Want to hire the best programmers? Offer growth

[Based on the research done by Triplebyte]

Software engineers of all stripes want, more than anything else, to develop their abilities as engineers. 

They want it more than pay, more than work/life balance, and more than autonomy.

This is probably, at least in part, because they know that every other priority they have will eventually depend on keeping up with the industry.

Women Engineers Want Growth, Too (But Also Comfort and Inclusivity)

As expected, “inclusive workplace” shows the largest relative difference between men and women engineers. Female-identified candidates chose it three times as often, a far larger relative difference than any of the other common motivators.

Great Engineers Are Different From The Best Engineers

Great engineers answer “salary”, “impressive team members”, “autonomy”, “fast-paced environment” and “equity” much more. “Autonomy” suggests that these engineers know that they're skilled and can be trusted to work with minimal supervision, and “salary”, “fast-paced environment”, and “impressive team members” reflect career ambition appropriate to that skill level.

In short, great engineers want to be paid well and allowed to exercise their skills in challenging environments.

The best engineers have completely different priorities from great engineers. In many cases, the trends from the previous graph actually reverse when looking at the best engineers.

For example, great engineers selected “work/life balance” less often than the population as a whole, but the best engineers rank it as their top priority by a gigantic margin.

“Impressive team members”, on the other hand, was selected more among great engineers but plummets to near the bottom among the best.

In other words, the priorities of the very best engineers are very different from those of merely great engineers. The very best engineers want comfortable and meaningful work and the ability to choose their work environment and timing.

Finally, it's critical to decide whether your company needs great engineers or the very best engineers. 

• If your company wants great engineers, emphasize pay, autonomy, and challenge. 
• If your company wants the very best engineers, let them work from home, keep your expectations around hours worked reasonable, and go out of your way to emphasize meaningful product.

Full Article: https://triplebyte.com/blog/want-hire-best-programmers-offer-growth

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