Attracting and retaining good quality Engineers and Engineering teams is high on the agenda for many of our partners in the technology sector.
For the benefit of culture, progression and building a healthy team, we encourage a good blend of mid-level and senior Engineers. We’re not here to tell you there’s a magic ratio or a one-size-fits-all, but there are definitely benefits to having a variety of skill levels combining forces in your team.
Here’s a few things we’ve learned on getting the right mix:
- Less senior Engineers are relatively easy to find, especially those from universities, part-time courses and/ordevelopment boot camps as it's likely they will be looking for a new job.
- Mid-level Engineers can be easily trained and are usually more adaptable to new systems and environments. They’re less likely to have deep-rooted habits and could know about breaking new programming languages that veterans might not be as familiar or comfortable with.
- Mid-level Engineers can bring new ideas to the team that can challenge traditional ways of thinking.
- Senior Engineers can act as mentors and share best practices with mid-levels. This will level up your seniors, allowing them to step up and develop future leaders.
- Senior Engineers can boost their own understanding by having the opportunity to knowledge share with mid-level Engineers. This will also allow Seniors to gain a broader scope of modern best practices.
From a recruiting standpoint, if you can interview well and be pragmatic in your approach, you can hire those with the soft skills and ability to learn. You can find a gem upskill to be a senior in 6 months.
Of course, we’re biased, but it is probably worthwhile partnering with one or two technology recruitment companies to source candidates and help shape an effective recruitment process, for both senior and mid-level Engineers. A good recruiter will drastically reduce the time, energy and stress in the recruitment process and will only charge you if you hire one of their candidates.
What you should look for when recruiting Senior Engineers?
- Strong technical skills are important at this level but also a strong level of communication is important to discuss and explain how and why they implement the process. This relates to the point about mentoring and coaching your Engineers post-hire.
- Systems design and knowledge of best practices to implement and improve the environment is important. Because in today’s world, we don’t just want individual contributors. However, remaining rigid on the tech stacks can mean you’ll miss out on quality talent. Be open to gaps on CVs.
- Interpersonal skills are also particularly important for these hires as you will want the senior developers to be able to guide the junior developers and communicate complex concepts clearly to a wide variety of peers and stakeholders.
- Have other Engineers been involved in the recruitment process? This should help you attract senior talent and help to ensure the team remains cohesive. This can be a solid selling point if a Senior Engineer can hear from someone at the same level, to gain insights into what their role within your company will look like.
- This person doesn’t need to have management or team leadership experience. Some of our partners have a separate team lead and senior Engineer on the same team, with one focusing on interpersonal tasks and the other handling the more technical tasks. The key thing is to find someone with enough experience to coach and mentor the junior Engineers. This encourages career progression (for both senior and junior Engineers) and will be a strong selling point for Engineers as they are usually attracted to opportunities and teams that will enable them to develop their skills.
- A person who embodies the first two points well is not always easy to find. That’s ok. You don’t need a whole team of strongly technical Engineers with excellent interpersonal skills, you just need a few. If you find one, compensate them well. If you find someone who would be strong in both skills given additional training, look into how you can provide them with opportunities within the company or external workshops. They’ll appreciate your support and will probably demonstrate more loyalty to the company in the long run.
What should you look for when recruiting more junior Engineers?
- Include your senior Engineers on the recruiting team. Les senior candidates will get to meet their potential mentors right away and both sides can ascertain if there is a good fit.
- If you work for a startup or SME, you might not have the same salary and benefits that a large corporation can use to attract candidates, so you need to sell them on your vision, impact, team culture, and learning opportunities instead.
Create a cycle to effectively upskill your team
- Both the team lead and the Senior Engineer should play a key role in offering a variety of progression opportunities. You should work with them to establish specific training plans for every junior Engineer in the team.
- Establish an environment for constant learning, creativity and collaboration. Including paired programming sessions, code reviews, and regular lunchtime discussions that focus on a specific topic, “buddy” programs will result in greater knowledge sharing, benefitting everyone in the team. You should encourage the junior Engineers to ‘teach’ the others what they’ve learnt. Even if they aren’t the expert in that domain, the task in itself will accelerate their learning.
- Give new Engineers opportunities to fail fast and learn fast. Not one size fits all, some Engineers like access to go and work it out for themselves, and some prefer more of a coaching walk-through. It’s all about being open to your Engineers’ preferences and learning styles. Arrange regular check-ins and code reviews to guide them along the way.
With the right environment, training and mentorship, your Engineers will develop and progress together and find their position in the team where they feel valued and empowered.
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