
Ask HN: Where do you find great remote developers? - flippyhead
I&#x27;m curious how people find excellent remote developers. We chose to make our company 100% remote in large part because we wanted access to a wider range of developers from all over the world. The trick of course is you have rely to a larger extent on advertising and methods that can&#x27;t take advantage of your social networks.<p>Are there any places you&#x27;ve found particularly effective for advertising? Any other tricks or best practices you&#x27;ve found effective and finding and retaining great developers?<p>Thanks!
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jamestimmins
As someone that has actively looked for remote jobs, I'm always surprised with
how few companies that are open to remote actually publicize that information.
They'll both not post jobs on remote hiring sites, and will say a role is
based in New York, LA, etc. and only deep in the description will say that
they encourage remote workers as well.

This is a major plus for certain folks, so I sometimes wonder if companies
don't realize it's such a big selling point.

~~~
dizzystar
This is so true. You can't really expect us to be actively looking on job
sites for every city and expect us to find you.

Sites like freelancer is full of highly questionable jobs with low pay.

Hacker News and whoishiring.io has been a valuable resource to get my resume
out there. I'd definitely suggest getting your stuff on each of those sites.
In an ideal world, indeed would have a remote section, but they didn't last I
checked.

Anyways, OP, it really depends on the developers you are looking for. The
strategy for finding FTE and contractors are different, from the search to how
you interview, how you deal with them as a worker, to your expectations.

~~~
avg_dev
> Hacker News and whoishiring.io has been a valuable resource to get my resume
> out there. I'd definitely suggest getting your stuff on each of those sites.

If I understand correctly, it is not possible to post your resume on either HN
(this site) or whoishiring.io . If you have other sites please suggest them.

~~~
dizzystar
I only have my resume on indeed. I used to have it on other places, but
eventually removed them.

The other comment is correct, I meant sending out my resume, not posting it.

~~~
elbrian
I posted my resume on Indeed and it was one of the biggest mistakes I've ever
made.

I get a phone call at least once every hour or two from an Indian recruiter
with an American name who is trying to pitch me a 24 month contract-to-hire
role working with technology that isn't mentioned on my resume or website.

I have to use call blocking apps just to maintain my sanity.

------
WWLink
I haven't researched you, but a good piece of advice: Please be honest with
your job advertisements. A friend of mine from college was telling me about
his company's job posts one day, keep in mind they were a small company that
makes b2b apps. They were looking for a guy that had 5 years of experience
with the Swift programming language. When I questioned him about that, he
suggested they wanted people who developed it at Apple...

what?

It's ok if your company or app isn't going to change the world. Seriously,
that's fine. Even respectable! As a programmer myself, I just can't take
companies seriously when they ask for the moon from someone, to write them a
run-of-the-mill android app or whatever.

------
vlokshin
We deal with this all the time at Turtle, as all devs on our network are
remote. I'm not sure that advertising is the most direct way. If you're fully
remote but paying well and have interesting work, you should have an easier
time reaching great devs than companies who aren't remote (exceptions exist
and some people do like nice space and free food).

Word-of-mouth is huge. Don't expect to get all your great devs at once. Hire a
few, do right by them, and they'll help you reach others. Word-of-mouth has
been our strongest referral engine yet.

Think about where your devs are most likely to be. Meetups? Conferences?
Freelancer communities? Schools? Co-working spaces? Get there or find someone
on the ground who can get to them.

A few tips:

(1) Be clear about why your work will be interesting. (2) Set up a process for
flexibility (remote devs really value this). (3) Pay well. Mimic benefits in
the markets you're hitting (example: if you're targeting Mountain View,
consider giving your devs meals at restaurants serving better food than
google).

Don't think of remote as a disadvantage (sounds a bit so from your post -- and
from you jumping to advertising). Know that remote is seen as an advantage by
money devs.

There are also a few remote job boards and twitter accounts but finding great
devs within 20 miles or 2000 miles isn't all that different. Have interesting
work, great process that doesn't get in the way, pay well, give freedom.

------
jasonkester
I get the impression that a lot of companies still see remote work as an
opportunity to hire Bay Area caliber talent for Iowa or Philippines local
salaries. And then they're surprised to find a shortage of good developers
applying.

