Ahh, blogging! I've been on and off this blog for as far as I can remember, but I have to admit I've been so busy lately that it's been years since I took the laptop on my knee to write a solid article.
Anyway, what prompted me to do this now was the seemingly impossible task of finding good IT people to hire. I've been a software engineer for longer than I'd like to admit and I always had a role or another in the hiring process - either interviewing people or designing interviews for various positions. In the last few years it's become a struggle to get people to come to be interviewed. It's another mountain to climb to actually find good people that come in and good luck if one of those actually accepts the offer being made. I've heard the same complaint coming directly from IT companies and from specialised recruiters.
Good people are hard to find - isn't that true for any industry?
True - but in IT there are a few factors that make things worse:
- software engineers are spoiled. I can say it, I'm one of you! We get all the perks - nice offices, high salaries, flexible hours, all sorts of benefits. In the end we are lazy - why move somewhere else if you like where you work. Most IT people like their jobs, their colleagues and have no incentive to move
- IT salaries are on the rise. You usually don't think about moving if your salary increases anyway where you work
- GOOD software engineers are rare. By GOOD I mean those that can work in various projects, can adapt to multiple clients, can focus on a job today and on another tomorrow just to balance clients. Most IT people get comfortable doing a particular job and are afraid to move on when new opportunities arise because they are afraid of change (most people are!)
- for a software engineer, there is no pressure to find another job now. There are always so many offers that there is hardly any incentive to get up and start searching.
So what's to be done?
First, I think traditional software companies need a complete rethink - gone are the days when an eight hour work schedule used to do the trick. Today's developers find plenty of working opportunities from home or part home/part company headquarters. Good developers also have families and naturally prefer those positions that allow more family time, even during work hours.
Then, the entire payment scheme would need an overhaul - rather than paying people by the hour, alternative schemes such as project pay might be more beneficial both for hard working employees and for companies.
There are already companies that have a business model entirely adapted to these realities - one that I recently found is TopTal. This is an innovative company that filters only good developers (only the top 3% get selected) and then puts them in contact with clients. In essence it becomes a virtual company which has only fantastic software developers which can be organised in teams based on the projects they are needed to work on. I liked the idea so much I even applied to become one of their Toptal Web Freelancers Network freelancers- fingers crossed!
Posts
