Debunking The Top 3 Myths About Tech Hires
learn how to broaden your tech talent pool
Posted on 04-17-2019, Read Time: Min
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Demand for tech talent is at an all-time high, with companies pulling out all the stops to recruit and retain employees with coding skills – offering a variety of expensive perks, competitive salaries, and offering big promises for career advancement. But is the war for tech talent becoming a counterproductive stalemate? Too many companies are chasing after the same “usual suspects” of the tech talent pool – trying to lure away passive job seekers from well-known companies, or hiring new software developers from just a few top-ranked universities.
Isn’t there a better way to find and recruit the tech talent your organization needs? HR professionals have an opportunity in this competitive hiring environment to lead their organization past the myths and misconceptions of hiring tech talent and broaden your tech talent pool in a way that opens up more opportunities for everyone.
Myth #1: Tech Skills are the Only Relevant Skills
Reality: Look for broad creative skill sets, not just tech skills!
It’s true that if you’re hiring software developers, of course – they need to have the right coding skills. But if you’re only checking for new hires who have the right stacks of programming languages on their resumes, you’re missing out on the bigger picture of which employees are really likely to make the biggest difference for your organization.
Because the truth is: you should be looking for creative skill sets and problem-solving skills as software development is 80% is strategy and the remaining 20% is the actual coding work. Software developers are creative problem solvers, not just rote code-crunchers. You want to hire developers who can think expansively and critically about your tech problems, not just follow the status quo. Your most effective developers should be able to be big-picture strategic thinkers who can connect their immediate work to the larger challenges of your organization. They should be good at collaboration and working in a team. They should be open to learning new things and curating ideas from a variety of sources within (and outside of) your organization. All of these soft skills matter more than ever for software developers – and these attributes don’t show up on a simple list of coding languages.
It’s true that if you’re hiring software developers, of course – they need to have the right coding skills. But if you’re only checking for new hires who have the right stacks of programming languages on their resumes, you’re missing out on the bigger picture of which employees are really likely to make the biggest difference for your organization.
Because the truth is: you should be looking for creative skill sets and problem-solving skills as software development is 80% is strategy and the remaining 20% is the actual coding work. Software developers are creative problem solvers, not just rote code-crunchers. You want to hire developers who can think expansively and critically about your tech problems, not just follow the status quo. Your most effective developers should be able to be big-picture strategic thinkers who can connect their immediate work to the larger challenges of your organization. They should be good at collaboration and working in a team. They should be open to learning new things and curating ideas from a variety of sources within (and outside of) your organization. All of these soft skills matter more than ever for software developers – and these attributes don’t show up on a simple list of coding languages.
Myth #2: Diversity is Overrated
Reality: Diversity and inclusion in hiring is an UNDERRATED competitive advantage.
In recent years, there has been increasing media attention given to the tech industry’s challenges with diversity – including hiring more women and people of all ethnicities as developers, and promoting these underrepresented groups to senior management positions (recent studies of major tech companies have found that women make up only 30% of leadership positions and 27% of technical positions). Many organizations might be tempted to treat diversity like a temporary fad, or a problem to be managed – but this would be a big mistake; diversity is not a problem, it is an opportunity to be embraced.
The future of your organization depends upon hiring and retaining a diverse team of people who can relate to your customers, who can solve problems in ways that are informed by the best thinking of your talent pool, and who can present a public face of your organization to the world that shows that your team is inclusive and forward-thinking. Diversity also helps your company make more money; a study featured in SHRM found that more diverse tech companies are more profitable: “Companies that are more racially diverse are 35 percent more likely to have higher financial returns than the national median in their industry.”
In recent years, there has been increasing media attention given to the tech industry’s challenges with diversity – including hiring more women and people of all ethnicities as developers, and promoting these underrepresented groups to senior management positions (recent studies of major tech companies have found that women make up only 30% of leadership positions and 27% of technical positions). Many organizations might be tempted to treat diversity like a temporary fad, or a problem to be managed – but this would be a big mistake; diversity is not a problem, it is an opportunity to be embraced.