The reality is (thankfully) finally coming around to the idea that you get
what you pay for. A remote dev who can code his way out of a paper bag _and_
effectively communicate that he has done so is a rare and valuable commodity.
Offer to pay accordingly, and you won't have trouble attracting them.

------
tastyham
I keep reading online about how remote teams are so great, but in real life
they are tough as fuck and require 5x the discipline and communication skills
of in-person teams.

~~~
DoofusOfDeath
Agreed. Making remote work well requires just about everyone to be firing on
all cylinders: you, your team, and especially your manager.

And side note: The common wisdom about don't be the only remote person on a
team is true. I've done it, and it absolutely sucks.

~~~
carlmr
If you're the only remote person, you're excluded from everything and there's
probably no Slack or equivalent group discussion. I'm doing partially remote
and I use that time to get done with some things that need more focus, but if
I was fully remote I'd have big issues getting all the information I need.

~~~
olemartinorg
I am the only remote person at my work. Sometimes I feel there's too much
going on on Slack at the same time, and I haven't had any issues getting the
information I need in a long time. There's always exceptions. Even though
we've hit a few bumps in the road before we got to where we are now, I think
it can work even for a 'traditional' company like ours (as long as you obsess
about procedures and keeping things documented and in writing, which we've
always done).

------
austenallred
In my experience whenever you post remote jobs great devs come out of the
woodwork to find you.

StackOverflow jobs with the remote flag was perhaps the most beneficial before
we joined YC and could post to HN.

------
sixhobbits
This might be a bit harsh, but the other comments point you in the right
direction for general remote hiring and hiring developers in general, so
specifically:

* After I see the quality of your website and copy, I assume you don't have $$ to pay a decent front end designer or copywriter, or even $ to outsource this.

* If this is true, hiring good devs is going to be difficult. If it isn't, I would iterate on your frontend and copy ASAP. It's the first impression for your customers and potential employees, and currently the design is not great, there are many front end bugs, and the copy sounds like it was written in an evening by the founder.

Not trying to be overly critical - shipped is better than perfect. But your
current first impression means I didn't even look at your jobs page, so it
might be something you want to focus on before going into full hiring mode.

~~~
jorams
Relatedly, there's a typo in their HN profile: "We're hiring remove
developers". Sometimes it's the little things that leave a good impression, no
matter how seemingly insignificant.

~~~
sixhobbits
I nearly added exactly this, and then didn't want to be that guy. Glad it's
not only me..

------
Mandatum
Take a look at where great companies hire outside of the US.

Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Estonia, New Zealand - all not very well "known" as
offshore, but great because there's plenty of people working at local
companies that you can poach at a discount compared to your head office. Now
start invading their local hangouts.

Generally speaking you should advertise where those people hang out weekly or
daily. Pay for an advertisement in the latest tech-framework-that-relates-to-
your-work-newsletter with a project donation, that really specific podcast
that people who work in your stack listen to, StackOverflow (targeted),
subreddits, Slack and Discord channels all centered around your stack.

LinkedIn and recruiters generally won't get you the crème de la crème, because
it's not as cost effective for them.. You have to work to find them. So go
out, seek and offer!

~~~
RantyDave
The New Zealand dollar is brutal right now (USD1 = NZD1.35) so it's not going
to be much of a discount.

------
milofeynman
The hacker news thread on the first of every month.

------
BatFastard
There are a number of remote only job boards like weworkremotely.com finding
all of those and posting there is a good start. Good remote jobs are highly
valued by developers who have worked remotely in the past. I have been working
remotely for 22 years, and each new job is a bit of a herculean task to find.

------
jdbernard
At the risk of sounding presumptuous, I'm considering a job change myself and
will be prioritizing remote opportunities. I didn't see any contact
information in your HN profile or on your website or I would have contacted
you there. If you are interested in talking my contact information is
available in my HN profile.

More generally, consider remote specific job boards like Remote OK
([https://remoteok.io/](https://remoteok.io/)) or We Work Remotely
([https://weworkremotely.com/](https://weworkremotely.com/)).

