How to Hire a Software Engineer

There’s no beating around the bush with this, the tech market (especially when it comes to software engineers) is tough. There are lots more jobs than there are candidates, therefore there is always issues such as inflated salaries, huge counter offers, increased companies going fully remote as well as companies outsourcing their development overseas. With this in mind, when recruiting for a high quality software engineer you should consider the following factors:

Salary

No shock, salary is a key factor for software engineers when considering new roles. Recently, we’ve seen software engineers with just 2 years experience in .NET development get hired in excess of £50k, therefore it shows just how competitive the market is (that wasn’t their only offer!) When considering what salary you should advertise, it’s important to do your research. You can do this by seeing where your salaries are compared to competitors, or ask us! We provide a free salary benchmark information sheet that will hopefully be a good guide for the exact type of candidate you’re looking for. Salaries vary from framework to framework etc, usually candidates with .NET and React exposure are going for a little more than PHP candidates, but its all down to how the candidate presents themselves.

Remote/Hybrid working

Are you offering fully remote or hybrid working? A recent survey showed that 8 in 10 software engineers turned down roles as they required some days in the office with the main reason being that there is simply no need for software engineers to make the effort to travel into city centre offices to work as their job doesn’t require much interaction apart from a morning stand up, which can simply be done over Zoom or Microsoft Teams. 

What makes you stand out from the crowd?

Just below salary and remote working, software engineers value what experiences they’re going to be crafting and how it impacts the society we live in. Usually tech for good companies do well in attracting and retaining great talent, due to the impact they have on society. So its always a good idea to explain in job descriptions and interviews how your applications and platforms are effecting our day to day life, because at the end of the day the candidate is interviewing you as much as you’re interviewing them.

Responsibilities

When recruiting for a software engineer, it’s important that you detail their exact responsibilities. Will they manage a team? Will they be responsible for a key part of a build? What will their day to day look like? These are a all key factors that anyone looking for a new role will look for, so it’s good to explain them to a candidate from day one. Candidates are usually tempted to roles for enhanced responsibility from their last role, so always a good idea to let them know if they will have more and be an important team player!

 

Get in touch with us today if you'd like any advice on hiring a Software Engineer for your business - just click here.