Stack Overflow DK Recruitment Day 2015 Presentation

Editor's Notes

• #3: My talk today will focus on the state of Nordic technical recruitment landscape and why companies are struggling to hire technical talent. I will talk about 3 topics- 1) our annual user survey and the results for the Nordic region, 2) 5 terms recruiters use in job listings and 3) 7 tips on how you can reach, attract and engage with the talent that you are looking to hire.
• #4: In 2008 Joel Spolsky and Jeff Atwood both former developers, created Stack Overflow, a site where millions of software developers help each other with technical questions. Previously Joel/ was working at Microsoft where he helped build excel and had since 2000 been the author of a very successful blog/ and has since become somewhat of an international developer rockstar and is today travelling around the world giving talks to developers and recruiters alike on the subject of technical talent and recruitment. As you can imagine the site was an instant success and there are now on average over 30 million developers a month making it the largest community for professional developers. To put this in perspective- this is the population of New York, London and Paris combined.
• #6: Why the change? why is it so difficult to find developers? Well the answer is simply that there aren’t enough developers to meet demand. every Research and data shows no trends for that to change. Companies need to understand developers better if they want to be able to compete for the best technical talent out there. Q: how many of you have mobiles, laptops, apps- all of these things are built using software and software and businesses needs developers. The fast rise of technology has secured that It’s a developers market. Uncool is now the most needed skill set on earth. Software is eating the world.
• #9: Good news is that 55% are open to, or actively looking for new job opportunities. However 54% said that they cannot find a job that seems interesting! What does this mean for you? There is a missed opportunity to position your company in front of developers and there’s a great opportunity to work on your employer branding and how you communicate with developers. First of all let’s focus on that.
• #10: we see a lot of companies struggle when communicating with developers. Developers like communicating in code so you can start by talking their language. In the next few slides I will talk about 5 terms that we see recruiters use a lot in job listings and how this can be interpreted by developers (real answers) and tips on how you can improve your job listings.
• #12: “We have an exciting new opportunity”… what is so exciting about it? Don’t use marketing jargon or be vague, be specific. What will the developers actually be working on? Put it in context of the person that you are talking to. Person interested in New technology, new experiences, why should that person be excited.- new challenges, new product to launch AND working on new technologies is a big one
• #13: Ping pong used to be a cool thing however now even the most corporate companies will have one . I am 100% sure you have more than that so focus on what makes your company different and unique. It may be free Friday lunches or big monitors for the employees or Thursday after work drinks etc. Stand out, there’s a lot of competition..
• #14: A developer’s professional world is pretty much entirely black or white. Either the code works or it doesn’t. There is no grey area. Be clear and don’t use jargony words.
• #15: Developers love a bit of fun don’t get me wrong BUT work has to be mentally challenging and fulfilling and THEN you’ll have a happy developer
• #17: In our survey we asked what matters most when it comes to choosing a job- AND it was not salary. In fact, over 95% have said they would take a 10% pay cut if these top things existed in a company. This really shows how important their job is to them and using a high salary alone will not cut it. However as with any job description they want to know that they are qualified so put salary on the job listing as it will save you time and wrong candidates. It’s a contributing factor not the deciding factor. Top three things were building something that matters, quality of colleagues- Developers like working with smart people who gets things done- This is also our motto for hiring anyone to work with us- and work/life balance.. So, emphasise what the scope of the role is, what they’ll be building, who they are going to be working with and how you juggle work/life balance in your company. This is what matters the most.
• #19: So, now you know what they care about and what channel to use. Now what? Writing a good message is key. Whatever you do, no not send a non-personalised email. 72% of developers said that the single most important thing about messages is that it’s personalised. An effective message should show that the you, as the recruiter, did your research on the candidate. You can show this by making sure the position isn’t something the developer is over or under qualified for or mentioning specific projects they have worked on in the past and how that relates to the new role.
• #20: One of the most revealing insights from survey was the huge number of developers who do not have a formal computer education background and who have found other ways of teaching themselves (on the job or online courses). The big lesson for employers with this one is to stop insisting on formal academic qualifications. If you ask for a Masters degree in Computer Science in your job advert, you are immediately eliminating a large portion of the candidate pool for no good reason. Bright people can teach themselves how to code without the need to attend university
• #24: Here are some takeaways. 1. Think like a developer when you are hiring technical talent- be clear 2. Make your job vacancies interesting to them- know what attracts them 3. Really go out of your way to provide insights into your company culture 4. It is not just about salary - emphasise the tangible AND intangible benefits 5. Put developers at the heart of your organisation - they are ones that will make your product great And lastly- Don’t leave HR to make your developer hires alone. Your existing developer team needs to be involved throughout the process.
• #25: I hope this offers you some practical advice on how you can overcome the challenges of recruiting the best developer talent. feel free to Download our FREE European Developer Landscape 2015 survey on this link.