Recruiting and Retention

Recruiting and retention.

A quick perusal of online career forums will show you there are a few rules to live by in today’s technology careers (my personal favorite is reddit.com/r/cscareerquestions).

1. Everyone has a degree, not everyone has relevant experience. Get relevant experience.
2. Network, network, network.
3. If you want a raise, you will have to switch companies.

Rule 3 is the most important aspect here. The general attitude is that a software engineer has a future vested in their skillset, not in their company. Since all of my business ideas are technology based and would require a solid group of software engineers, so I would like to create an environment where an engineer would see their future at my company, not elsewhere. I would do this by providing opportunities for promotion, so each employee would know that there is not a glass ceiling above their head. Second, I would offer stock options, so each employee would have a vested interest in the success of the company. The third, I would make sure we were always on the cutting edge of the tech world and would send as many employees as possible to tech conferences around the world. I want to inject ideas and knowledge into my company at every level and this would be a great way to accomplish this.

On the recruiting side, I think there are 2 elements: company image and benefits. I will of course offer competitive pay, as this is a basic need for any potential employee. Beyond this, employees generally want a job at a place they agree with on a moral level. An example of this is Google’s “don’t be evil” slogan as a slight against Microsoft in the late 90s and early 2000s. It helped drive employees to Google and many would say Google has surpassed Microsoft in terms of brand recognition and quality of product. Second, I would offer competitive benefits to all employees. I would follow the German model, where employees take more vacation and work less hours but have a higher output in terms of product. I think work/life balance is key to building a quality product, as it helps lower the stress of the day to day grind.