As others have mentioned, StackOverflow's job board is also a good resource.
You can tag your posting as being remote.

~~~
flippyhead
I didn't want to presume myself, but I've now updated my profile. I'll reach
out to you directly too, thanks!

We usually advertise on both of those but didn't have much luck some years ago
with StackOverflow, but maybe we'll give it a second try.

------
SubuSS
Might be a very dumb sounding answer but money is usually where it is: Pay
well and you will magically have them :)

Even though I haven't really considered pure remote jobs, I have always at
least peeked at recruiter mails that come in with an impressive number as an
opener.

~~~
fyfy18
Having been working remotely on and off for the last few years, I would tend
to agree.

I’m flexible where I work, so if I can earn more working in an office I’ll do
it - I’m not taking a 40% paycut just to work remotely.

As a company you are already saving by not paying employment taxes (most
remote workers are contractors on paper) and not having an office, so don’t
skimp more by paying your team a low wage.

------
rwieruch
I am sitting on the other side of the table. If I am actively looking for a
gig, which rarely happens, I have a look into all the remote job boards. Then
it depends on the job description and how the company presents itself.
Otherwise the HN Freelancer/Job Threads each month are valuable too.

However, I must admit that 90% of my professional opportunities are generated
through my own website. Recruiters for remote jobs or people with project
based opportunities are reaching out to me after reading a blog post of mine.
So I guess that many people/companies looking for remote professionals are
evaluating websites from individuals (blogger/open source maintainer/...) too.

------
git-pull
If you're at an incubator / coworking space, that is the best place. Second to
that, meetups. Third, you can start interviewing en masse - but when it gets
to that point, both sides decay in quality.

I've gotten most of my work through incubators, people using my open source
projects, and finally through HN.

In hindsight, the reason why incubators/coworking spaces were so effective is
people can form a connection beforehand and know your personality. They can
see that you're in front of a terminal happy getting stuff done, "in the zone"
with your headphones, and not yapping about politics or meta stuff.

If you do python, django, or stripe, check my profile.

------
aantix
Cold outreach. Github Advanced Search is your friend.

E.g. query for devs with at least one javascript repository (substitute
whatever tech you're targeting), > 5 total repos (show they're fairly active
on GH), with > 10 followers.

[https://github.com/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=language%3Ajavasc...](https://github.com/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=language%3Ajavascript+repos%3A%3E3+followers%3A%3E10&type=Users)

Search documentation [https://help.github.com/articles/searching-
users/](https://help.github.com/articles/searching-users/)

~~~
RomanPushkin
Or [http://git-awards.com](http://git-awards.com)

------
maxxxxx
I think you will find a lot of remote devs here or you could put an ad on
StackOverflow.

To retain them, pay well and keep work interesting. Most good remote devs are
very self-sufficient so don't micromanage but show trust.

------
tunesmith
Some of it is finding remote developers that aren't necessarily for hire, and
getting to know them. Meetups, discussion boards, etc. Remote developers value
their clients because of the flexibility, and finding a good remote client is
harder than finding an FTE. So that means that if a remote developer has a
relatively solid gig, they're often going to stay there even if they're
theoretically open to something better.

------
RomanPushkin
Depends on definition of "excellent". Usually great engineers tend to live in
the most expensive places, because 1) they can afford it 2) there are many
companies which offer relocation. So here you just have to pay a big buck (and
compete with top tech companies for the talent), so devs can pay for the
housing and expensive life, let's say in SFBA.

If you're not looking for stars with Google on their resumes or 5 year SV
experience, which is also OK, there are plenty of engineers who can do a great
job without Google on their resumes. Maybe little bit slower, maybe not. If
you can't find them, your interview process is broken.

If something doesn't work right, it means you're looking inexpensive talent in
expensive areas, or exceptional talent in places where you can't find it.
You're remote, but talent often is more about geography.

Also, use GitHub (or git-awards.com) for your search. I have pretty popular
repos, in the top 100 JS devs for San Francisco, email is specified in
profile, but recruiters don't reach. They just don't use this channel. They
only know about one site - LinkedIn.

------
misiti3780
1) pay well 2) offer max flexibility 3) pay bonuses 4) make sure you handle
all client problems

------
harlanji
For an out there perspective, I am a big fan of fixed price contracts. I know
what I can do and what it's worth. Can't speak for others but I want to share
because I don't see people talk about it. A product can be dozens of pieces if
you can integrate them.

Incentives are what you need to focus on. Why are they working remote? Why are
you seeking remote? Are you investing or just using their labor? I appreciate
when somebody is honest and treats me like shit over a dishonest time waster.
Really, if given a choice I'd go back to a direct a-hole over a shifty smile.
A little brief and all opinion, but my 2c.

------
zer01
It almost always pays to have your finger on the pulse of whatever industry
you're looking to recruit from.

If someone posts a neat article on something that's relevant to your problem
space, don't be bashful and reach out to them (same with useful github
projects, etc).

Twitter is another one if you've already curated a good base (or your
developers/security folks/designers/etc have), just start DMing people who
look like they're great and passionate about what they do.

------
zerr
Pay 6-figures, even if they are located in "cheap" locations. Offer flex/part-
time. Forget about office-like holy 40 hours per week.

