Tapping Tech Talent: Fixing the Freelance Problem
Looking for a graphic designer at short notice? Need a software engineer for a couple of days? Or someone to come up with a catchy name for your new company? Today there are freelance platforms for all these and more, open to all comers from all corners of the globe, packed with eager candidates desperate to secure even a few hours’ work. Post your job and watch them fight over the scraps, making bigger and bigger promises for smaller and smaller paychecks.
Pick your favorite and see what you get. You’re paying peanuts: what could possibly go wrong?
“People often have bad experiences with these freelance platforms,” says Taso Du Val, CEO of Toptal, a new global network designed to connect tech companies with top quality software developers and engineers. “Unless you know exactly what to look for, and how to screen for exactly what you need, it can be difficult to find the right people. But these problems can be solved.”
Narrowing the Field
The difficulties faced by the tech industry in finding qualified and available staff are well documented, but they are often a direct result of the way positions are advertised online. By publishing a long list of minimum requirements, and therefore automatically ruling out potentially excellent candidates on little more than technicalities, companies are contributing to the very shortages they bemoan.
“The more a hiring manager puts on his wish list, the narrower the field gets,” says Christian Fuentes of Orion Staffing Group, a recruitment agency for the tech industry. “Companies focusing more on the individual than the skills are typically more successful in hiring quality technical staff. If they are willing to offer training to candidates with strong potential, their positions will have greater appeal for employees. This in turn allows employers to offer more competitive compensation packages.”
This all casts doubt on the so-called “STEM shortage” (science, technology, engineering, and math). Microsoft has declared “an urgent demand for workers trained in the STEM fields, yet there are not enough people with the necessary skills to meet that demand and help drive innovation.”
But the problem may reside in the way the tech industry recruits. By focusing too narrowly on those “necessary skills” rather than on developing potential, companies may be missing out. And talented candidates must suffer the consequences.
“The main problem faced by skilled engineers and developers right now is getting appropriate pay for their level of expertise,” says Fuentes. “We have seen some employers lower salaries to almost insulting levels. If you want top-tier talent, you have to be willing to pay for it.”
Under Contract
Opinions on the STEM shortage may be divided, but one thing is certain: in the tech industry, contract work is fast becoming the new normal.
“Contract employment is very popular with my clients right now,” Fuentes says. “If things don’t work out, they are not responsible for any of the related costs or hassles. For candidates, it typically pays more and opens up other parts of the country, since contracting doesn’t require a permanent move. There can be some nice tax benefits, too.”
But if the world’s best software engineers are all going freelance, how can tech companies find them? This is where networks like Toptal come in.
“We screen, at a very rigorous, deep level, the talent that comes into our system. We’re really a curated network of engineering talent,” says Taso Du Val.
“We look for both hard and soft skills by having in-person interviews with every candidate. We have engineers screening other engineers -- they have an understanding not only of technical aspects but of the tangential qualities that make for a great engineer.”
This new breed of freelance platform only admits engineers and developers at the top of their field. “We get tens of thousands of applications, and our acceptance rate is only 3 percent; well below Harvard or the Navy Seals. We are trying to be the McKinsey of engineering.”
Du Val believes this kind of platform is the future of the industry. “We’re fixing the developer-engineer crunch that most of the world is facing.” And its success simply reflects the achievements of its members.
“It works because our people are so good.”
