6 Ways to Attract and Hire Software Engineers in 2024

Is your development team understaffed and overworked?

These days, every company is a tech company. But rapid digitization has left employers across industries competing for the same small slice of talent, as skills like data analytics and software engineering (SWE) continue to top the list.

Even in the wake of unprecedented tech industry layoffs, the demand for software engineers isn’t slowing down. Quite the opposite, actually. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment for developers, assurance analysts, and testers is expected to grow 25% by 2032.

As the competition rises, we’re sharing six effective recruitment strategies to help you hire high-potential software engineers without breaking your recruitment budget.

1. Create an early talent program

We’ll let you in on a little secret: savvy employers aren’t waiting for graduation day to snap up new recruits. They’re investing in students’ futures right here and now through early talent programs specifically designed to grow dev talent.

From apprenticeships and internships to university recruitment programs, the right early talent strategy can help you build an internal pipeline of early talent, saving you a boatload in external hiring costs while nurturing your own cohort of qualified tech talent.

Take Dropbox, for example. The company offers regular summer internship programs to help students gain real-world SWE experience. Not only that, they also offer an upskilling apprenticeship for adults looking to kickstart a new career in tech. 

Others, like Square, are focused on improving representation in dev teams, while also closing their SWE skills gaps. 

Square’s Code Camp is a five-day coding bootcamp where female-identifying coders can become fluent in programming languages while growing their professional network.

But a great early dev talent program is no longer just for tech companies. Major finance firm JP Morgan runs its own entry-level feeder program for early-career software engineers. The program gives emerging programmers a taste of the company's culture and insights into the types of products they’re developing. 

The one potential “downside” of this approach is that it doesn’t fill your skills gaps overnight. It requires a dedicated management team willing to set time aside for training. But with hands-on help from new junior engineers, you may see a more immediate increase in some much needed bandwidth for senior team members.

2. Nix the degree requirements from your job description

While we’re on the topic of bypassing graduation day, is a college degree necessary for skills-focused roles like software engineering? 🤔

According to pioneering companies like IBM, the answer is no.

As an early proponent of the “new collar” workforce, leaders at IBM took a look at the widening skills gap and decided to do away with major degree requirements on their job listings. 

“We started to look at ways we could build new pipeline, whether that was through community colleges, boot camps, partnering with other companies who might be working on development, as well as what we could do internally around skill development, and that was when we launched our apprenticeship program as well,” IBM’s new collar HR lead, Kelli Jordan, told Fast Company.

In 2018, the company launched its full-time learn-and-earn program, long before “skills-based hiring” reached the HR buzzword hit list.

Today the IBM Apprenticeship Program provides an entry point for skilled candidates looking to make a career change without having to go back to school for a degree. By shifting the focus to skills and competencies (instead of “fancy pieces of paper"), this program helps IBM remove common barriers for candidates and tap into a fresh pool of tech talent for their job opportunities. 

From Walmart to Bank of America, companies of all shapes and sizes are following suit, ditching degree requirements from their work environments and reaping the benefits of a wider and more representative talent pool.

According to one study, taking a skills-based approach to hiring can more than double your eligible talent pool and more than triple the number of underrepresented candidates in your pipeline.

3. Upskill your existing employees 

In the face of tech talent shortages, many companies are turning in-house to meet their SWE hiring needs. And if you think about it, the math makes a ton of sense.

Rather than shelling out $28- $35k (on top of a hefty salary) to recruit and attract a software engineer, employers are equipping existing employees with future-ready, cutting edge dev skills through a combination of upskilling and reskilling.

And there are many perks to making this road-less-traveled approach work at your company. 

For one, good-fit internal hires already know your company’s values, tech stack, processes, and customers. Not only that, 68% of workers say they would stay with an employer for their entire career if they had opportunities for upskilling.

Whether you offer microlearning, peer mentorships, or employee apprenticeships, the right employee upskilling program could improve your retention rates.

But remember: positioning yourself as a partner in professional development is not a fast-twitch strategy – it’s an exercise in endurance.

Programs like employee upskilling work best as a career-long initiative, not a quick fix. You’ll need a structured program with clear processes for systematically identifying and closing business critical dev skills. Depending on the roles in question, you might also need to go above and beyond hard Python and JavaScript skills by adding soft skills and communication skills into your learning and development (L&D) programs.

