Attention Employers! It's a buyers market. Over the course of the last 18-24 months software engineer Supply / Demand reports are showing approximately three open positions for every one qualified job seeker.
If I told you we were hiring JavaScript Ninjas would you think any less of me? Don't answer that. See, I'm not looking for "Rock Stars," "Warlocks" or a "Code Monkey" either.
Attracting top talent takes more than posting an extensive laundry list of required skills or using clever words and phrases to appear "hip."
What if I told you I simply need a solid client-side developer who can come up with elegant front-end solutions? You'll be given autonomy to make decisions, work with some reasonably talented and friendly human beings, and be treated & compensated fairly. Sound reasonable?
The methods recruiters (both corporate and agency) are using to engage with technical professionals need to change. Job descriptions should be descriptive of the job not a generic list of skills that you won't find combined in one person.
Here's what top talent wants to see in a job description:
- A decent picture of the day-to-day roles and responsibilities. They understand they'll be slinging code and running unit tests. They also understand there likely will be some production babysitting. They're looking for the FUN stuff like researching and deploying new technology along with being an integrated member of the solution development & delivery team. Coding existing technical requirements is part of every software engineer's job, but if that's all they're going to do reference "code monkey" and make sure your day-to-day picture looks like that. (Note: this will likely negatively impact the number of applicants.)
- What kind of people will they be working with on a regular basis? What's the team make-up? Who inside and outside the organization will be influencing and impacting their work on a daily basis? Is there a mentor? Is there someone there TO mentor?
- What the company offers in terms of culture, benefits, and opportunities for growth. Ultimately they want to know why it's a great place to work and what might set you apart from the other two employers who are competing for their services.
- How much money the employer expects to pay for the right person. They'd also like to know the non-monetary reasons to consider the job if the money is on the low side of the scale.
- Some core technical expectations without running down the litany of every piece of technology and third party vendor currently residing in your data center.
What top talent doesn't want to see is qualifications listing "a minimum of five years experience in XYZ" or a demand for "excellent organization, communication, and/or people skills."
They also don't want to see jobs that don't pay a fair market wage. A recent senior .NET developer posting in Kansas City touted "TOP PAY $" yet listed pay range is $25,000less than average compensation level and $35,000 less than what empirical data from a number of reliable sources indicates.
The data tells me the senior .NET developer you are so desperately trying to attract to your team is currently making anywhere from $90k - $120k annually. An advertised $65 - $85k range represents a significant cut in pay which will only attract unqualified applicants or no applicants at all.
PS: I didn't run the numbers on a ninja, but I'm certain that will be higher.
Software professionals are smart buyers so talent acquisition professionals need to be savvy marketers.
PPS: I seriously am hiring a couple solid client-side developers to build elegant front-end solutions who will be given autonomy to make decisions, work with some reasonably talented and friendly human beings, and be treated & compensated fairly.
