Ask HN: Any luck with Stackoverflow careers (employer side)?
I've published an ad for a developer position on stackoverflow careers, but the response has been a bit underwhelming so far... We are offering competitive salary and we do not deviate much from mainstream technologies, so I was definitely expecting more and better candidates. I'm now thinking about shutting down the ad and go for a more traditional route (monster, indeed, ...), which is a pity because I liked the idea of finding quality developers through the SO platform.
Did some of you ever try to advertise a position through SO careers? And how was your experience?
26 comments
[ 2.9 ms ] story [ 69.6 ms ] threadFor instance, Stockolm, Sweden is vibrant city with lots of startups and the need for good developers are constantly increasing. Stackoverflow careers is only used by very few companies and as far as i know, there has been good responses for those ads. I think its acts more like a filter compared to other routes. IMHO, There is a considerable amount of noise in traditional routes.
If you want better quality, offer something better in return. Offer an amazing salary. Double the market. Triple. Fuck it, a truckload of money and 72 new virgins every day. Something that justifies your increased demands and expectations. Until then, the traditional route works better for me too. Because I get the exact same "competitive offer", but employer expectations are normal instead of stupid.
Sadly all I got so far are applications coming from India and China from people who clearly didn't read the ad and will just apply to anything.
As noted elsewhere in the thread, please keep in mind that salaries in Europe are generally much lower compared to the States :)
I'll take your word for it that in Dublin it's a fair salary---but if you have a small hiring pool and do nothing to stand out, you shouldn't complain that SO Careers gives you few leads.
Also I wonder about your expectations. You call this a good salary "for a developer at the beginning of his career." But you are looking for C#, Angular, Python, R, Matlab, Mongo, and Hadoop. Yikes! Maybe you should cut it back to just C#, put "Junior Developer" in the title, and say you'll provide training time+budget for the other techs. Or leave the requirements and offer a range that is good for someone with 5-10 years experience.
Sorry to be so critical. Best of luck to you. . . .
We are definitely going to consider all the suggestions in this thread, including hiring remote workers and increase our investment to stand out more.
In a way, what is making me doubt the tool is that I haven't received a single application that I could even consider interviewing - just clearly copypasted messages from developers on the other side of the world. I guess I'll see it through when we switch to other candidate search platforms in a few days...
If someone really needs those skills to do the job, then perhaps you can transform a negative into a positive: "New hire will receive on-the-job training time and budget in Mongo, Python, and Hadoop." That would attract a lot of people! And probably adding training is cheaper than raising the salary.
Once your ad has a clear message, perhaps you can use it in more targeted venues than SO. Imagine a CS student at Dublin University seeing a flier on their department bulletin board:
That's something you might even be able to send to a couple professors and ask if they could pass it on to any outstanding seniors.Even better would be to s/Excellent Salary/€35 - 45k/.
Also, I am a developer with 4 yrs experience in C#. But from my exposure and that of others who work on C#, its more of a backend crowd and Javascript is only used for testing out Node.js or playing with JSON. I am also involved in data analysis. The only time I used Jquery was when I tried to make my data look pretty using Bootstrap and jquery comes bundled with it.
It might be the way I work is different from yours but AngularJS & C# are two different worlds and anyone who understands C# will be able to pick up Javascript by referring MozillaDN.
Now, this is just my personal opinion and I do not want to be attacked for my views. But I feel that now a days, SO has lost its quality and answers are just copy pasted. Mainly the answers have no relation to the question. Especially when you try to compare 2 technologies, the answers are more like fanboys chants than voice of experience.
Otherwise consider having one of your developers re-write the job ad (HR-speak is an instant turnoff). And consider posting the salary range and explaining the hiring process.
If you want to recruit those people, you need to offer higher quality compensation, and make it exceptionally clear that the claims in your job ad aren't lies or half-truths. Make it clear that you actually want to hire someone, that you want someone good, that your position is worth having, and that a candidate isn't wasting their time trying to apply for your position.
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Salary and benefits are a great place to start. Another option is more interesting, less mainstream technologies. Another option is increased flexibility, lower demands, or improved career growth (for example, 35hr work weeks, or paid conferences, ability to move up within an organization). There's lots of other interesting ways to do this, but make sure you cover the fundamentals well first, before getting creative.
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If you are offering a high quality position -- don't hide it behind vague words, be overwhelmingly specific so that it doesn't look like you are lying (because many other companies do).
For instance, Many people will mentally translate "competitive salary" into "low-ball salary", as that's what most companies use that phrase for. If your salary is actually competitive, you don't need to hide behind those words, you should just say the specific dollar range your offering.
Similarly, if you actually offer great benefits, be sure to list them specifically. "Great benefits" will get mentally translated to "standard or shitty benefits", because that's what most companies use that phrase for. "100% employer covered HMO medical, for yourself/spouse/dependents." or "4% employer match 401k." is always more attractive than "great benefits".
Do this for everything "We value networking and learning" means little, but writing "the company will pay 100% of the food/lodging/travel/ticket expense for one tech conference per year of your choosing" is valuable. Writing "we value work life balance" means little, but writing "we cap the work week at 35hours a week so you can spend more time with friends/family/out-of-work-activities" is valuable.
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If you don't feel comfortable listing that information publicly, then you've identified your biggest roadblock to hiring. Make your offer something your not ashamed of first, before trying to grab new people ;)
A salary of €40,000 results in a monthly take-home of about €2,540 (http://ie.thesalarycalculator.co.uk/salary.php) - plus pension, which is a fairly good salary in a city like Dublin for a developer at the beginning of his career (of course you would starve in SF with the same money!).
Pay peanuts, get monkeys.
I would contest the notion that a person who's been developing software for three years is in the middle of their career, though - even leaving the semantics aside, I see no way that's not a junior profile.
I only recommend it if:
1. You are in a location with a lot of population or are willing to hire remote
2. You are looking for mid-career developers -- (5-7 year range).
If you use it
1. Only contact people that are active -- I found the passive list not worth the time
2. Do a little research on the person and make your opening contact somewhat customized to them. They are asking for contacts -- they might get a lot, so you have to stand out.
The ad should be ask and answer the question, Why would you want to work for us?
IMO, say 45k. Everyone reading the range knows they will be low balled. Ask yourself: is it worth saving 10k if it reduces the applicant pool?
Good luck.