#developers hardwork techn

[rajeshpokharkar-blog]

A Day in the life of a Developer.

[yourteaminindia]

Startup Tips – How to Hire the Best Software Engineers?

Hiring software engineers is a multi-faceted skill that lies at the crossroad of social networking, technical acumen, process management, and intuition.

Are you an entrepreneur who has the responsibility to understand all-too-well the extent and depth of the hiring challenge.

It is a fact that exceptional software developers are difficult to evaluate.

How do you explore the candidate’s ability to innovate and think creatively?  

How do you determine if they are team players?

Is the candidate willing to take constructive feedback?

How do you investigate someone’s moral fiber?

Evaluating soft criteria is not an easy task, doing so isn’t essential in the quest to hire software developers.

Attempts at evaluating crucial and elusive attributes consist of questions that are sufficiently transparent for the correct answers.

The major pitfall is to solely focus on technical minutia, rather than testing the candidate’s ability to solve a problem, think creatively, and to work compatible with the rest of the team.

In this particular post, here are some great source, screen, and interview software engineers without making a dent in your already stretched budget.

Source

Know who you need

Firstly, before you start hiring software engineers, you should know what your requirements are. The more specific you are the better filters you have.

A defined set of skills will help you start looking at the right place. Also, the clarity of what you are looking for should be there in your communication.

For example, are you looking for a front end software engineer or backend developer?

Know where to look

Secondly, the need is clearly defined, inputs have been gathered from stakeholders, agreed on the candidate’s specifications, the next step is to set up a search strategy.

Sourcing means to proactively identify who are:

Actively look for jobs

Not actively looking for a job

If signing up for paid services isn’t an option, the following are the legit resources that you can tap into

LinkedIn

Create a company page

Create a careers page

Publish engaging content

Look for recommendations and testimonials

Use free ads

Participate in discussions and group

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram,

Creative job posting on the company’s page

Strengthen company presence, highlight employee achievement, events, encourage referrals

GitHub

Filter search results based on relevant criteria reaching people of interest

Stack Overflow

Look for candidates having specific skill-set at a particular location

Use the job listing portal

Reddit

Create a personal and company profile

Look for relevant subreddits using keywords

Quora

Establish yourself as a leader

Identify the domain experts, engage them in conversations and build a new relationship

Glassdoor

Sign up for an enhanced employer profile

Promote the company’s brand

Gather metrics to fine-tune hiring strategy

Meetup and Developer events

Make connections and build a mutually beneficial relationship with them

Hackathons

Network with exceptional talent and industry experts; build a talent pipeline

Conduct a recruiting hackathon

LinkedIn

Create an interesting profile and legit company page.

Linkedin is a great platform to create a referral chain and helps in getting recommendations/testimonials to humanize your brand.

This sourcing talent can be found by networking through new, past, and present contacts.

Additionaly, this talent solution can help leverage the magic of data-driven recruiting to get the best people you can.

SImilarly, with the help of free ads and participating in group discussions, it is easy to enhance the visibility of the brand among developers thereby fostering a relationship with them.

Facebook, Twitter. Instagram

As the focal point of the online interaction, these websites help you promote your company and culture through an existing employee.

And cut through the noise and find niche networks using eye-catching ads, videos, anecdotes, photos, and hashtags.

GitHub

GitHub is an online project hosting service where developers share open-source projects.

When there is a public account that is up and running, you can get complete contact information, websites you chose to display, number of followers, Github contributions, and repositories.

Stack Overflow

Stack Overflow is an online community for programmers to learn, share their knowledge, and advance their careers.

Basic details and summary regarding developers are accessible; use the filters to refine your search.

Nonetheless, for passive candidates, check out the career section. It is important to engage in meaningful discussions with people of interest.

Reddit

Reddit is an online community where users submit content, like text posts or direct links, in very specific “subreddits.”

Developers and thought leaders ask questions and discuss technology-related topics here.

This can be a valuable source of highly skilled programmers. Note that Reddit has its own Boolean search terminology.

Quora

Quora is a Q&A website that is able to facilitate social interactions and interesting conversations.

It is important to first build your reputation by answering questions regarding hiring.

You can then identify domain experts by exploring the topics of interest and initiate conversations.

Despite this, it is a possibility that Quora doesn’t help source candidates directly, it helps in designing a more relevant hiring strategy.

