PROGRAMMERS ARE INTERESTED ONLY ABOUT THE MONEY (you have better offer, they will accept, you do not, you will be refused)
Of course, there’s no way to “touch” a candidate in software development unless you come up with a better offer. And not just better, but much better!
Again, a myth that is endorsed only by the lack of experience and skill in approaching developers and creating a relationship with them.
The truth is that they are no different from any other candidates in other industries in terms of salary expectations. Experience so far has shown me that when you are dealing with a candidate motivated to make a change, salary demands are around 30% above current earnings. And this is also confirmed by the IT industry surveys.
What is different, however, from other industries, is that most of developers will consider a job change when they understand that they no longer have much to learn from the current job or project in which they are involved. After more than 13 years of recruitment, I can say that they represent the professional category most motivated by the constant need for learning, and this should be of interest to a recruiter. How? A new role is of interest to them when it satisfies this constant need. And this is a resource worth leveraging in recruitment.
Of course, to understand that a new project in another company is a step forward for your candidates in software development, means understanding what they are doing now, to see the direction they have been going to for years, and to link what the company you are recruiting for offers to their next career goals. As a recruiter, if you miss this, you’re already one foot in the “job spamming process”… And you don’t want that!
The solution: understand the specifics of the industry, this constant need of them of learning that originates from the constant changes in technologies (languages, platforms, libraries and frameworks). Follow the professional paths of your candidates, understand their direction from the profiles you screen and be careful not to offer them what is no longer of their interest.
Also, besides constant need of learning, always look to motivate your candidates with attractiveness of the project they will work in. If you can take the luxury advantage of having a charismatic hiring manager on your side it would be an appalling lack of responsibility to make waste of such resources.
Team leader’s personality and attractiveness of the project are key leveraging points in convincing your candidate.
When your candidates are stuck in their salary demands you are walking on thin ice. It’s a question of time when it will break and make your services lacking of added value for the companies you recruit for.
This was the last article out of a series of three, referring to some limiting beliefs (I called them “myths” I my articles) that are widely spread in IT recruiting.
They have the dark magic power of diminishing the quality of the recruitment process, on recruiter side, hiring company side, and developer’s side too. Maintaining them, by turning them into corner stone beliefs, would make learning and skills acquiring process in IT recruitment much harder than it is, and deny much of the satisfaction a recruiters should benefit on their job. These should be enough for not even let them tempt you.