Having trouble getting senior applicants, wondering what to do about it
Current hiring process:
- Resume screened by in-house recruiter
- 30m call with them
- Resume passed up to engineering
- Hour-long call with hiring manager (typically the engineering manager of the team the candidate would join)
- Take-home technical assignment (~4h) or similar at candidate's choosing
- Presentation of technical assignment to the team
- Offer
Take-home technical assignment (~4h) or similar at candidate's choosing If I can get a similarly-paying job at a place that doesn't do this, I'll skip you.
Many seniors (actual seniors, not 3-years-of-experience seniors) have a network and can say "hey I'm looking" and instantly have multiple options that won't have them do more than talk to the team and manager for an hour or two. If that.
POST THE SALARY. Senior people are senior because of their work experience, which they gain from steady employment.
Almost by definition you are looking to entice busy, employed people away from their current jobs.
They don’t have the time or inclination to trawl through job ad after job ad. Where your competition will ask for 15 years of experience and then only after hours of calls and meetings reluctantly make an offer half of what the candidate is currently making.
You have to stand out from this, or you’re perceived as the same “waste of time” category.
You’re not hiring starving students. You’re hiring people with options and responsibilities.
Respect their time and value and they’ll consider your offer.
Lots of great comments here; My thoughts on this as other Seniors have pointed out (and I am a Senior myself)
1- I have not looked for a job since 2014, every job since came through my network. Then the interviews were basically friendly meet&greets but super informal, not a single coding test or take home assignment - note than I always started as Tech lead/Architect. I put in the hours and took pride in my work, have never let anyone down.
2- Unless I am unemployed and desperate, why would I give you between 6 and 7 hours of “free” unpaid labor for an interview that might not go anywhere? A big part of the interview process is “luck”. I have many terrible interviewing stories; interviewing is hard and for the most part a numbers and luck game. I hate wasting time and for that reason I carefully calculate my odds before applying and put more emphasis on gigs when I have a sponsor on the inside or where the upside and risk make it worth the attempt. Which disqualifies most non tech non brand name companies.
My suggestions for you;
1- Include salary and TC on your job post (it will set you apart from others) and will attract more attention.
2- Shorten/Simplify your hiring process and consider paying folks for their time, at least $100hr.
I have interviewed at places where it costs $40 to park for the day, you are there for 3-5 hrs for a final in person round, but if you don’t get an offer they don’t validate your parking ticket so not only you wasted your time but also spent a bunch of money on top of taking a day off from your current job.
Last but not least, think about the state of the market, Seniors are likely older, with families and mortgages. in this market, stability is important, changing jobs can be a gamble, their offer could get rescinded, etc Why take the risk? This will be true in the next 12/24 months, what is the incentive - unless the candidate is already unemployed.
Thanks for your time.
Post the salary range. It's 2022, you can't just say "Benefits and salary are good " That is absolutely meaningless. You're wanting ~6hrs investment (30 call, 1hr interview, and 4hr+ assignment) for an offer? NO thank you.
Why the scare quotes around "DevOps"? Is it DevOps or not? These words do mean things and matter.
- Take-home technical assignment (~4h) or similar at candidate's choosing > - Presentation of technical assignment to the team
Are these two jokes? What makes you think you're worth somebody wasting their time with such stuff? How about you actually interview them properly 1:1 and stop wasting the candidates time?
- Take-home technical assignment (~4h) or similar at candidate's choosing
This. Get rid of this. Everybody that reads this, get rid of it if you have such a step in your interview process.
Do a 1 hour maximum live challenge instead, or skip it entirely if the candidate has any public code you review and good enough.
This is what I've done in the current company and we've managed to hire some extremely good senior candidates because of it.
This is actually insulting to senior developers. You're gonna ask for a four hour take home and presentation like it's show and tell at hight school. I know how to code and don't have to prove to you that I can. If you think I do then you have a real problem.