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My problem is that we're trying to hire for a very niche position, where we get maybe 3-4 candidates A YEAR. So we don't really have the comfort of waiting a bi

My problem is that we're trying to hire for a very niche position, where we get maybe 3-4 candidates A YEAR. So we don't really have the comfort of waiting a bit longer to interview those 30 candidates - we have to look at whether the people that come in could maybe work in the position we have.

blowski 4y ago
Yes, hiring for a niche position is hard because you don’t have the luxury of choosing between many candidates. It seems like there are three approaches: 1. Pay above market rate. Retention can be expensive with this strategy because you get into an arms race with the competition, but if you’ve got the budget, it’s the quickest. 2. Hire for attitude and re-train. Probably the slowest route to success as it can take years to build up true expertise, so it depends how much expertise you need and how quickly as to whether this is viable. 3. Hire for the niche skills and accept some other trade-off. I had limited budget to hire a strong MySQL DBA, and hired someone that wanted limited and extremely flexible working hours and could afford a paycut. How do you handle it?
intelVISA 4y ago
Wild, what area is that? Maybe it's a pipeline/intake/compensation issue?
- blowski 4y ago
  I had this problem recently trying to hire people good at and willing to work with a big Angular v1 codebase.
  - whycombagator 4y ago
    Angular v1 can be picked up a lot easier than what OP describes. You could/should cast a wider net Compensation might also have been an issue.
  - dennis_jeeves1 4y ago
    >rendering programmers How many months will it take for 'regular' programmer with 5 years experience to say have the skills of say a 5 years of a rendering programmer ? What is the pay range for rendering programmer with 5 years of experience?
- gambiting 4y ago
  Rendering programmers in video games industry. The problem is that any rendering programmers are immediately hoovered up by medical/automotive/research industries at ridiculous salaries that very few gaming companies can compete with, and even then there are very very few programmers who are interested in that area. Yes, the answer to the problem is "just offer more money" but that decision is way above my paygrade - I have to hire someone though, and the choice of candidates is very small.

blowski 4y ago

Yes, hiring for a niche position is hard because you don’t have the luxury of choosing between many candidates. It seems like there are three approaches: 1. Pay above market rate. Retention can be expensive with this strategy because you get into an arms race with the competition, but if you’ve got the budget, it’s the quickest. 2. Hire for attitude and re-train. Probably the slowest route to success as it can take years to build up true expertise, so it depends how much expertise you need and how quickly as to whether this is viable. 3. Hire for the niche skills and accept some other trade-off. I had limited budget to hire a strong MySQL DBA, and hired someone that wanted limited and extremely flexible working hours and could afford a paycut. How do you handle it?

intelVISA 4y ago

Wild, what area is that? Maybe it's a pipeline/intake/compensation issue?

blowski 4y ago
I had this problem recently trying to hire people good at and willing to work with a big Angular v1 codebase.
- whycombagator 4y ago
  Angular v1 can be picked up a lot easier than what OP describes. You could/should cast a wider net Compensation might also have been an issue.
- dennis_jeeves1 4y ago
  >rendering programmers How many months will it take for 'regular' programmer with 5 years experience to say have the skills of say a 5 years of a rendering programmer ? What is the pay range for rendering programmer with 5 years of experience?
gambiting 4y ago
Rendering programmers in video games industry. The problem is that any rendering programmers are immediately hoovered up by medical/automotive/research industries at ridiculous salaries that very few gaming companies can compete with, and even then there are very very few programmers who are interested in that area. Yes, the answer to the problem is "just offer more money" but that decision is way above my paygrade - I have to hire someone though, and the choice of candidates is very small.