The stock of the average software engineer has risen a great deal in recent years, and they are proving harder to find and retain. Whether you are already building a team of them, or looking to appoint your first, here are our tips for making it successful and sustainable.
A good team player is, at least, as valuable as a virtuoso
What good is Cristiano Ronaldo if he never passes the ball? Bear this in mind the next time you get the opportunity to interview or hire a ‘software engineering rock-star’ who likes his/her coffee served at a very specific temperature and who refuses to sit anywhere in the office except by the window. Individual flair and innovation counts for a lot, but remember that they’ll have to get along with other teammates, report to superiors and maybe even act as a mentor. Do they share your values, or will they break them?
However, don’t go too far the other way and only look for conformists. You need individuality to spice things up from time to time, so try to hit the right balance.
Asking for referrals from existing staff can throw up unexpected results
Some specialist recruiters charge thousands of pounds in finder’s fees for successfully placing a software engineer, which explains why many companies prefer to offer smaller incentives to existing staff who will each typically know plenty of likely candidates within their peer networks.
This approach works well if your current employee is settled and happy in their job, because they won’t feel threatened by the prospect of recommending the best possible friends and ex-colleagues.
By contrast, a less confident (consciously or otherwise) existing staff member is just as likely to refer a candidate who makes them look better by comparison. This can lead to making potentially disastrous hires if you are sufficiently lacking in conviction about what good software engineers look like to be swayed by someone else’s opinion.
Don’t misrepresent what you’re offering
When labour demand outstrips supply, organisations are often tempted to ‘oversell’ their job openings, offering way too much money and dressing up the job description so that it looks better than it is.
Really good software engineers tend to see through this, and many will even weigh up a completely different set of priorities. For example, being so motivated by the prospect of having their code used that being ‘top dog’ at a smaller, less fashionable company is more attractive than competing against other high-flying cutthroats in a larger and more bureaucratic organisation.
In other words, culture matters. Be honest with them, and yourself, but don’t sell yourself short.
Meet face-to-face or not at all
Phone interviews and online technical tests might be good for funnelling a big candidate pool down to a manageable number, but they tell you very little about the human being at the other end of the line. And besides, candidates are hardly growing on trees so do you really need this upstream part of the process?
Nothing beats a face-to-face interview situation, so insist upon this as being absolutely central to your recruitment process. Travel to them if it makes things easier, or if you suspect they might be worth the trouble.
Test them solving business problems, not technical ones
Use your face-to-face interview(s) to evaluate problem-solving abilities on business-orientated challenges. Get them up in front of a whiteboard to explain their thinking.
Weed out the software engineers who are high on technical blather and low on empathising with and understanding the pressures businesses face, and the common objectives they share. If you find a candidate who is just as professionally curious about new business models as new technologies then you are onto a winner!
Great software engineers also know how to simplify complicated concepts and prioritise their workload for optimum benefit, so try to devise ways of teasing this out. Demonstrating their ability to innately understand the bigger picture should hold them - and you - in good stead.
Only eager learners need apply
Any candidate who claims to know it all is a fraud. In any case, you should crave inquisitiveness from your staff; people who are serious about their own professional development and who look at learning opportunities with some measure of joy. This will ultimately pay dividends for your organisation.
Eager learners might cost you a little more in training bills, and they might even end up leaving in search of a fresh challenge after giving you a few good years, but what’s the alternative? A complacent worker who never develops and can’t drive extra value into your business?
As your organisation journeys toward its digital destiny, never forget that it’s people - not technology - that will create the value you’re looking for.
Guarantee that future by recruiting people who buy into your team culture and contribution to the long-term strategic vision of your business.
We’d like to thank www.helastel.com for this insight.