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Although young companies are driven by their mission, they don't always survive the fierce competition. A tight budget and lack of professionals on the team are common reasons for failure. And if most entrepreneurs succeed in raising funds, they forget how crucial it is to hire the right people. Recruiting software helps organizations hire people for open positions.

Tech talent war has become cross-industry since the splash of digitalization. Nowadays, businesses pour blood, sweat, and tears into hiring experienced IT specialists, whose demands in the workplace increase constantly. How can Startups survive the competition for software developers?

Challenges of Hiring Software Engineer

Hiring an IT expert isn’t a piece of cake. Companies need engineers who have enough experience to perform challenging tasks. However, a talent shortage makes it difficult to hire one. According to ManpowerGroup's US skills shortage study, 75% of companies participating in the study had difficulties filling tech positions.

Talent shortage results in top devs receiving from two to five job offers per week. The huge demand makes IT specialists picky. They expect the employer to:

• offer challenging work,
• have a good reputation,
• translate its mission and vision through work principles,
• provide career opportunities,
• support flexible schedules, etc.

Besides, software developers’ wages are high. The U.S. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports software developers' median annual pay was USD 110,140 in 2020. This information may come in handy when inventing the competitive advantages of your company.

Who is The Ideal Startup Candidate?

Tech specialists who work in startups face more responsibilities, make key decisions on their own, often work overtime, and constantly communicate with the team about changes in work. That’s why the ideal candidate should be a responsible, self-organized person, who is ready to accept changes, adapt and get along with the team.

Moreover, the perfect candidate should be aware of what you are doing and share your project vision. In startups, the motivation often comes with the belief that you’re changing the world with your solution. If you can find a person with that attitude, it might be a perfect match. However, don’t turn a blind eye to a candidate's hard skills. The perfect candidate should meet your requirements about the tech stack to be able to perform quality work.

How Startups Can Beat Big Companies For The Best Tech Talent?

Is it possible for a startup to win top-notch talent over established companies? We believe that leveraging proper hiring strategies can help you find IT experts for your startup team. Here are some insights on how to hire devs for startups.

Leverage Your Network

The advantage of hiring as a startup is that you’ve got the opportunity to choose your core team personally. You will be able to assess personality traits and find trusted partners for your business who’ll help you on the way to success. To do that, you can start from your network.

For example, you can monitor the LinkedIn platform to find potential candidates. Look through professionals' pages to assess their potential, achievements, and soft skills. If you're well-versed in the tech stack, reach candidates' Github profiles to gauge their hard skills.

When you hire a first employee, it would be helpful to ask them to recommend someone from their network. For the forthcoming strategy, implementing referral programs at the workplace could be an effective solution in terms of money and recruitment quality.

Create a Clear and Honest Job Description

Writing a clear job description helps employers make an impression on candidates and attract more applicants. As a startup, you should find a way to catch the attention of your ideal candidates. Start with explaining your mission and vision to give candidates motivation to join your team. We recommend being open about what you do and showing your ability to set up a working process and control the situation (everyone understands that startups are associated with frequent changes).

Be sure to explain what you expect from the employee in detail to provide yourself with primary filtration. Describe the responsibilities aligned with the offered job position and the day-to-day tasks it implies. And talk transparently about working hours and wages because people should be prepared for the startup's reality.

Try to communicate your competitive advantages in the job description. It can be a fast recruitment process, specific perks, a comfortable workplace, etc.

Work On Your Branding

Many applicants seek jobs in Google or Meta because these corporate giants offer famous names and economic, functional, and psychological advantages for their employees. You should also work on your company’s reputation from the very beginning. Make sure you have the company’s values that are supported by action within your company. Provide perks that the modern workforce values the most as work-life balance, flexible scheduling, hybrid work, career growth, learning opportunities, etc. Share your values on social media to make your brand recognizable, and top talent will grow their interest in you.

Use Technology to Improve Recruitment

Even if you recruit your team by yourself, it doesn’t have to be painful and time-consuming. There are plenty of digital tools to help you automate several processes in recruitment. For example, use applicant tracking systems to place job ads, filter CVs, schedule interviews and send automatic replies.

Hire Remote Developers Through Recruitment Agencies

Startups don’t usually have a recruiting team on board. We get that. But it doesn’t mean you can’t turn to professional recruiters for help. If you need to free some working time for your team, you can hire a recruitment agency. Recruitment agencies will take searching and filtering candidates off your shoulders, allowing you to meet the proper candidates faster.

Recruitment agencies such as Talentica specialize in tech specialists and have access to a large talent pool in software development worldwide. You only need to outline your requirements, and the agency provides you with potential team players within a day.

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Find out more about hiring through recruitment agencies here: The Key Benefits of Hiring Through an IT Recruitment Agency

To Sum Up

A great team is a core value for a startup. Despite the enormous competition for talent, startups can hire professional developers with a little bit of effort. You can set up a recruitment process by yourself or delegate it to a recruitment agency specialized in hiring tech talent. Follow our advice on recruiting developers, and your startup will get a strong team for success.