The future of your organization depends upon hiring and retaining a diverse team of people who can relate to your customers, who can solve problems in ways that are informed by the best thinking of your talent pool, and who can present a public face of your organization to the world that shows that your team is inclusive and forward-thinking. Diversity also helps your company make more money; a study featured in SHRM found that more diverse tech companies are more profitable: “Companies that are more racially diverse are 35 percent more likely to have higher financial returns than the national median in their industry.”
Myth #3: Only Hire Developers Who Have Advanced Degrees
Reality: Look beyond academia
Another big myth of hiring tech talent is the idea that the only qualified software developers are graduates of academic degree programs with formal training in Computer Science. Of course, it’s great if you can hire some Computer Science grads or someone with an advanced degree in a related technology field – but the demand for talent is too great for America’s universities to keep up. There is a wider talent pool of self-taught coders with great hands-on real world skills who are ready to make a difference at your organization on Day One.
For example, many people are learning to code on their own time with programs like Code Academy, or by signing up for short-term coding programs that are packed full of hands-on training and only take weeks to a few short months to complete. You might find that your next great tech hire doesn’t have a college degree at all – but is passionate about technology and went to a 3-month bootcamp.
People from all career backgrounds, all education levels, and all walks of life can learn how to code. Coding is not a rarefied skill that only exists at elite universities; it’s the new langua franca of the 21st century digital workplace. Great coders can truly come from anywhere – as long as they have the dedication and drive to learn the relevant skill sets. In fact, from my experience, some of the best coders do not have a traditional academic background in computer science or software engineering – because the state of the art moves too quickly for traditional academic coursework to keep up. Academic training definitely has its place, and don’t feel like you should ignore college graduates in your hiring search – but keep an open mind and be willing to be flexible on your job descriptions’ requirements.
In a way, all of these myths are related to the larger challenge of diversity and inclusion in tech. If more HR hiring managers can expand their conception of what a good tech employee “looks” like, and expand their talent pools to include people from a wider variety of career experiences, education attainment levels, and gender/race/cultural backgrounds, their organizations are likely to prosper in the war for talent.
Be ready to look beyond the prototypical idea of what “tech talent” might look like. Some people who lack traditional credentials, from underrepresented demographics or unconventional career paths, who have an offbeat sensibility related to solving problems, who perhaps don’t have resumes that look like “typical” tech talent, will be the best tech hires you’ve ever made.
Another big myth of hiring tech talent is the idea that the only qualified software developers are graduates of academic degree programs with formal training in Computer Science. Of course, it’s great if you can hire some Computer Science grads or someone with an advanced degree in a related technology field – but the demand for talent is too great for America’s universities to keep up. There is a wider talent pool of self-taught coders with great hands-on real world skills who are ready to make a difference at your organization on Day One.
For example, many people are learning to code on their own time with programs like Code Academy, or by signing up for short-term coding programs that are packed full of hands-on training and only take weeks to a few short months to complete. You might find that your next great tech hire doesn’t have a college degree at all – but is passionate about technology and went to a 3-month bootcamp.
People from all career backgrounds, all education levels, and all walks of life can learn how to code. Coding is not a rarefied skill that only exists at elite universities; it’s the new langua franca of the 21st century digital workplace. Great coders can truly come from anywhere – as long as they have the dedication and drive to learn the relevant skill sets. In fact, from my experience, some of the best coders do not have a traditional academic background in computer science or software engineering – because the state of the art moves too quickly for traditional academic coursework to keep up. Academic training definitely has its place, and don’t feel like you should ignore college graduates in your hiring search – but keep an open mind and be willing to be flexible on your job descriptions’ requirements.
In a way, all of these myths are related to the larger challenge of diversity and inclusion in tech. If more HR hiring managers can expand their conception of what a good tech employee “looks” like, and expand their talent pools to include people from a wider variety of career experiences, education attainment levels, and gender/race/cultural backgrounds, their organizations are likely to prosper in the war for talent.
Be ready to look beyond the prototypical idea of what “tech talent” might look like. Some people who lack traditional credentials, from underrepresented demographics or unconventional career paths, who have an offbeat sensibility related to solving problems, who perhaps don’t have resumes that look like “typical” tech talent, will be the best tech hires you’ve ever made.
Author Bio
| Michael Choi is the CEO of Coding Dojo. Connect Michael Choi |
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