paying 25%+ above market rates and offering generous benefits, a great team and interesting problems). When you have money in the bank, customers who want a product and 9 engineers when you need 15, it's a tough problem. Compromising on quality of engineers or cultural fit has been very bad for us in the past, so we're definitely picky now, but even still, the dearth of qualified individuals is a serious impediment to growth.

jbail 16y ago
Do you allow telecommuting? Or are you looking for local candidates only? What is your strategy to reach potential candidates? Are you working with a headhunter?
patio11 16y ago
I don't know how much domain expertise you would prefer your engineers to have about SEO, Rand, but have you considered that someone with the fairly rare combination of chops sufficient to build your tools and SEO expertise now has fantastically attractive options? You may be misidentifying the market you need to buy them from, and hence the market clearing price. The capitalist in me thinks it is virtually axiomatic that if you cannot fill demand at a 25% premium to the market clearing price you are in fact mistaken as to what you believe that price to be. Incindentally, a client of mine coming from the other side (they practically wrote the book on attracting engineering talent, but internal SEO knowledge is limited) has the same problem finding that combo.
- kls 16y ago
  Right, if you are using a salary site, it has been my observation that they are not correct whether it is a vast corporate conspiracy or just an anomaly ever time I check them they seem to under represent the reality of the market from 15-20%. Which is weird because you would think that the reporting person would inflate their earning to try to inflate the market. Maybe they are telling the truth and the sites have logic to try to account for an inflation that is not being falsely represented. Anyway, point is check you data source and ensure that it is reliable you may not be as far above the market as you assume you are.
conorgil145 16y ago
Just to let you know, I visited your website hoping to find out more about the open positions that you have at your company and could not find a page listing them. I visited the page titled 'SEO jobs' expecting it to be your open positions, but it looks like this is more of a job board. I don't know anything about your site so maybe I am missing something, but you might want to make it easier for developers to see which positions you have available. I hope you find some good developers!
anamax 16y ago
> we're unable to recruit engineers (despite paying 25%+ above market rates and offering generous benefits, a great team and interesting problems). If that is actually true, there's something negative that you're not mentioning. FWIW, I suspect that it isn't actually true. That said, there could be some other factor at work as well.

jbail 16y ago

Do you allow telecommuting? Or are you looking for local candidates only? What is your strategy to reach potential candidates? Are you working with a headhunter?

patio11 16y ago

I don't know how much domain expertise you would prefer your engineers to have about SEO, Rand, but have you considered that someone with the fairly rare combination of chops sufficient to build your tools and SEO expertise now has fantastically attractive options? You may be misidentifying the market you need to buy them from, and hence the market clearing price. The capitalist in me thinks it is virtually axiomatic that if you cannot fill demand at a 25% premium to the market clearing price you are in fact mistaken as to what you believe that price to be. Incindentally, a client of mine coming from the other side (they practically wrote the book on attracting engineering talent, but internal SEO knowledge is limited) has the same problem finding that combo.

kls 16y ago
Right, if you are using a salary site, it has been my observation that they are not correct whether it is a vast corporate conspiracy or just an anomaly ever time I check them they seem to under represent the reality of the market from 15-20%. Which is weird because you would think that the reporting person would inflate their earning to try to inflate the market. Maybe they are telling the truth and the sites have logic to try to account for an inflation that is not being falsely represented. Anyway, point is check you data source and ensure that it is reliable you may not be as far above the market as you assume you are.

conorgil145 16y ago

Just to let you know, I visited your website hoping to find out more about the open positions that you have at your company and could not find a page listing them. I visited the page titled 'SEO jobs' expecting it to be your open positions, but it looks like this is more of a job board. I don't know anything about your site so maybe I am missing something, but you might want to make it easier for developers to see which positions you have available. I hope you find some good developers!

anamax 16y ago

> we're unable to recruit engineers (despite paying 25%+ above market rates and offering generous benefits, a great team and interesting problems). If that is actually true, there's something negative that you're not mentioning. FWIW, I suspect that it isn't actually true. That said, there could be some other factor at work as well.