5 ms·

Many companies claim that hiring is a top priority, but do little more than put up a JD in a couple places. They then complain about shortages. You need to act

by latch 12y ago

Many companies claim that hiring is a top priority, but do little more than put up a JD in a couple places. They then complain about shortages. You need to actively recruit talent, which means understanding what you're looking for. Building nginx modules? Go through github and see who's built an nginx module before. Do a google search for "nginx module development" and see where that leads. Then send out brief but targeted emails to people you sincerely want to join your team. There's a ton of developers who aren't actively looking, but presented with the opportunity, they'll jump. I don't know a single developer who isn't flattered and intrigued by a sincere cold call for employment from an actual company (they're pretty easy to filter from agencies) Second, money and location are a big deal. "We can't find developers" really means "We can't find developers who want to work for this salary and/or at this location." I remember not too long ago, our startup had a budget for 10 new developers, which we just couldn't fill. Our CTO and CEO 100% refused to get 5 developers and pay them 2x. So instead we stayed 10 people short, for over a year, while "hiring remains a top priority." TL;DR - If hiring is important, spend the necessary time on it, don't just pay it lip service.

Animats 12y ago
Google, in their growth days, had some interesting methods. One day I was looking up a topic in proof of correctness with Google, and there was a Google recruiting ad on it. I was once contacted by a Google recruiter because I'd been posting on "comp.lang.c++".
- latch 12y ago
  My point exactly. That behavior shouldn't be considered special or google-esque. It should be business as usual.
  - justincormack 12y ago
    Yeah I remember seeing those. But now its just the Google recruiters, who don't really have any idea what Google does, or what I do.
    - Animats 12y ago
      The two who've called me were at the telemarketer level of cluelessness. I wondered if they really were paid by Google or just working on spec. The other side of this is tying up America's top brainpower on banal stuff. As Jeff Hammerbacher of Facebook said, "The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads. That sucks." It's either that or quantitative finance to make big money. ("Apps" are a zillion people chasing a market with about 20 big winners.) Two good robotics people I know went to hedge funds.
zzzcpan 12y ago
> You need to actively recruit talent, which means > understanding what you're looking for. Building > nginx modules? With such specific task in mind you are ignoring other people's expertise and could end up hiring someone willing to do anything without questioning and voicing concerns. Like in this building nginx modules case, which is a bad idea almost every time.
- danielweber 12y ago
  Are you getting temp contractors or permanent employees? If you need that nginx module built and can't figure out how, get that guy whose done a dozen of them before for a month. If you want someone to add to the team, looking for very specific skills is going to cause you to repeat this process so in three months no one is around who can optimize an SQL query and you need a specialist for that.
  - logfromblammo 12y ago
    Hire both. Assign the permanent employee to watch the temp contractor and learn how he or she does the work. Then assign the temp employee to watch the permanent employee to make sure he or she does the work correctly. Of course, that only works if your permanent employee is not willing to jump ship to be the temp contractor with specialist skills and specific experience somewhere else. There must be some valid reason why businesses would pay more for recruiting than for training and retention, but I am not familiar with it.
jghn 12y ago
The heavy filters companies apply is too harsh. The vast majority of software jobs really don't require a great (or even good) developer - I'm looking at you, standard CRUD jobs. Yet, a large majority of software positions require going through an interview process which is heavy on algorithmic knowledge, on the spot thinking, high end problem solving, etc. The problem worsens when one considers that many people realize this issue, but then says, "Oh sure, but we are one of the 5% that really needs these people!" - but if you add up how many folks make that claim, clearly that's not always the case. If people actually filtered for only what was actually necessary to perform their open positions, I think they'd find that the developer shortage isn't as bad as they believe.

by latch 12y ago

Animats 12y ago

Google, in their growth days, had some interesting methods. One day I was looking up a topic in proof of correctness with Google, and there was a Google recruiting ad on it. I was once contacted by a Google recruiter because I'd been posting on "comp.lang.c++".

latch 12y ago
My point exactly. That behavior shouldn't be considered special or google-esque. It should be business as usual.
- justincormack 12y ago
  Yeah I remember seeing those. But now its just the Google recruiters, who don't really have any idea what Google does, or what I do.
  - Animats 12y ago
    The two who've called me were at the telemarketer level of cluelessness. I wondered if they really were paid by Google or just working on spec. The other side of this is tying up America's top brainpower on banal stuff. As Jeff Hammerbacher of Facebook said, "The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads. That sucks." It's either that or quantitative finance to make big money. ("Apps" are a zillion people chasing a market with about 20 big winners.) Two good robotics people I know went to hedge funds.

zzzcpan 12y ago

> You need to actively recruit talent, which means > understanding what you're looking for. Building > nginx modules? With such specific task in mind you are ignoring other people's expertise and could end up hiring someone willing to do anything without questioning and voicing concerns. Like in this building nginx modules case, which is a bad idea almost every time.

danielweber 12y ago
Are you getting temp contractors or permanent employees? If you need that nginx module built and can't figure out how, get that guy whose done a dozen of them before for a month. If you want someone to add to the team, looking for very specific skills is going to cause you to repeat this process so in three months no one is around who can optimize an SQL query and you need a specialist for that.
- logfromblammo 12y ago
  Hire both. Assign the permanent employee to watch the temp contractor and learn how he or she does the work. Then assign the temp employee to watch the permanent employee to make sure he or she does the work correctly. Of course, that only works if your permanent employee is not willing to jump ship to be the temp contractor with specialist skills and specific experience somewhere else. There must be some valid reason why businesses would pay more for recruiting than for training and retention, but I am not familiar with it.

jghn 12y ago

The heavy filters companies apply is too harsh. The vast majority of software jobs really don't require a great (or even good) developer - I'm looking at you, standard CRUD jobs. Yet, a large majority of software positions require going through an interview process which is heavy on algorithmic knowledge, on the spot thinking, high end problem solving, etc. The problem worsens when one considers that many people realize this issue, but then says, "Oh sure, but we are one of the 5% that really needs these people!" - but if you add up how many folks make that claim, clearly that's not always the case. If people actually filtered for only what was actually necessary to perform their open positions, I think they'd find that the developer shortage isn't as bad as they believe.