Hiring Top-Developers: The Developer-Centric Job Ad
When you're looking for a developer, a job ad is often the first thing a developer notices from your company. Although the job posting is the first step in the hiring process, companies often put little effort into it. A poor job posting prevents talented developers from applying to your company. With an applicant-centric job posting, you will get more, and most importantly, better applicants.
In addition, the composition of the job advertisement helps you to better understand the company and the position to be filled, and subsequently to address the appropriate candidates.
In our professional past, we have helped several dozen companies improve their developer outreach. In this article, we've summarized some tips for creating the perfect job ad.
Culture:
Talented developers more often assume that many companies only offer boring jobs with poor work environments. Describing the culture of your development team can help you stand out from other employers.
Ask your existing team what it's like to be a developer at your company. What does the team like most about the job? What values are important to them? How do they develop software? Based on the answers given, they can better describe the development culture.
Job Title:
Be sure to use a good title for your job posting - it should clearly indicate the role of the job and not just be taken as a catch-all phrase.
Requirements:
Add only relevant skills to the advertised job - avoid meaningless bulleted lists in your ad. Also be careful with assumed skills, a large portion of developers are self-taught.
Tech Stack:
The field of software development serves a wide range of skills, so it's important to list exact languages, technologies, frameworks, and databases in your ad. An attractive tech stack will not only help you attract suitable candidates, but also position your employer brand favorably with developers.
Perks & Benefits:
After describing your culture and the technologies used, I also recommend stating additional benefits offered to employees in the development department. However, you won't be able to attract many applicants with free coffee and tea.
Open Source Contribution:
If your team does open source contribution, be sure to mention it (e.g., GitHub organization page). If your community has contributed something significant (not just a wrapper for your APIs), that's a sign of a healthy and exciting environment for developers.
Working hours:
Another thing you should definitely mention is whether you give your employees the option to work "remotely" or flexibly.
Application Opportunities:
Make it easy to apply: software developers, especially those with above-average talent, are often in a permanent position, or can choose between 10 offers at any given time. Therefore, simplify the application and contact options for IT professionals.
Application process:
Describe your hiring process. A clear process shows the candidate that you take it seriously and the application won't disappear into a black hole.
Software Development Process:
Developers want to know exactly what your future work environment will be like. Are you using scrum or kanban? What projects is the team working on? What tools are being used? This information should not be missing in a developer-centric display.
Salary range:
At many companies, it is common to keep a low profile when it comes to salary information, as this is expected to provide a better basis for negotiation. However, this approach does not apply when recruiting developers. Developers can choose the job and don't want to waste their time on low-paying jobs. Further, programmers know their market value and low salaries lead to dissatisfaction and thus faster quits.
They certainly don't want to spend too much time on a recruiting process that wouldn't come to a positive conclusion upfront due to financial reasons. You don't necessarily have to place an exact salary figure, a range already gives orientation.
Further development opportunities:
If you have developers on staff at your company who don't want to advance, they probably don't have the right programmers on your team.
Developers you want to attract always want to develop technically, or personally. For this reason, you should also include in your advertisement opportunities for further development, such as attending conferences, meetups, IT trainings, or certifications.
Workplace:
The job advertisement is the first impression that programmers get of your company, show besides the working conditions also insights into the daily work or workplace.
