Last Updated on 2024-10-29
Hiring tech talent requires more than browsing through profiles. If you want your business to succeed, start with the people who will work with you. Find out some tips on how to find and recruit tech employees for your business.
Tech talent is rare, especially skilled and experienced developers. A lot of people assume that you can easily hire tech talent. Simply browse through LinkedIn, enlist IT staffing agencies, or other job posting sites where profiles of software developers flood through every page.
However, you are not merely hiring someone who knows how to code. You want someone who can help you grow your SaaS business. The only way to do that is to make sure that you recruit the right people to work for your company.
This article provides tips on hiring tech talent wisely for any company.
Are You A Tech or Non-Tech Founder?
Before listing the different tips on recruiting tech talent, let us first categorize you as an entrepreneur. Are you a tech or non-tech founder? Do you need to be tech-savvy to hire programmers?
Tech founders know the ropes around technology. Obviously, they are knowledgeable when it comes to programming languages, skill levels, and technical levels of a candidate. A non-tech founder may not be well-versed in this area. If so, the founder needs help in recruitment. That is why many businesses consist of two founders: tech and non-tech.
Full Scale is a perfect example. Our company has two successful founders, Matt DeCoursey and Matt Watson. The Matts, though with similar names, differ in so many ways. Matt Watson is a programming genius.
In fact, Watson has built and sold two tech companies, amounting to millions of dollars. Matt DeCoursey is also a successful businessman with many startups, such as GigaBook. On top of that, he has authored numerous books for entrepreneurs.
Watson is a master of writing code, while DeCoursey writes the checks (his words). These two built Full Scale, a software development company that helps others hire remote tech talent.
One is a tech founder, while the other is not. Watson stepped up as CEO after DeCoursey decided to retire. However, they helped and learned from each other filling in the skills gaps when they first started. Watson took care of the tech side of the business, while DeCoursey handled employee management, marketing, and sales. The company is still growing to this day.
The bottom line is that it does not matter if you are a tech or non-tech founder when hiring tech talent. All you need is an expert at finding the right employees.
Tips on How to Hire Tech Talent
We’ve resolved questions regarding recruitment chops between a tech and a non-tech founder. Let’s move on to hire skilled tech talent tips.
1. Define your business objective
Before you take action, you must first find out the motivation behind it. What is your main objective? Your objective serves as the compass to point you to the right employee. You canโt simply say, โI need a software developer to build my program.โ Many factors come into play when hiring tech talent, such as the programming language, platform, timeline, and location.
If you donโt specify your objective, you might hire an expert tech worker, but not the one you need. Remember that PHP differs from Ruby. An expert PHP developer may not necessarily possess the qualities of a Ruby developer. Sometimes, you might need to go further out and hire international tech talent.
2. Ask for help in hiring tech talent, especially non-tech founders
There is no shame in asking for help when hiring tech talent. No man is an island; the same goes for your business. Whether you are a tech or non-tech founder, you might still need to consult an expert in the industry. It can be a friend, colleague, or family member.
Discuss the requirements of a potential applicant and decide how many people you will need. If you have an existing technical team, include them in the narrative as well. Involving the team can help you narrow down specifications and improve proper technical terminologies.
Then, communicate the qualifications to your HR team to determine the ad content to post.
Here’s a list of the most trusted IT recruiters in the US. These talent recruiters can lend you a hand in hiring tech talent:
California (CA)
Texas (TX)
Florida (FL)
Illinois (IL)
Best IT Recruiters in Peoria | Best IT Recruiters in Springfield | Best IT Recruiters in Naperville | Best IT Recruiters in Chicago |
Arizona (AZ)
Colorado (CO)
Georgia (GA)
Massachusetts (MA)
Michigan (MI)
Minnesota (MN)
North Carolina (NC)
North Dakota (ND)
New York (NY)
Ohio (OH)
Best IT Recruiters in Cincinnati | Best IT Recruiters in Cleveland | Best IT Recruiters in Columbus | Best IT Recruiters in Dayton |
Oregon (OR)
Pennsylvania (PA)
South Carolina (SC)
Tennessee (TN)
Utah (UT)
Virginia (VA)
Washington (WA)
Best IT Recruiters in Bellevue | Best IT Recruiters in Spokane | Best IT Recruiters in Tacoma | Best IT Recruiters in Seattle |
Wisconsin (WI)
Alabama (AL)
3. Donโt disregard referrals
Referrals are the most cost-effective way to spread the word about your job posting. You can ask associates in the industry for probable candidates. Since you belong to the same industry circle, they can help you find the right people for the position.
A referral scheme works as well if you have an existing number of employees. Employee referral bonuses encourage tech workers to find others to work for the company.
4. Be specific when hiring tech talent
A mistake that a lot of businesses make in posting job ads when hiring tech talent is not specifying qualifications.
You will end up with a full inbox of messages and resumรฉs, but most are not the tech workers you need. You can attract the right tech talent with ads that include job descriptions that will appeal to them.
- Job title โ the job title is essential to avoid confusion. A content writer is different from a technical writer. Technical writers are knowledgeable about the tech industry. Though some content writers also do tech writing, it is not guaranteed. You might hire a content writer who knows nothing about technical documentation and such.
- Required and expected โ be direct and convey what you require and expect from the applicant. Donโt use vague language for hiring tech talent. State their expected tasks and the necessary knowledge to attain them as much as possible.
- Provide links โ the tech industry does not have fixed terms for everything. Sometimes, they vary depending on the environment or tech community. To avoid misunderstandings, provide a link that describes the job role.
5. Test the candidates when hiring tech talent
Last but not least, always test candidates. In conducting technical tests, donโt settle for the simple question-and-answer type of testing. You need to have a detailed series of tests that will help determine the skill and potential of the applicant.
First, you can do the technical test, where they need to answer a few questions. Then, proceed to the situational test, where they need to solve problems that your company has encountered.
Lastly, the interview. In the series of interviews, you find out if the applicant fits in your work culture. Donโt disregard the interview. Remember that work culture can affect the development of the company.
Find Excellent Tech Talent at Full Scale
And there you have it: tips on successfully hiring tech talent to grow your business. It does not matter if you are a tech or non-tech CEO. All you need to do is be vigilant and hire wisely.
You can find potential candidates on many social media platforms. You have LinkedIn, QA forums, open-source code contributions, recruiting firms, and even job posting platforms. But going through each profile requires a lot of time when hiring tech talent.
Instead of spending days in recruitment, why not partner with a software development center that can provide you with a complete team of software developers? Complete in the sense that we perform the tedious job of recruiting, screening, and hiring while you wait for the filtered-out bunch of profiles. All you need to do is specify what you need, and we will provide the team.
By doing so, you can spend your time planning the growth of your company instead of hiring tech talent for your team. This is what Full Scale does best. We house the best software developers in our company and help businesses such as yours in future growth.
What are you waiting for? Schedule an appointment now!
Matt Watson is a serial tech entrepreneur who has started four companies and had a nine-figure exit. He was the founder and CTO of VinSolutions, the #1 CRM software used in today’s automotive industry. He has over twenty years of experience working as a tech CTO and building cutting-edge SaaS solutions.
As the CEO of Full Scale, he has helped over 100 tech companies build their software services and development teams. Full Scale specializes in helping tech companies grow by augmenting their in-house teams with software development talent from the Philippines.
Matt hosts Startup Hustle, a top podcast about entrepreneurship with over 6 million downloads. He has a wealth of knowledge about startups and business from his personal experience and from interviewing hundreds of other entrepreneurs.