Are you a startup? Here’s where you can look for tech talent
Updated on June 15, 2022.
Tech hiring is tough. But it is twice as tough if you are a startup. Your hiring brand is still non-existent. Experienced developers are still skeptical about the prospects of your product. So, how do you get those shiny new desks filled with enthusiastic employees typing away at code?
While getting the talent you need is not only about the places you look, it’s good to know which websites to turn to to look for potential candidates.
7 places where startups can find tech talent
1. AngelList
AngelList is to startups what LinkedIn is to established companies. This does not stop well-known brands like Tinder and VSCO from hiring on AngelList, though.
So, what’s the deal with this platform? Around 2016, AngelList launched A-List – a subset of its service where startups find crème-de-la-crème, cherry-on-top kind of candidates. Looking for and interviewing A-List candidates is free, but you pay a commission when you’re ready to hire. The deal comes with a three-month money-back guarantee, which means your commission fee will be refunded (as a credit to spend on future hires) if your new hire quits in the following three months.
Initially, A-List was for hiring engineers and designers. Last year, AngelList announced “A-List for Sales,” which also allows employers to look for top sales talent.
2. Whitetruffle
Another platform worth checking out is Whitetruffle (named after a rare Italian mushroom to emphasize the rareness of its offerings).
At Whitetruffle, all candidates are pre-screened and manually approved before they can join the site, which arguably results in higher-quality candidates. You can browse all available CVs and get 10 introductions per month for free. If you want more, you can upgrade to PRO and make 50 intros a month, or to Enterprise PRO if you want unlimited introductions. With a paid subscription (that starts from $500/month), you get other perks like full names of candidates, the DOB filter, and LinkedIn profile links.
When setting up a company profile, you can choose whether you’re a privately held/public company or are in seed/series A/series B funding round. So the site is a good fit for startups.
3. StartupJobs
StartupJobs is a Czech-born platform that helps connect startups and tech talent. In 2018, the service expanded to Poland. StartupJobs features jobs in cities like Prague and Warsaw at the moment. However, the company has plans to expand worldwide.
At the same time, Czech Republic and Poland are great places to look for tech talent, so it may be is worth a try. Another great feature is that the website lets you test your skills in various programming languages as well as test your knowledge of the English language.
4. Hacker Rank
HackerRank is a platform that ranks technical specialists based on their coding skills. In terms of recruiting, it lets companies upload tests (or choose from out-of-the-box assignments for various competencies), interact with candidates live through the Code Pair environment, and leave post-interview notes.
It’s unclear how much HackerRank changes for its hiring tools, but it does offer a 14-day free trial, during which you can engage with up to 30 candidates.
Some developers have criticised HackerRank because they said it checks for academic, fresh-out-of-college knowledge and may disqualify relevant candidates with a more narrow specialization and/or a dislike for competitive programming.
5. HackerEarth
HackerEarth is a developer community that serves two main purposes: innovation management and technical recruiting. The India-born platform is similar to Kaggle in the sense that it also hosts hackathons and programming competitions – in their case, though, it aims to help its enterprise clients with R&D, prototype testing, and innovation. And it’s similar to HackerRank in the sense that it also lets recruiters device tests and do blind screening of candidates for higher objectiveness and, perhaps, increased diversity.
It seems that about 30% of HackerEarth’s corporate clients hail from the US, and the company has an ambition to expand its presence on North American soil and beyond in 2019.
Organizations that want to tap into HackerEarth’s 2.5 million-strong pool of tech specialists can do so for an annual subscription fee. As in the case with HackerRank, they also offer a no-cc 14-day trial.
6. Aworker
If you’re hiring in the field of blockchain, Aworker could be your best bet. The blockchain-based platform matches talent to recruiters based on trusted recommendations, while also protecting user privacy. On the Aworker job marketplace, anyone can become a recruiter that can hunt employees based on recommendations, hire them using smart contracts, and get rewarded for recommending candidates.
7. Glassdoor Jobs
Glassdoor, the rate-your-employer site, barely needs introduction. And if you’re planning to create a Glassdoor profile for your startup anyway, why not check out their job posting functionality while you do that?
The logical upside is that potential hires may have a bit more faith and trust in your company since it’s on Glassdoor. And if you have positive feedback from current and past employees, this could help the candidates decide faster in your favor 😉
You can try posting jobs for free with a regular Glassdoor account or contact their Sales department if you want to reinforce your hiring brand and get your job posting in front of a larger audience.
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