The good news is, by committing to a culture of continuous learning, you can position your org to stay a step ahead even as AI transforms future SWE processes.

4. Tap into the fractional workforce

Since the age of Rosie the Riveter, temporary workers have been essential to the workforce. 

The fractional workforce is all about scalability, shifting from a set roster of salaried employees to an on-demand workforce with the exact skills you’re looking for. From long-term contractors to short-term freelancers, this approach allows you to hire top dev talent from anywhere in the world – without the commitment of a full-time position.

According to Breezy’s latest Hiring Challenges survey, 24% of respondents already employ a contract-based workforce and 21% hire part-timers. And according to the data, it’s paying off. Another survey found that 85% of hiring managers say independent professionals helped them tap into specialized skills or expertise.

By tagging in temporary team members as needed, you can free up time and funds for essential internal dev projects. So where can you find temporary talent for your engineering team?

A fan favorite is Upwork, an online freelance marketplace launched in 1999. In recent years, the platform expanded its services for larger companies, partnering with platforms like OpenAI to connect companies with pre-approved AI experts. And with a full roster of ready-to-work software engineers, this platform is a good place to start.

A.Team is another newer platform with a focus on in-demand technical skills like engineering and machine learning. Launched in 2020, this site connects businesses with independent and highly skilled professionals, opening doors to dynamic collaboration.

However, it’s important to note that there can be scammers on freelancing sites like these. You may want to add some additional screening to your recruitment process to make sure you’re finding the right people.

5. Partner with a tech talent agency

Although tech recruitment agencies can be a little on the pricier side, headhunters are often the best option for companies who need an experienced dev to fill an open role immediately.

When outsourcing to an agency, you gain access to their pre-established network of contacts, which means a wider pool of pre-vetted talent and usually a fairly swift hiring process to go along with it.

Here are a few of the top technology recruiting firms available to partner with:

• Mondo: A national powerhouse specializing in IT and creative talent for full-time and contract needs with an 8-10 day time-to-placement rate.
• TEKsystems: Leading the charge in IT staffing and talent management with expertise in data, cloud, and security (and a 98% client retention rate).
• Motion Recruitment: Offering tech-exclusive global recruiting in software, data, cybersecurity, and more with a 10-day time-to-fill.
• Apex Systems: Crafting future-proof talent acquisition strategies and digital solutions for businesses with offices all over the globe.
• NerdRabbit: Matching cloud and tech talent with precision, backed by AWS-certified recruiters.
• Jefferson Frank: An NYC-based agency that lets you browse candidates by skill, job title, and location. You can request resumes, create a job posting, and connect with knowledgeable recruitment consultants.

As always, make sure you and your hiring team have done the groundwork to set your recruitment partner up for success. That means a clear job description with the exact SWE or DevOps skills you’re looking for, plus pre-vetted interview questions to make sure you’re hiring for culture add.

6. Leverage your personal network

Whether it’s a LinkedIn connection, a talented former coworker, or a friend fluent in SQL, keeping your ear to the ground can pay off big time when hiring tech talent.

Take it from Ebonee Soldner. When she was laid off from her recruiter role at Caribou, a car finance startup, she took to LinkedIn to let her network know.

“The first thing I did was create a LinkedIn post to let my network know what had happened,” she explains. “I basically said, if you’ve worked with me in the past, please interact with this post so I can benefit from that social currency.”

Her call for community support paid off. Within a few weeks, she got multiple interview offers.

In a volatile talent market, imagine how many more devs like Ebonee are just waiting for the right person to find them.

No matter which recruitment tactics you choose, it doesn’t hurt to stay tuned into your social media. Set up a clear strategy for submitting employee referrals and keep an open mind when sourcing dev candidates.

Hire your best software developers in days (not weeks)

From front-end developers to back-end developers and full-stack developers – the demand for software engineering skills is only getting higher. 

The right applicant tracking system (ATS) can help you keep up.

With the ability to instantly post your open dev roles to the top job boards for remote tech talent, Breezy is the user-friendly ATS that can help you shave up to two months off your time-to-hire by leveraging niche job boards. From CodeAlly to JustRemote, we integrate with dozens of specialized job search sites so you can find top talent faster.

Hire the best software developers for your team. Try Breezy free for 14 days to get started.