Why You Should Put More Effort Into Hiring Software Engineers

Well written code tends to be very modular and scales very well.

Well…What does that actually mean?

It essentially means that great programmers can create massive amounts of value despite being only one person. Unfortunately, that just can’t be done with most other professions. A firefighter has a limited amount to time to put out fires but a programmer can create a program once, it can be used by everyone, and costs no additional time.

A good software engineer can be 10x to 100x more effective that average (software*) engineer.

At this point the concept of the 10x-100x engineer has been talked about so much, it has been turned into a meme.

However, that doesn’t stop it from being any less true.

This is the reason that tech companies fight so hard for talent. When an engineer is amazing, companies will do whatever it takes to get them.

Whether that be…

They can justify it because even while doing all of that, they are still getting more value out of the deal. That’s because they know that these engineers can create enormous value, create entirely new markets, and drastically improve their products. Having an amazing engineer is like having a wizard at your disposal. And as tech expands, that lever is only getting more powerful.

Amazing software engineers also have many opportunities in todays job market. Amazing software engineers are a commodity and if you want one, you’re going to have to do much better than a crappy phone interview and a few whiteboard problems. Not only does that not assess candidates very well but also software engineers hate it. How can you expect extraordinary candidates when you’re issuing mediocre tests?

Like attracts like, which in this case means that amazing engineers usually know other amazing engineers. So if you manage to attract one and keep them happy, you‘ll get many more. Having a few 100x engineers on your team will be like having superpowers. Your customers will be amazed, and your competition will be frightened.

Alright so we know why we need these engineers, but how do we get them? and how do we determine who’s an 100x engineer and who’s not?

Those are both very large topics, the former I’ll be covering in another blog post, the latter is something I hope to solve with a tool I’m building.

Related posts:

I hurried down the road with William Smith, my crush of 2 years. I reminded myself to not freak out, not only because I was with Will, but also because this will be the biggest homicide case we’ll be…

There is an increased fear of the economic impact of the rapidly spreading Coronavirus. With the death toll in China climbing to 80 amid thousands of cases of infection, with the virus severely…

Email marketing is a thriving industry, and it is developing new marketing tactics each year. Not all of them withstand the test of time, but those that do become standard marketing practice. Email…