Great software engineers can enhance a company’s efficiency, improve the quality of its product portfolio, and help foster long-term growth. This value is why a high demand for quality engineering talent exists. Thousands of companies across industries are determining how to recruit software engineers to support their critical initiatives and improve customer satisfaction.
For those new to hiring software engineering talent, you may wonder, “How much does it cost to recruit a software engineer?”
In this article, we will cover where and how you can source great engineering talent ahead of your next big project.
1. Where to Source Software Engineers
Before creating a job listing and spending money on promoting your opening, consider where you want to source your talent. If you want to know how to recruit software engineers, you must first determine where the candidates that you want to hire will spend time online.
LinkedIn is the biggest networking site on the web today. Hundreds of thousands of software engineers have accounts on the platform, making it easy to connect and message prospective employees within minutes.
Sites such as Indeed, Dice.com, and Wellfound function more like traditional job boards than LinkedIn’s networking-friendly interface. Indeed receives the most traffic out of the three, but Dice and Wellfound offer unique perks. Dice’s platform is focused on the tech industry, making it great for software and hardware companies seeking new talent, whereas Wellfound emphasizes talent-sourcing services for startups and remote companies.
Stack Overflow has one of the strongest online developer communities and serves as a great resource for companies and recruiters actively searching for fresh engineering talent. While it isn’t as widely used as LinkedIn or Indeed, Stack Overflow’s user base is nearly entirely comprised of developers and engineers. Promoting a new opening on the site would be a far more targeted approach than posting a listing on one of the bigger platforms.
2. Look For The Right Skills and Qualifications
Software engineers can ensure technology needs are met in a variety of ways. They can advance automation processing, analyze data, and assist in developing robust systems. This versatility is common among software engineers, which many different companies and tech recruiters are likely looking for during their search.
As with any job posting or advertisement, knowing the most important software engineering skills and qualifications to include is essential. In many cases, these requirements will vary depending on the types of projects your teams will be tackling.
For technical skills, employers and recruiters should specify which coding language(s) the engineer will use in the role. Examples may include the coding languages Python, Java, C++, or JavaScript. Many positions will require a combination of these languages and others, so include any languages pertinent to the position in your job description.
Beyond coding languages, you will want to find candidates with solid problem-solving and analytical skills, also known as troubleshooting capabilities. These skills often go hand-in-hand with an engineer’s programming ability. Programming skills go beyond general coding language knowledge—an evaluation of programming ability can determine how skilled and efficient an engineer is when coding in a particular language. Generally speaking, engineers who pay strong attention to detail will have quality programming and troubleshooting skills.
3. Enhance Your Software Engineer Job Postings
To capture the attention of high-performing software engineers, your job listing will need to include more than just skills and coding languages.
For starters, you should clearly outline the role’s responsibilities. Call out which software engineering discipline will be needed. Some projects will require end-to-end software development work, others may necessitate database management, and other projects may focus on data structure.
It’s also a good idea to detail the firm’s tech stack. In addition to the coding language(s) to be used, the ad should include any database admin, tech design, communications, documentation, and no-code development tools the company currently uses.
Your job listing should clearly state the role’s compensation and benefits plan. It’s difficult to quantify how much it costs to recruit a software engineer, and that’s often due to the wide range of compensation packages for the title. In general, the more competitive the compensation plan, the more likely you are to secure top talent.
Innovative projects with learning opportunities that can help advance one’s careers, may be something an engineer would likely be looking for when researching a company. Drawing attention to an engaging or unique company culture that promotes effective leadership, inclusivity, and an effective work-life balance can also help your ad’s performance. Mention any additional office perks offered, such as free gym memberships, dining services, or childcare stipends. Ultimately, if you want to learn how to recruit superb software engineers, taking the time to research the perks and benefits popular in the developer community is an excellent strategy.
4. Use a Holistic Interview Strategy
For those learning how to recruit software engineers for the first time, the interview stage is usually perceived as the most challenging.
Once your job ad begins to pick up traction and applications start flowing into your inbox, you should implement a holistic interview strategy to evaluate each candidate’s technical capabilities and personality traits. This well-rounded approach is broken into two interviews to capture insights from both sessions, reduce churn, enhance team chemistry, and improve long-term job satisfaction.
The technical interview will determine if a candidate has the necessary skills and problem-solving abilities for the project(s). The personal interview will determine if the candidate is a cultural fit within the team.
How Much Does It Cost to Recruit a Software Engineer?
Many variables factor into the total cost of recruiting quality software engineers. Hiring managers are usually left wondering, “How much does it cost to recruit a software engineer?”
For compensation package negotiations, the company’s size, profitability, and location all play key roles, as do the candidate’s experience, skill set, and responsibilities. In addition to the salary and benefit costs that will be paid out to the employee, firms need to account for the funds spent during the recruiting cycle as well. These variables often leave executives and hiring teams trying to determine the cost to recruit a software engineer and how they can streamline this process at scale.
Many firms choose to leverage internal resources to lead recruitment efforts. Often, this approach results in companies posting a listing on a job board and waiting for it to generate leads. The duration of the job listing can vary—some may receive attention from hundreds of quality applicants within minutes, while others may sit vacant for weeks on end.
This process can be costly in some situations, once you factor in the fees associated with training and onboarding a new employee. The average ramp-up period for a software engineer is roughly six months. These costs can be surprisingly high when added to those stemming from the operational deficiencies caused by the vacancy itself.
Black Diamond Networks Can Help
Are you interested in learning more about how to recruit software engineers for your business? Maybe you want to begin the recruiting process but are wondering, “How much does it cost to recruit a software engineer with an external recruiter?”
Black Diamond Networks can help. Our technical recruiting team takes the stress off our clients to find the most qualified candidates for their needs. By leveraging our expansive talent network, we can streamline your recruitment process and help secure top-notch software engineering talent for your upcoming projects, with a faster turnaround time than comparing staffing companies. We are able to do so by continuously working very closely with excellent consultants, and their Senior Management.
We use in-house expertise and resources to efficiently and effectively identify, attract, and secure top software engineering talent. We’ve sourced engineers specializing in embedded software, firmware, Board Support Package (BSP), software DSP, software systems engineering, communication and networking, and mobile app projects (among other disciplines) for our clients.
Our relational business approach, centered on our customer service philosophy, requires our dedicated account managers to develop an intimate understanding of each customer’s business. This allows them to accurately calculate the costs associated with each variable and clearly project the costs stemming from the vacancy. Our account managers are transparent with this data and can provide detailed pricing information upon request.
The Black Diamond Network team recruits and screens qualified engineers daily. When you have a skills gap, we have the engineer you need. If you’re ready to take the next step in finding the perfect software engineer who will accelerate your company’s initiatives and invigorate your team’s chemistry, please visit our contact page to connect with a BDN representative.