~~~
Mandatum
You still need to separate the wheat from the chaff. Compare yourself to your
old colleagues, do they make a lot more than you? Are you more effective than
them? What about the reverse?

There are plenty diamond in the rough engineers. By nature, a vast quantity of
people don't know their worth, and what's available to them - so don't just
seek those that already know, seek skills and reward them for those skills.

------
phant0mas
I am currently working remotely for a company. Both the company and me are
satisfied with my work. The way I found it is: a friend of mine I met at uni,
told me that his boss was looking for new developers and was considering
remote. I was interviewed and we agreed. I only go to the company once a month
to plan the next one. The rest of the month we are using slack.

------
vincentdm
We found a great remote developer using Github. For a while I had been keeping
track of high quality repos which mentioned that the author was for hire. When
we finally needed to hire a developer, I reached out to the first guy on the
list, and he's been working with us for more than a year now. I think a good
open source track record is the best resume.

------
sunilgiri
It depends on kind of products / applications you want to build. If you are
looking for mainstream developers who can create web/data processing
applications, (As suggested in other comments ) StackOverflow & Github are two
places to find candidates based on their actual work.

Another place to look for remote developers is freelance websites.
[https://www.upwork.com/o/profiles/browse/](https://www.upwork.com/o/profiles/browse/)
Just an example. A quick search can bring other names.

From my experience, many projects listed in freelancing site lacks Clarity in
requirements, asks a lot of productivity for minimal costs.If someone manages
good feedback, they can ideally be called a good developer. And yes you can
filter by technology, type of projects (long, short, tight or trivial).

Your work culture and process, will be the driving factors in building a
positive word of mouth and feedback. Only that can help in retention and
additions in the longer term.

------
itake
Argentina. I have worked with multiple developers from Argentina and I have
only had positive experiences. They are much lower cost the American devs, but
just as good quality.

They also live in a North American-friendly timezone, which makes it easy for
them to work business hours.

------
oceanghost
Hi. I'm living in the middle-of-nowhere California.

I'm a generalist, have written software for half a dozen of the worlds major
corporations. I live 75 miles from OC, SD and LA, but have family obligations
that keep me where I am.

If any of this sounds interesting please say hello :)

~~~
DoofusOfDeath
February's "Who's Hiring?" story should arrive in about a week. If you're
serious about getting a remote job, that's a great place to start.

~~~
oceanghost
Gracias.

------
avg_dev
I've been thinking about trying to start a remote job board for devs in
Canada. Would you be interested in posting there? The problem is, I'm not sure
I could come up with enough jobs to keep it filled.

------
Fire-Dragon-DoL
This post is helpful. I personally look a lot on stackoverflow jobs with
remote tag and a salary displayed. I check also those without salary but with
a good tech stack, but it's harder to filter there

------
wonder_er
word of mouth. make an easy-to-forward email and send it to your remote
developers, saying:

> "we're looking to find a great person on our team, but job postings are low-
> value. Could you forward this email to someone who may be interested, or
> someone who might know someone who's interested?"

Remote devs keep tabs on other remote devs.

Source: on year 3 of full-time remote work, spread across many time zones.

