How do we recruit great Mac developers?

Question

My company wants to make some serious applications on the Mac, but we're having a hard time finding experienced mac developers. We're talking Objective-C Cocoa native stuff here. What's the best way to get them? Remote employees? From where? Contract workers or companies? Who?

Answer 1

Have you tried http://jobs.joelonsoftware.com?

Answer 2

Give developers some love and let them do Ruby Cocoa!

IMO your best shot it picking up good developers willing to learn it, not really that hard to learn. You may have a bigger up front cost, but at least you know that you have developers really willing to learn new things, not just lazy ones looking for a paycheck....

But now, how do you find good developpers....

Answer 3

You could check out one of the most active Cocoa discussion Wiki's: http://cocoadev.com/

I bet you could post there or find a job posting area. Lots of sharp developers there.

Otherwise, job boards.

Answer 4

Do you read any Mac developer blogs? That's a great place to start. You'll find some really amazing developers out there who code for Mac in their spare time and would dearly love a job doing it fulltime.

Answer 5

Super niche job requirements like that pretty much scream out for a specialized recruiter. There has to be one for Apple devs. Look around for a good quality recruiting firm. You will pay for them quite high, but you don't pay unless you find exactly who you want.

We have used tech recruiting firms for specialized needs in the past with great results. Back when c# was new and shiny we needed people who had used C# and could get up and running quickly. Can't remember their name, but I am sure there are ones for the Apple dev crowd as well.

Answer 6

As a potential employer, recognize that Mac development is a distinct market from Windows development and that good Mac & iPhone developers are in demand. Thus you can't just say "a developer with X years of experience in 2 technologies makes $Y in our region" when considering things like salary and benefits. Also, if you're not in a major city, you're unlikely to get great developers to move for an uncompetitive salary on the promise of lower cost of living. If anything, you'll need to offer them more money to live somewhere other than Silicon Valley, Boston, New York, Chicago, Portland, Seattle, etc.

Also recognize that Mac developers are Mac developers by choice, not necessity, and that they're probably doing it because they're primarily Mac users. Taking Mac developers and putting them in an environment where they have to use Outlook and other Windows applications as part of their daily work is a recipe for losing them fast.

Most Mac developers also have a strong aesthetic sense, and will definitely insist that any products they create should be good Mac citizens. I've seen numerous times how this can cause conflict in primarily-Windows environments. Marketing departments want crappy branding everywhere, non-coding architects insist the same "architecture" be followed for both Mac and Windows products, managers insist as much code as possible be shared and substandard cross-platform toolkits and languages be used instead of good native technologies to enable that. Mac developers don't want to write software they aren't proud to show their peers, and won't want to work for you if you try to make them.

Finally, there's a strong independent-developer ethos in the Mac community. Don't even bother with "IP assignment" that gives your company ownership of anything other than what is specifically created for it on company time & property. This is especially true if you're willing to hire either contractors or employees. Back when I was consulting, I interviewed for a employment at a place that would require an IP assignment. I told them no way; they hired me as a consultant after that. What possible sense does that make?

So in short:

• Don't assume hiring will be just like hiring commodity developers.
• Don't force Mac developers to use Windows to get their work done.
• Don't force Mac developers to write Windows-like software on the Mac.
• Don't try to claim everything Mac developers create as your own.

A couple of pros to complement the cons above:

• Do ensure your Mac developers can attend major industry conferences like WWDC.
• Do ensure that you have real, up-to-date hardware for your developers to work on.
• Do ensure you're a member of all appropriate developer programs at an appropriate level.
• Do let your Mac developers help you create great Mac products in any way they can.

As for recruiting, Panic's CocoaDev wiki also has a job board that reaches a lot of Mac developers. When you actually have a description of your company and the projects that you'll be working on, you can buy some space there to post it.

Answer 7

Speaking from personal experience - pay for relocation, or be willing to let them work remotely. I've been using Cocoa since before Mac OS X's official release, beginning with early developer releases, and I'm the primary author of a Cocoa/Perl language bridge - although the latter is far less popular than it deserves to be, in my highly-biased opinion. :-)

But, even with experience and a major released project, I find it pretty much impossible to find Cocoa-related work, because I live in an area of the country that's a technological backwater. There are few enough programming jobs of any kind to be found here. I'd be happy to relocate, but haven't been able to find enough work to build up a savings account that's sufficient to finance the move on my own.

Answer 8

Chris Hanson's post is wonderful, and I'd just like to add a couple things:

If you are a small business and are trying to ship a Mac version, I would seriously consider hiring a consultant instead of (or in addition to) looking to hire full time. You will be able to higher a much more experienced developer who can likely get things out the door much faster.

In general, trying to be part of the Mac community is very important. Both Mac users and developers are very well connected -- do you follow the latest Apple rumors? Attempting to hire without understanding the Mac (or iPhone) market is a big mistake.

Answer 9

I'm a Mac developer and I have, also being a hobbyist, so many projects I want to realize that I'd never think of using standard job boards. Instead, I get approached by companies asking if I can help them with a project. This, of course, requires me to be a bit in the open, and this I do by posting on web forum, showing what I do on my web site, and so on.

Being an experienced programmers means to be a demanded programmer. Meaning I can choose, instead of searching.

Basically, I get hired by those who ask for me. Meaning that if you'd want to find me you'd have to look at Mac developer web pages and directly contact them, asking them if they have time or know someone who does. This way I also helped friends with jobs I couldn't take.

I can imagine other experienced Mac programmers work the same way, so go out there, seek them instead of waiting for them to look for you!

Answer 10

I'd say the best areas to look are large metro areas which are not designated regional software capitols.

I lived in Minneapolis/St. Paul; the demand for (on site) OS X specific work was (IMO) frighteningly low. There are only a few companies that specialize in OS X in Minnesota. The frequency of: interesting + specific to OS X + appropriate pay was very low, most of the action was/is on the coasts. I'd say look for independent contractors in such areas. Finally, don't outsource resume and candidate screening :)