Your company’s growing and you need more engineers to keep up with demands. So you start hiring for engineers. But it’s not so easy, is it?

Finding qualified candidates is already a challenge. Getting them to want to interview is something else. Then even if you make them an offer, it doesn’t mean they will accept it. And it’s not always about money.

…if you make them an offer, it doesn’t mean they will accept it. And it’s not always about money.

So how do companies hire great engineers in today’s competitive labor market? Here are few things you can do to boost your recruiting efforts:

Host Meetups or Events

Hosting great events is a great way to promote your company and let local engineers know your company is passionate about engineering. There’s a difference between companies who need engineering work done for them vs. companies that are actively innovating in the engineering space. Great talents are tend to be more attracted to the latter.

Examples: Tech Events on Meetup

Open Source Projects

Creating an open source project is another great way to show that your engineering team does interesting, useful things and contribute back to the engineering community at large. It also shows that your company is doing relatively well, considering it has extra resources to be spent on open source projects.

Examples: Facebook, Netflix

Maintain a great reputation

Words get around. Fast.

Treat people well and words about how great your company is will travel fast. What does it mean to treat people well? Let me give you few examples:

• Starting with hiring. Notify applicants that you’ve decided to reject. Canned emails work.
• If you’re rejecting someone after you’ve interviewed them, do it over the phone – don’t email them.
• Treat your employees with respect.
• Provide a safe working environment.

Example: Great Rating

Engineering Blog

Great engineering blogs should:

• Reveal how your team tackles interesting challenges.
• Demonstrates your team’s technical expertise.
• Engage the readers by inviting them to try things out (e.g. by providing code samples or demo site).

Examples: HotelTonight, Shutterstock

Offer Employee Referral Bonus

Your employees are people that you trust (or they really shouldn’t be your employees). They get the job because they possess certain great qualities. They are usually surrounded by people who share similar qualities to them, who might just make great candidates 🙂

I’ve seen bonuses ranging anywhere from $500 to $10,000 usually depending on the role.