What's a good way to find talented people to hire? | Hacker News Reader

What's a good way to find talented people to hire?

10 pointsSpielo13 comments

I work for a large video game company and need JavaScript developers, but I'm having difficulty getting high-calibre applicants. Agencies are infuriating and useless, but it's hard to know where to spend money to reach the right people... Linkedin? Stack Exchange? Any recommendations would be appreciated!

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Most companies seriously underestimate the level of exposure they have. We usually recommend applying inbound marketing techniques to your recruiting process to improve your exposure. A few tips:

1) Open source one or more useful projects. Smart people will use them, fork them, etc. 2) Have a referral program, and make sure it's easy to use. A lot of companies have a program that gives employees $1,000 or more if they refer a candidate, but not a lot of companies make the referral process an easy one. Build a landing page for each position. Include a little information about the company and the job. That way, employees have something to share on their social networks and via email. 3. If you're looking for awesome and nothing else will do, consider allowing remote work. 4. Set up a company page at Work for Pie (shameless plug) or Coderwall or similar. It'll help developers get to know your team and culture much better than a simple job description.

Good luck!

Right heree onH of course. There is a monthly Who's Hiring post. Try posting there next month.

Excellent, thanks. I'm new to HN, a friend recommended I ask on here, but didn't want to wade in with a job posting without understanding how things work! I'll keep an eye out for Who's Hiring.

You will be waiting a couple of weeks then! It's beginning of the month kind of stuff.

HN doesn't tend to take too kindly to none-ycombinator job postings, it goes against the spirit of the site, but as someone else mentioned, puzzles and challenges tend to bring the eyeballs to your site.

Find people and train them to your requirements. Low level positions let you assess who has the raw talent and cultural fit for your business. Invest in developing people. Hiring a hotshot developer instead of training one is getting a solution from your vendor vs. building it yourself.

Go to local colleges, 4 or even 2 year schools, there are probably several near you with a CS programme. Meet teachers, and have them recommend students. Hire the good programmers, the talented ones who lack experience, as interns or entry level developers, and teach them javascript if you have to. Weed out the ones who don't have the raw ability or personality you want. The ones who do, keep training.

They don't have to replace the high calibre developer search, but they can supplement that process and some of them will eventually be high calibre.

But if someone doesn't trains good developers in work environments or something similar, there won't ever be enough.

Maybe stating the obvious, but did you try attending related meetups? node.js, angular, backbone, etc...You can at least get to know people who work with those. You might convince them to join, or they might know someone looking for a job.

I don't think people realise how effective meetups are for hiring. If you sponsor/speak at the right event, it's near impossible not to meet some decent candidates.

If your company is large I assume you have some budget. You could consider creating a fun and challenging recruitment campaign which will go viral. Something like WibiData did http://www.kotaku.com.au/2013/01/this-startups-new-hire-appl... Ideally it should contain puzzles which will accurately and reliably help to assess the required competences but that's quite hard to do and seems to be unnecessary if your main problem is sourcing.

Also, this may be a good time to evaluate your standards and expectations to make sure that they are realistic.

Are you listing for a Jr. position, but expecting Sr. level talent? Is your compensation package in line with the caliber of candidates you are seeking? Are you rejecting applicants because they don't match your skill requirements exactly? Smart people can learn new things pretty quickly.

If you have a budget, then the answer to your question is to advertise everywhere!

I recently landed a position, and I'd suggest that you look on Glassdoor.com to see what impressions candidates are getting about your company from browsing there. Are the salaries competitive? Do the employee reviews make it sound like a nightmare to work at? Do the interview reviews make it sound like an unreasonable process?

Also, consider hosting a javascript hacking class or meetup and choose talent based on the performance you see there.

Don't forget to offer a decent salary package. It's not uncommon to see people wondering where all the talent are, only to find that they're offering something like $30,000 salaries.

If you have a local university try advertising there, be honest and clear about what are you doing to do, etc

good luck!

Why not give someone an opportunity? It looks like you are getting people, but you don't think they are any good.

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