When it comes to software engineers and developers, small businesses clearly need them in droves but the searches aren’t always that fruitful. Or their choices are just wrong from the get-go.
The latest data dispatch from Indeed.com shows that small business owners are posting listings for “software engineers/developers” there at incredible rates compared to other tech jobs. For every million job postings in this category, more than 10,000 of them are for software engineers.
The story is not one-sided, however, according to Indeed.com’s senior vice president of engineering, Doug Gray. It’s not just that small businesses all desperately need more software engineers ad can’t find them. According to Gray, another huge problem is that, when people do get hired. they often end up being the wrong fit for the job.
“For non-tech companies the stakes are high to hire the best tech talent, and it’s even harder to assess who is good and who is not,” Gray says. “The hiring manager is typically not a technologist so they can be at a disadvantage for hiring the best people. As an SMB, you really need an engineer who understands your business and the specific needs of your customer base.”
The data also reveals that it’s not just software engineers that are in-demand and hard to find. Of the same batch of postings in tech jobs at Indeed, more than 4,000 of every million are for Java developers and engineers. More than 2,000 postings are looking for a mobile engineer or developer, too.
Others that Indeed has identified as hard to fill tech jobs for small businesses include fullstack engineers and developers, DevOps engineers, UI/UX developers, data scientists, backend engineers and software architects.
It seems it always bears repeating. Especially with hard to fill tech jobs where small businesses have proven to be at a disadvantage in hiring, having a detailed job description for hard-to-find talent is imperative.
Chart: Indeed