DeveloperWeek 2020

Hiring engineers is a delicate balancing act for any company. On the one hand, you want to maintain the speed and agility that comes from running lean. On the other, you need enough resources to execute against your roadmap and new skills to build your team’s capabilities.

We’ve all felt the strain of not being able to hire fast enough: Developer jobs are still the toughest to fill, with more than 250,000 vacancies projected by 2026, and about two out of three HR professionals say they struggle to fill engineering roles, according to The Society for Human Resource Management. If you’re sourcing talent locally — and particularly if you’re hiring at the senior level — it’s likely you’re competing with the biggest companies on salary, benefits and brand recognition.

You won’t get very far by trying to outcompete these massive companies. Instead, think about changing how you hire. You can scale your team and hire great engineers by expanding your talent pool, rethinking your technical assessments and being intentional about how you match candidates with your team’s culture and needs.