

Suggestions for engineering recruiters in Bay Area? - vdee

We&#x27;ve been trying to build our engineering team in the bay area for awhile now, but we&#x27;re not having any luck. We&#x27;ve used 5 different recruiting firms to fill our developer positions, but they aren&#x27;t delivering.<p>Does anyone know of any other recruiting firms in the bay area that you would refer? Greatly appreciate it.
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MalcolmDiggs
I've got this lawn I need mowed. I keep shooting at it with my handgun, but it
doesn't seem to be working. Does anyone know of any higher caliber rifles I
could use to cut this grass? Greatly appreciate it.

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RNeff
Are you building really cool stuff? Are you paying enough that a programmer
could afford an apartment close to your office? Free snacks, free lunch, free
dinner, gym membership? Private offices (with doors!) or noisy, chaotic open
plan?

Are you building really cool stuff?

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kasey_junk
I don't disagree with your sentiment, but the sign of a "good" recruiter would
be to tell the client when their expectations about compensation are out of
wack.

So, that doesn't really answer the underlying question.

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curtis
I would suggest some serious outside-the-box thinking. Here are some ideas:

* Try advertising on Reddit. I think Reddit will let you target specific sub-reddits, and I don't think their advertising is very expensive anyway. Right at this moment, r/programming claims to have "588,311 readers" and "1,059 users here now". Most of these people won't be in the Bay Area, but I would bet a significant fraction are.

* Try advertising on Pandora. I don't think there's any way to target technical people specifically, but I think they may be able to geo-target pretty accurately. And compared to the cost of a recruiter, I can't imagine it would be very expensive.

* Try advertising in your local alternative weekly newspaper. Up here in Seattle that would be The Stranger. In the Bay Area I guess that would be papers like San Francisco Bay Guardian, the SF Weekly, or maybe the Metro Silicon Valley. Even if this doesn't generate much in the way of direct leads, it might generate some notoriety which in turn might benefit your other recruiting efforts. A conventional contact from a recruiter might be more effective if the contactee has already heard of your company. And again, the cost of this advertising is probably a lot cheaper than a recruiter.

OK, maybe that last idea is a little too outside the box. But it still seems
like somebody should try it just to see if it works.

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vdee
Thanks for the advice.

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arenaninja
Tried remote yet?

I'd love to do away with my daily driving grind, but every time I emailed
someone I got a "we don't really want remote developers, we just say we do;
have you considered moving to SF?". Unfortunately, it's unlikely that I'll be
getting the same spacious 2BR2BA (with 2 parking spots!) for $800 in SF (not
to mention one block away from daycare), and I don't want my salary to be
eaten by rent

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tcannon
Your website doesn't list the jobs you're hiring for, the industry you're in
isn't very glamorous, nobody want to commute to San Bruno (you either live
north or south and driving from one side sucks and driving from the other
means you need a car) and I'm guessing low pay and little perks as far as
new/fun technology.

Your website is listed on your profile, and I pulled the above together in
about 2-3 minutes.

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dogstraightup
OP- I am based in NY but have had success in filling engineering roles in the
start-up space. A big factor (arguably the most important) is culture fit.
I've had fairly good success understanding my client's needs and parameters
and providing suitable candidates.

Feel free to write back and I can send you my email to continue the
conversation. BOL!

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PaulHoule
I hate to say it, but you might step back and wonder if the market is sending
you a message here; could it be that the high cost of living and low quality
of life in the Bay Area, combined with Silicon Valley investors redlining 98%
of the land area of the US could lead to investment returns going to 0% or
less for Silicon Valley investors?

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mchannon
Most recruiting companies do the best they can with the job requirements
they're given.

If you're trying to get junior people for $75k and senior people for $125k, no
recruiter's going to fill those positions.

Try upping your ranges and I bet most of the 5 recruiters will start coming up
with a sufficient supply of candidates to fill out your team.

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S4M
Why don't you use the "Who is hiring?" thread, or at least mention here what
profiles you are looking for. Also, as arenaninja asks, have you tried remote?
There are some inconvenience coming with it, but you will have access to a
larger pool of candidates who will cost you less than SV engineers.

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pskittle
1\. Go to meetups/hackathons/dev conferences. 2\. Hire directly by talking to
people you meet there. 3.Engineers have a strong aversion towards HR people
and are more likely to pay attention to the founders or early hires. 4.Hire
remotely ---> your talent pool increases dramatically

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eric_bullington
If you tried remote, you'd get access to a whole lot of high caliber
candidates at a significantly lower price. You'd be pretty surprised at how
many awesome developers are available when you're recruiting from the entire
nation (or even world, if you're daring).

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loumf
Try Hired.com and careers.stackoverflow.com -- For Careers, I have not used
postings, just profile access. Everyone I have talked to that tried Hired
loved it (but I have not)

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joshjkim
Hard to say without knowing more - how big is your team currently, and what
specific engineering positions are you hiring for?

Have you gotten any feedback on why engineers are passing?

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jhildings
The company site doesn't say much about the working environment, and
candidates comparing you to other companies don't know what they get

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hatmer
Try Motek Technologies, my friend Marc works there and they are pretty cool.
His email is mjackson@motektech.com

