Vivek Ravisankar is the CEO and co-founder of Y Combinator old HackerRank - a high-tech talents of community developers and companies that hire developers.
The world accelerates. Today, every company is a software company to a certain level. Developers push the envelope by creating, iterating and scaling faster than ever. Regardless of the industry your business is or its size, hiring talented developers is essential for businesses to thrive.
A new era of tech events began
We're back in New York in November for the 4th edition of our technology event focused on growth.
Here are three tips to grow your business by attracting hyperdrive impressive technique.
1. Define business practices that fuel creativity and entrepreneurial passion
The developers are in high demand, and not easily wooed by free meals or retreats week- weekend getaway. For most developers, the passion is the most important factor in job satisfaction. They want to build things they believe and feel that their work has an impact.
Devs also want the freedom to push boundaries, be creative and feel stimulated by their work. In a study of 17,000 IT professionals, technology job site Dice.com found that developers maintaining growth requires "more interesting or challenging assignments."
Attracting the best and the brightest-not superficial advantages - it is about creating a working environment where talented people can reach their full potential. Any company that wants to hire and retain the best developers should keep these things in mind.
Google is well known for its impressive technical arsenal. One tactic the search giant uses to keep its engineers around is to give them 20 percent of their time working on projects outside their normal workload.
This call for creativity, curiosity and entrepreneurship, and Google knows that passionate engineers make excellent employees. With the freedom to pursue their passion projects at Google, there is no need to leave Google to continue.
Another wise strategy has 500friends. This company promises that after two years of work, engineers are eligible for up to $ 50,000 in seed funding to establish their own startup (if they wish.)
This tactic encourages engineers imagine and develop their own business, while channeling that passion into their work 500friends. This makes them enthusiastic about the technology industry, eager to follow market trends and ensure they stay around for at least two years.
2. References part of the corporate culture
Despite all human resources and recruitment fancy platforms out there, the references are still the best method for hiring quality candidates and to shorten the time spent searching for them. Businesses can show their employees that they are serious in offering a referral bonus. Yelp, for example, offer $ 10,000.
You can also take an approach not based on incentives for referrals. The goal here is to foster a corporate culture where each employee contributes to the organization of construction. They seriously believe that they want to work with, and what features to create the strongest team.
This eventually leads to a strong sense of community. LinkedIn accomplishes this by encouraging its employees to hire at least one friend. Box sends its engineers out of network for new employees, and celebrated when they bring on new team members.
However, even with the technical candidates gain personal recommendations still need to go through a selection process. This helps create an environment where all recruits are on the same level, no one has an unfair advantage and everyone is judged by their skills.
Relate IQ accomplishes this by having her well qualified referrals go through code challenges, like the other candidates. Code of the challenges are a great equalizer, and this is what we allow HackerRank. Now it is easy for employees to test the prowess of their candidates in a way that is flexible, fun and revealing.
3. Go to your employees where they are
Find talented developers can be like finding a girlfriend or boyfriend - you have to be smart about how you look. If you want a significant other who loves reading, bookstore or library can be a good place to start. Similarly, employers should think carefully about where it is likely to be a high concentration of promising techniques employed.
When 500friends was looking at the scale of the team, the team recruited internationally and hires found on the sites founders themselves loved, as HackerNews. Yelp recruits heavily on university campuses, with an eye toward the young and energetic engineers who are ready to learn.
Charlie Wenzel TalkBox took a food truck to the building just after Yahoo laid off a significant number of people. He offered free food and a menu with items to TalkBox. This approach meant Wenzel was not only knee-deep in a flood of technical talent, but also created a positive and memorable impression. Nothing cheers up the sloppiness as jobs, free food and a bit of humor and support recently.
The importance of a strong team of engineers is only growing. Whether you run an organic bakery or an international company of B2B marketing, quality developers are required to move your business to the next level. Developers can be in high demand, but they should not be difficult to achieve. These simple steps are all it takes to find the right people.
What tactics have you seen and help attract impressive coding talent? Are important references in your experience? sponsorship rewards are just as effective as a reference - encouraging work environment in your experience
The above points are just a jumping off spot ?; we'll have a conversation about the best ways to attract technical talent
Why managing employees is out of control
UPDATE uPDATE : we received feedback via Twitter that the header image (the guys in the links) excluded female talent in the workspace, so we updated to include the image the women. Not that all women wear dresses, or that women can not wear ties, but you get the idea.
Top image credit: Shutterstock but later changed.