How do you recruit a good developer?

Recruiting a developer in the digital age is a real challenge.

A study by StackOverFlow revealed in 2019 that 95% of developers were already employed. So there's a lot of demand from companies and not many developers available.

If you don't intend to entrust this (almost impossible) mission to a recruitment firm, how can you put all the chances on your side to hire a good developer quickly?

Here are our 6 tips for recruiting talent, overcoming recruitment difficulties in the tech industry and convincing those talented individuals to join your team!

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Tip 1: Work on your employer brand

Employer branding is essential when recruiting, whatever the profile you're looking for.

It expresses your company's personality: its values, expertise, culture and mission. So it's important that it's carefully crafted and offers a true reflection of your company, enabling candidates to get to know you and want to apply for a job with you.

Why is this important? Candidates are becoming increasingly demanding about their working lives: a good salary or a well-known company are no longer sufficient criteria. When considering a new job, certain criteria are becoming increasingly important, such as :

• respect for work/life balance,
• the atmosphere on the premises,
• company values,
• and fulfilling projects.

💡 Tip: don't fall into the trap of trying to please everyone. Be honest, transparent, assume your positions and you'll have a great chance of attracting the attention of like-minded developers who can thrive in your company.

Discover our top tips for developing your employer brand effectively!

Tip 2: Define your needs

To recruit the right developer, it's essential that your needs are clearly defined upstream: project, responsibilities, skills and technical languages used.

It's this need that determines the type of profile you need to recruit. If your technical knowledge is limited, don't hesitate to consult the CTO or a developer to find out exactly what the project needs:

• the programming languages used (JavaScript, Php, Python, C++, Shell, etc.),
• type of database (SQL or noSQL),
• front-end (Angular, JQuery, React, etc.) and back-end (Symfony, Laravel, Django, etc.) frameworks.

💡 Do you need a totally versatile profile? You'll need to specify that you're looking for a full stack developer.

Don't hesitate to do the exercise of writing a job profile of your ideal candidate to get your ideas straight.

Tip no. 3: Run a fast, smooth recruitment process

There's no denying that an efficient recruitment process maximizes your chances of being chosen by a candidate, especially if they have a choice.

So be sure to calibrate your processes upstream so that, once applications have been received, all the stages can be completed quickly, from :

• technical tests ready for candidates to take,
• interview slots reserved in the diaries of the employees concerned,
• in mind all the qualities of the ideal profile.

👉 As long as your needs are well defined upstream and these elements are respected, the rest of the process should go quickly.

While there are no rules set in stone, a 2-week process from initial contact to hiring proposal is considered fast and efficient.

To help you, don't hesitate to use applicant tracking software.

Beetween, for example, is a highly intuitive, easy-to-use recruitment software that facilitates the management of your applications by digitizing all your recruitment tasks. Multi-distribution of your job offers on over 150 partner job boards , automatic generation of employment contracts, creation of a career site in your image, automatic sorting of CVs and applications... your entire recruitment process is streamlined and you save precious time!

Tip 4: Take care with your job advert

The job offer is the tip of the iceberg, the one that showcases your company and the position to be filled. You need to take particular care with it, to make the best developers want to apply.

But first of all, how do you stand out from the myriad of job offers flooding the market? How do you ensure that a candidate clicks on your ad rather than another?

Start with the elements that appear on the results page:

• the title must be precise (for example, don't say " Developer", but "DevOps Engineer" or "Expert PHP Developer"),
• the location of the premises, or whether the position can be held on a full remote basis (full-time telecommuting),
• the date: the more recent the ad, the more applicants will click. If the ad is too old, it's doubtful whether it's still relevant.

On the Welcome to the jungle site, you can highlight the technologies used in the company, which are of interest to developers:

Have you succeeded in attracting the attention of potential candidates who have clicked on your ad? Now you need to get them to read the ad and apply.

A good job advert should :

• be short, because according to WeLoveDevs.com, the average reading time for ads that convert is 2 minutes and 30 seconds;
• be personalized and transparent about your expectations and values;
• describe the project, missions and responsibilities of the position;
• provide information on the frameworks and languages used;
• provide background information (work methods, team size, whether you work from home or not, etc.);
• structure information using bullet points and bold words.

Tip 5: Evaluate your profile and skills

Evaluating a developer's profile in relation to his or her qualifications? Forget the old French reflex when hiring a developer. It's a field that's particularly well-supplied with talented self-taught profiles, and it would be a shame to ignore them out of an over-emphasis on higher education.

So, how do you assess a developer? We advise you to pay attention to :

• mastery of the necessary computer languages
• the ability to learn and adapt, because everything evolves regularly and you need to be able to adapt to frequent changes,
• previous projects, by looking at your github portfolio or the opinions of your freelance clients,
• essential qualities such as curiosity, a passion for code, open-mindedness and the ability to work as part of a team.

👉 You should also be aware that it's becoming increasingly common not to filter candidates according to their mastery of a particular language, but rather to assess their ability to solve a specific problem.to assess their ability to solve a specific problem, regardless of the languages or methods used. Technical mastery is all well and good, but the spirit of analysis, exploration and tenacity are sometimes far more valuable assets.

This is precisely what CodinGame is all about, a platform that helps companies recruit the right developers by creating programming challenges tailored to the position to be filled, which they can set up in just a few minutes.

More than just technical tests, these concrete code exercises put candidates in real-life situations to validate not only their mastery of a specicific computer language, but also to assess their reasoning, speed and the way in which they mobilize their resources to solve the given problem.

A comparative score lets you know where a developer stands in relation to all those who have taken the test, so you can make the best decision.

See all software Recruiting

Tip no. 6: Post your offer on developer recruitment platforms

While it's perfectly possible to use LinkedIn when recruiting a web developer, it's also a good idea to turn to specialized developer job boards to post your job offer.

Here are a few examples:

• WeLoveDevs.com,
• Skill Value,
• PHP France.

Better adapted to the needs and expectations of developers, they generally attract the best profiles who feel more confident and better understood. For example, it's possible to remain anonymous and discreetly apply for jobs while you're in the field.