Finding the right people for web work

Question

I own an ecommerce business and am having a heck of a time finding the people I need to do consistent work in a timely fashion. We're looking to bring a programmer/designer on board who has knowledge of SEO coding, use of opensource platforms such as Magento and CRM systems like SugarCRM. I've tried craigslist, careerbuilder, guru.com etc. and have gotten many leads but its still been tough trying to find someone that fits. Any suggestions on where else to look...who to contact, what circles to join?... I'm located in Miami, much appreciated.

Answer 1

My guess is that good programmers are saying the same thing about companies like you. And your solution is the same as theirs, you must take on a dedicated sales effort to identify and pursue your intended audience.

The simple fact is that it takes a lot of effort to span the gap between people who can do work and companies that need that work done.

On average, I expect 1 response for every 50 applications, and from those responses, 5 lead to an interview and 1 leads to a contract or job.

I think it's the same for interviewing applicants: it takes a lot of raw effort to search through enough applications to find good workers.

When I held interviews to subcontract out some of my work, it was the same numbers: 40+ applicants, 10 were interesting and after emailing them, only 5 remained interesting; after interviewing those 5, one was fit to hire.

Or you could hire an agency that does this for a living, but you'll pay for it.

Answer 2

Inexperienced hirers often try to make sure an applicant has a list of experience in X, Y & Z. While experience is great, this often means restricting consideration to a very narrow number of applicants.

Perhaps you need to relax the requirement list and look for applicants whose experience shows an aptitude for quickly learning frameworks; in truth must frameworks have similarities, and difficult to learn frameworks tend not to become popular precisely because they're hard to use.

In general, job postings are not appreciated on mailing lists or fora, but if you were to subscribe to mailing lists for the frameworks you're interested, reading those lists might give you some leads. (http://www.magentocommerce.com/boards, http://www.sugarcrm.com/forums/)

The OP comments:

Thank you, you're answer has definitely helped and you hit it right on when you could tell I'm an inexperienced hirer. Going to those forums has led me to many other sites i.e. elance.com, maglance.com, http://www.magentocommerce.com/jobs, etc...so I've begun posting on those we'll see where it gets me. I am open to relaxing the requirement list and finding someone whose truly talented to establish a relationship with, is there a way you'd suggest to narrow the search to more local developers?

While the boards I suggested probably frown on job postings per se, you can probably craft a post along the lines of, "how can I best find magneto/sugurcrm developers to hire in the Miami area?"

You can also investigate Local User Groups for the technologies you're trying to hire for. Also, try posting employment ads that require only the most important requirement, and make the rest optional; that'll open things up, and in the interview you can get an idea of whether that applicant is versatile enough to pick up the additional responsibilities.

And don't worry too much about being an inexperienced hirer. I'm looking for a job myself right now, and I've been getting lots of calls from recruiters who know only how to read from a too-detailed list of requirements, with the list ranging from the very detailed ("Hibernate, Struts") to the very general ("experience with COTS packages").

They're doing this because they're trying to sell resumes up the chain to a contractor who is contracting for a contractor who has a the prime contract, trying to get through gate-keepers at each level; you, as an actual hirer, have the opportunity to relax your requirements and go with someone you feel you can work with, even if they can't necessarily check off each requirement your "perfect" hire would have.

Answer 3

I agree with tpdi. You should try checking out those respective community forums. It seems like your requirements are very specific.

On a side note, I have had some experience with some e-commerce shops and they usually tend to underpay and over-expect.

For example, I highly doubt you will find a one-person expert that can perform competent SEO for you as well as e-commerce development. Something like that runs in the tens of thousands of dollars for a single attempt, and requires other page-ranked websites, and an overhaul of what is most likely, a static website.

Answer 4

I think you are going to continue having issues until you narrow the job description. Most good engineers that I've hired would stop reading a job description as soon as they read "designer." Likewise with designers, they are not developers. Do you want the kiss of death for an engineering job description? Add "answer the phone" or "be initial point of contact for incoming customer cases".

Why are you looking for a designer or an engineer with CRM experience? That's something you expect to find in a sales or marketing applicant.

The people you are most likely to find with your description are people in high school and recent college grads that haven't figured out what they want to do yet.

Narrow the requirements, you will have better luck. In any case, my best paid hit rates have been on CraigsList and Dice.com (with CL being the overwhelming winner in bang for buck). Word of mouth / networking will bring you the best overall QUALITY of candidate.

Answer 5

When I left my previous job, my former boss actually wrote two job descriptions. They covered almost the same kind of work, one with more emphasis on webmaster/support, and the other focused on design and programming skills. Both people would have been welcome, as another colleague and a supplier would fill in the gaps, and be relieved of whatever the new employee would pick up. Next, in a job interview (and probably even during the actual contract), the applicant and my former boss could figger out the details.