I like to connect good opportunities to good people, and vice versa. I'd
forward that email to three or five people.

Good luck!

------
dsschnau
I don't have any first-hand knowledge. From what I've read, three main sources
are: word-of-mouth, stack overflow, and github.

~~~
anonytrary
> I am posting to say that I cannot review the product because I didn't buy
> it.

An Amazon reviews lurker.

------
matthall28
WeWorkRemotely.com

Reddit /r/ForHire

Job boards that are specifically targeted to your language (LaraJobs in our
case)

------
damien_f
You've certainly based your decision to go 100% remote on sound logic. An
increase in talent base size and reduction in hourly costs are two of the most
common reasons to move to a remote workforce.

I run Scalable Path, a network of developers and designers. A significant part
of the business involves finding and retaining great talent. So I'm very
familiar with some of the pain points you describe. I've found that, if you
carry out the following basic steps, you will see a much higher retention rate
within your remote team.

Our own remote onboarding process has 3 goals:

\- Facilitate the seamless integration of new contractors into team and
project workflows. \- Enable management to monitor performance of new hires
easily \- Ensure talent are matched with projects that challenge and motivate
them

We do this by following these steps:

1\. Set up a regular communication channel

Setting up a regular and reliable line of communication is vital. It ensures
that the contractor immediately feels included in the business, and as such
will be more accountable to it. Regularly touching base also means potential
problems can be caught early. We encourage our Team Leaders to have two major
touchpoints: a daily standup with the whole team and a weekly 1-1 session.
These meetings can be short, but they should be about more than just work.
It's important to connect with your remote workers like you would with onsite
staff.

2\. Make sure everyone is using source control

This may be Captain Obvious to most of you, but less experienced developers
and project managers may not realize how essential source control can be -
until it’s too late.

Because source control links code to its author, it serves another function,
it enables you to see the quality of work of an individual. This can be
particularly useful in the early days when you are onboarding a contractor, or
if you feel a contractor may not be performing as expected.

3\. Project Management Platform

If correctly utilized, your task management platform can serve as a complete
introduction and information repository for your project(s). Many of the
leading products do more than just managing tasks. They also work as chat
rooms and file storage.

Just be sure you own the task management access. This is beneficial because
you can add and remove people from the platform without losing historical task
information. It also means you can slowly bring developers into the fold with
specific isolated tasks for them.

4\. Time Tracking

Let me preface this by saying that trusting your contractor(s) is crucial to
the success of a project. Contractors should be judged on their productivity,
not their attendance. What really matters is whether they are getting things
done. Pouring over and questioning every entry on a timesheet is
counterproductive and breeds distrust.

That being said having daily, or at the very least weekly, access to
contractor's hours and task descriptions is a simple way to gauge the level of
effort being spent on a project. Particularly useful at the beginning of a
relationship, to see if time spent equates work/productivity committed.

Many of these steps help to make the workflow transparent to everyone. It is
this transparency which is key to the successful retention of remote workers.

5\. Orientation

Last but not least, it is vital to help orient your new team members around
the business. From its culture to the location of documentation they will
need. Even the most basic onboarding process will help settle your new
employees. In turn, this has positive effects on job satisfaction,
productivity, and stress. What’s not to like?

Good luck with your search.

------
jovianliu
Disclaimer: I work for a vetted freelance developer community CodementorX, but
just want to chip in.

A lot of people here has already pointed out great resources on where to find
developers, but as some has also mentioned, having a good job description can
also do wonders. We happened to write something about that here:
[https://www.codementor.io/blog/software-engineer-job-
descrip...](https://www.codementor.io/blog/software-engineer-job-descriptions-
that-attract-the-best-developers-241lev4cs8)

Based on my experience, not every company is ready to embrace the 100% remote
culture. Distributed teams like Zapier has a very thorough and fleshed out
framework on how to integrate remote colleagues into their company culture:
[https://www.codementor.io/blog/remote-team-management-
zapier...](https://www.codementor.io/blog/remote-team-management-
zapier-1gjknenat8)

Hope it doesn't come up as too promotional, just thought that some of our
resources can help!

------
shuus
here is the link twitter.com/remote_ok