Glassdoor

A promising tool for recruiting, Glassdoor exerts a huge social influence on job aspirants.

Everyone goes on Glassdoor to write and read anonymous reviews about companies and company life.

So, it is important that you build an awesome brand while being honest and transparent. Recruits can gather valuable metrics from this website.

Meetups and developer events

Meetups help in uniting people while sharing professional interests. It is important to find potential candidates without having to go to any events as many attendee lists are public.

Once the interest list is made, it is important to filter your candidates. You can send them a personalized email.

It should be noted, the developer events can help you by giving an opportunity to network with the most sort-out technical experts. It is easy to make connections and build mutually beneficial relationships with them.

Hackathon

Hackathon is an amazing place to network with exceptional talent and industry experts.

Additionally, it is easy to build a talent pipeline of hardworking, smart, and passionate software engineers by attending the right events.

The next step is screening.

Screen

Now is the time to move in screening the candidates.

Applicant tracking systems and recruiting tools has made it easy for entrepreneurs.

This is done after cutting down on the cost, time, and effort they invest in managing and retaining employees.

In the traditional recruitment method, you invited applicants, screened them mutually, interviewed shortlisted candidates, and then finally hire them. But this complete hiring process was not flexible, cost-effective, or accurate.

Undoubtedly, the detailed reports help you in giving a perfect picture of what the people can really do. Sometimes, researching the presence on social media gives you a snapshot of potential hires having a professional persona.

Particularly, a phone conversation is a tricky way to vet candidates.

Interview

This is certainly a two-way street. Both the candidate and you have to make decisions.

Once you have got the ideal candidate, you should decide if they:

Are you passionate regarding what they are doing or excited about what they hope to do?

Can you communicate effectively?

Do you have a good grasp of the area of expertise?

Are you able to adapt to any environment and coordinate with the team?

It is good that you hire for their knowledge, flexibility as well as experience. Explore their area of expertise and online presence.

Moreover, go ahead and ask them general questions. Engage them in a conversation and it will help you know a lot about mental agility and problem-solving ability.

If you are a non-techie entrepreneur, it is best when you can take help from any of your reliable in-house team members.

See how the software engineer fares in the audition and this will make the hiring decision very simple and clear for you.

Nonetheless, the key metrics you should consider are competence, creativity, problem-solving skill, and overall amicability.

Software Engineers Technical Acumen

An effective determination of technical proficiency goes far beyond the nuances of the programming language or the technology stack.

Well, these technical details should certainly not be ignored, they are one of the most important elements of the evaluation process.

Subsequently, the leading software engineer never wastes time on committing unrealistic expectations.

Moreover, learning a new language and technology is a trivial exercise for a senior tech lead.

This has to be the fundamental technical strength and understanding, creative thinking, problem-solving that is critical to evaluate.

Apart from this, the proven method for accomplishing this is to pose a programming challenge unconstrained by language.

Present the candidate with a particular problem and ask him/her to code the solution.

Furthermore, the only requirement should be: the solution should be correct. Remember the objective here is to evaluate the software engineers:

Ability to solve

Knowledge

Coding style

Additionally, this type of technical screening will help you a lot.

Speaking of Language

You have to choose the best software engineer, so being technologically savvy should not be the only factor to consider.

Communication and soft skills also matter. These professionals should be able to communicate clearly, effectively both verbally and in writing.

In addition, these skills are easy to evaluate in the course of an interview. Verbal skills are important for maximizing effective team interaction and interchange of the idea.

Technical writing samples should be preferred by asking the software developer or software development team.

Especially, this will help to evaluate not only writing skills but also technical clarity. It also provides the opportunity to review and analyze so that you can discuss and critique their techniques. This helps to serve a valuable filter.

Conclusion

Last but not the least, start by ensuring you understand your product and what all will it take to complete.

Do in-depth research as it will help you select the right software engineer for your project.

Apart from this, the aforementioned tips described can serve as a valuable source for finding, hiring, and retaining software engineers for startups that are best in the industry.

Additionally, we have shared with you the top tips to hire software engineers for startups. Furthermore, this is the best and highly talented to work in your company.

Finally, be sure about the requirements, expectations, weigh all the options and look at the right places.

Whenever you think of hiring software programmers, it shouldn’t be rocket science.

Find the path that is right for your company and execute it.

There will be success and you can be assured to be on the right path.However, you have to keep in mind that effective hiring is not a destination, it is a journey.