Attracting Top Engineering and Product Talent Without Competing on Salary

Today, I want to talk about how you can attract top engineering and product talent without competing on salary, by taking a look at what software engineers and product talent seek and look out for when choosing where to work and why.

What Software Engineers Want

When thinking about what software developers want, it’s important to go beyond just the salary. Of course, paying the market rate is essential, but several other factors can make your company appealing to top talent.

So let’s take a look at the 9 things you need to have that will give your company or startup an edge when it comes to attracting top engineering and product talent without competing on salary

Remote Work

It’s not a surprise that the most overlooked and highly desired aspect of a job is remote work. When we recruit at trustshoring, the number one question we get asked is whether the position is remote.

Offering Remote work gives access to a much larger talent pool and many people are willing to even leave their current job for the chance to work from home.

It’s crucial to offer remote positions unless there’s a compelling reason to have a physical office.

Working with Cutting-Edge Technology

Working with cutting-edge technology is a significant draw for engineers. This doesn’t mean you need to adopt the latest tech trends just to attract talent.

However, if your business naturally involves exciting new technologies, make sure to highlight this in your job descriptions.

Engineers love learning and working with new tools and platforms, whether it’s AI, blockchain, or other emerging technologies, and having projects that leverage this new tech will be a huge draw.

Challenging and Impactful Projects

The third aspect is having challenging and impactful projects. Challenges make work interesting and engaging. Projects that require innovative solutions and are scalable are particularly appealing to software developers.

Additionally, they want to see their work have a tangible impact. Working on projects that are released quickly and used by many people provides immediate feedback and a sense of accomplishment.

Access to Professional Growth and Learning Opportunities

Next, we have access to professional growth is crucial. Engineers often want to continue learning and improving their skills, regardless of their seniority.

Offering opportunities for learning, such as time for personal projects, budgets for courses or books, and mentorship from more experienced colleagues, can be very attractive. Highlighting these opportunities in your job postings and engineering job descriptions can help draw in top talent.

Work-Life Balance

Again, this is not a surprise, work-life balance is a significant factor. Flexible hours and policies like unlimited vacation can make your company more attractive.

If your company has these benefits, make sure to emphasize them. If you are managing people in a goal-oriented way, you also get to balance this out where if people can finish or reach their goals they can take time off while keeping teams performing at a high level.

Career Advancement Opportunities

This is another factor that is not surprising. Everyone wants to see a path that allows their career to advance and grow, and offering career growth opportunities will always be a big plus.

In the case of startups, and small bootstrapped companies, this can sometimes not be easy to map out, I mean, you’re not going to replace the CEO right, so what do you do?

You can offer the opportunity to create new roles as the company grows. If there are potential future roles that high performers can move into, make sure to mention these possibilities.

Autonomy and Ownership

This is another huge factor in attracting the very best software engineers and product talent.

Engineers value autonomy and ownership of their work. Giving them end-to-end responsibility for a project or feature, within a supportive team environment, is very appealing.

They appreciate being able to see a project through from start to finish and having a sense of control over their work.

Alignment with Personal Interests

The next factor is alignment with personal interests. If your company’s work aligns with an engineer’s personal interests, that can be a strong motivator.

For example, if you develop software for a hobby or industry they’re passionate about, emphasize this connection. This alignment can significantly increase their interest in the role.

A Clear Product Development Processes

Last but not least is having a clear product development process. You’d be surprised how many companies have a chaotic environment, so having good coding standards, and a solid code review process are important.

Highlighting that your company has well-defined processes can be a significant selling point.

Outro

There you have it! By taking into consideration these 9 factors, you’ll be able to position your company as an attractive place to work and not have to compete or lean on a high compensation package as your only selling point.

Are you looking to hire software engineers or product people?

Maybe you’ve got a development team in place but you feel like you’re missing a bit of guidance and leadership to bring that much-needed clarity.

Get in touch with us today! We’ll take away that hassle of hiring and help headhunt, vet, and even handle payroll all on your behalf!

We’ve also got a network of seasoned Fractional CTOs/CPOs to help you keep your development team accountable and bring clarity to your product development process.

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