The shortage of tech talent in the US job market and the shift to remote work has made hiring qualified software developers a monumental task in 2020. This requires employers to creatively problem solve. Let’s walk through some of these solutions to see if they can provide some help to a problem that has no simple solutions.
Train ’em up
Hiring software developers and training them up is the dominant strategy in the market today. Many university programs only teach the basics of programming languages, logic, math, design principles, coding, etc. Typically, new hires have a lengthy learning curve before showing a return on investment (18 months to 2 years in many cases). This does not help employers, who have customers to serve, solve the short-term problem.
Hire experienced developers
Hiring a senior developer is difficult in the same way hiring junior or new developers is difficult – we do not have the numbers. In addition to the huge monetary cost, there are zero senior developers sitting on the bench. They are already working for someone else in some form or another. This means there is a perpetual stealing of talent which is great for software developer wages, but not great for employers especially startups and small businesses. It prices them out of the market for mid to high-level talent.
Hire developers from other markets
Companies in the US offshore a significant percentage of software development because it is less expensive. Saving on costs is the key. In many instances, employers can hire senior developers in South America, Asia, or Eastern Europe for half of the price in the US. The cost savings in offshoring increase dramatically the closer you get to the coastal markets. Which is why you see companies in California and New York onshoring – hiring developers remotely from the middle cities of the US at lower wages than their counterparts living on the coasts.
Both onshoring and offshoring have sub layers to them. For example, offshoring to a country in the same time zone is referred to as nearshoring. Rather than hiring developers from a country 7 times zones away, companies choose to hire developers closer to home (US and Mexico). This allows for more consistent communication and standard working hours. Remote working is a type of onshoring. If I work from home in Detroit, but my company is based in Saint Louis I am a remote worker. This is not considered onshoring because there is no price difference or cost savings. However, if my company was based in San Francisco then this would be considered a type of onshoring if they were paying Detroit wages.
Don’t build software
Many companies do not build software because it is too expensive. They manage their day to day operations without it or they use existing software with distinctive features and cobble them together. Emailing, designing, social media management, word processing, spreadsheeting, real-time collaborating, offline collaborating, networking, customer relationships, sales development, time tracking, and calendar management all have unique software. We use Google Drive, Microsoft Office, Dropbox, Slack, Zoom, LinkedIN, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, EventBrite, Adobe Premiere, Shopify, WordPress, Final Cut Pro, Hubspot, and many others. There is a crossover between platforms, but each has a distinct value or we wouldn’t use it and we certainly wouldn’t build software when it already exists. Why would I build a hammer when I can just go buy one? This question is more nuanced than you think, but a simple answer is because not all problems look like nails.
Software is a tool just like a hammer, a saw, or a toothbrush. Custom software can lead to a competitive advantage for any business in any market. Hiring the right person to build that software is still a challenge and multiple cost-saving strategies exist to find the right people for the job. Are there different strategies you know of that are not listed here? Please share them with us at [email protected].
