Great post. I’m seeing it from both sides. On the hiring front, it’s harder to get people through the funnel. The more steps that you put in there, the more likely they’ll drop out and move on.
On the employee side, this is the time where it’s even more important to focus on retention. Losing a couple key employees may mean that spot may be left open for months.
Thanks for confirming both. Its delicate balancing on both ends. I do think companies/teams/managers taking early steps to get ahead of retention will do well. It’s natural to focus on hiring, but so easy to forget existing folks.
I see very strong counter-offers from all companies (from more traditional ones to tech-first ones), with up to 30-40% on-the-spot raises to hold on to people.
I personally never expected the market to take this of a turn when Covid started.
Gergely, some feedback on junior developers in the London job market. Although entry-level roles are as hard to find as ever for all the reasons you state, there is significant compression going on in the market for juniors. I am seeing bootcamp grads receiving 50% jumps in salary into their second role after only 6 months as a developer and apprentice developers jumping ship mid-apprenticeship with >100% salary increases. This is new. It is another perverse effect of this insane market and yet another reason why employers might be reluctant to hire out of bootcamps or invest in apprenticeships. It is not enough to be hiring in this pool, engineering managers also need to be very serious about putting support and salary reviews in place for their junior hires, otherwise employers' investment of time and resources will walk out of the door even before it is capable of making a net positive contribution.
Thanks for sharing this Dan, and what great timing. Next week's article is about hiring and retaining junior engineers, and you've touched on the #1 issue I hear companies share who do a good job of hiring juniors.
The market is crazy, and has this very strange and weird characteristic for junior engineers, and companies investing in them.
Do you have advice for new grads and how they can get their foot in the door if they didn't have an internship already? What I have seen when I open up a position is 200+ resumes that come in for a new grad position.
Great post. I’m seeing it from both sides. On the hiring front, it’s harder to get people through the funnel. The more steps that you put in there, the more likely they’ll drop out and move on.
On the employee side, this is the time where it’s even more important to focus on retention. Losing a couple key employees may mean that spot may be left open for months.
Good to see you here, Johnie 👋
Thanks for confirming both. Its delicate balancing on both ends. I do think companies/teams/managers taking early steps to get ahead of retention will do well. It’s natural to focus on hiring, but so easy to forget existing folks.
I see very strong counter-offers from all companies (from more traditional ones to tech-first ones), with up to 30-40% on-the-spot raises to hold on to people.
I personally never expected the market to take this of a turn when Covid started.
Gergely, some feedback on junior developers in the London job market. Although entry-level roles are as hard to find as ever for all the reasons you state, there is significant compression going on in the market for juniors. I am seeing bootcamp grads receiving 50% jumps in salary into their second role after only 6 months as a developer and apprentice developers jumping ship mid-apprenticeship with >100% salary increases. This is new. It is another perverse effect of this insane market and yet another reason why employers might be reluctant to hire out of bootcamps or invest in apprenticeships. It is not enough to be hiring in this pool, engineering managers also need to be very serious about putting support and salary reviews in place for their junior hires, otherwise employers' investment of time and resources will walk out of the door even before it is capable of making a net positive contribution.
Thanks for sharing this Dan, and what great timing. Next week's article is about hiring and retaining junior engineers, and you've touched on the #1 issue I hear companies share who do a good job of hiring juniors.
The market is crazy, and has this very strange and weird characteristic for junior engineers, and companies investing in them.
Do you have advice for new grads and how they can get their foot in the door if they didn't have an internship already? What I have seen when I open up a position is 200+ resumes that come in for a new grad position.
Hey Tony: yes, wrote about advice for these people in this article (second part): https://blog.pragmaticengineer.com/advice-for-tech-workers-to-navigate-a-heated-job-market/
The short of it is:
- Referrals are key
- Apply to lesser-known and more local companies to get your foot into the door
- Consider agencies who depend on hiring junior engineers (and won’t be able to afford seniors).
It’s an incredibly tough market for new grads.