How to Find Developers: 21+ Expert Tips & Essential Strategies for 2024

how to find developers and software engineers for tech recruitment
Summary:

If you haven’t found the right developer to hire for your business, here’s a collection of strategies and channels that you should try.

Finding a software developer or engineer to work on your game, mobile app, or stealth-mode project is challenging no matter what, especially if you want a good one. And, it’s particularly difficult when you don’t know all the options you have at your disposal.

That’s why we’ve put together this extensive list of strategies, tactics, advice, and general places to look to find software engineers, recruit programmers, and hire app developers.

These strategies and tips will help you:

  • Find and hire whatever type of developer you’re looking for: full-stack, front-end, or back-end software developers, senior software engineers, DevOps engineers, web developers, game developers, mobile developers, and others.
  • Search for programmers that fit your budget and requirements: freelance, remote, in-house, full-time, part-time, hybrid, contract-to-hire, or any other combination.
  • Locate a developer for hire proficient in the latest and greatest programming languages and technologies: Python, Java, SQL, Go, Rust, Swift, Kotlin, PHP, C#, Scala, Elm, PureScript, and more.

For each strategy, we’ll go into more detail on how to best utilize them and what to keep in mind. Before we get into it, remember to use a mixture of the approaches we recommend for the most effective way to find and hire the developer you want for your business.

Without further ado, here are more than a dozen great ways to find developers and top software engineers:

1. Hire Developers Through Arc

Want to skip writing job descriptions altogether, avoid unanswered calls and unappreciated follow-ups, and start interviewing developers directly?

Arc is an AI-powered remote jobs marketplace for the world’s top software developers. With a talent pool of 250,000+ developers worldwide, you can find the best developers around the world easier and faster.

In addition to the sizable remote developer marketplace, what stands out about Arc is HireAI, its personal AI recruiter. With HireAI, you can:

⚡️ Get instant candidate matches without searching
⚡️ Identify top applicants from our network of 250,000+ devs with no manual screening
⚡️ Hire 4x faster with vetted candidates (qualified and interview-ready)

Try HireAI and hire top developers now →

2. Get Referrals to Find a Developer

Next up concerning how to hire a software developer are referrals. These can be from your employees, associates, friends, family, business partners, or anyone else in your network. To get referrals, simply ask around in your network and get them to ask in their networks.

The most significant advantage of this method is that you’ll have direct contact with the developer, and the person who referred you to the developer may have hired the developer before (and can vouch for them). Also, the prospective developer may trust you more if someone from their network recommends you, and is more likely to work with you if the developer has other offers.

However, remember that the variety of your network limits the variety of developers you can access with this approach. Nevertheless, this remains one of the best ways to find top developers.

3. Search Freelance Platforms

If you’re looking to find a freelance developer, using a freelance platform is quite possibly the easiest way to go. There are plenty of options out there, but freelance platforms can usually be grouped into two categories: general and niche.

General freelance platforms

The most well-known freelance platforms will fall into this category, such as Fiverr or Upwork. Here you will find developers among many other kinds of freelancers. Prices can range from very cheap to very expensive. It gets even more expensive if you pay for something you can’t even use at the end.

One major shortcoming of general freelancing platforms is that there is no vetting of developers. Anyone can claim to be a software developer on many freelance platforms. Though there are a lot of Upwork alternatives out there, and certainly tons of truly talented developers on them all, it can be challenging sorting through to find that diamond.

Niche freelance platforms

On the other hand, there are niche platforms made especially for finding freelance developers. These usually will have a more extensive vetting process and procedures in place to help you find the right candidate.

This can speed up the hiring process significantly, although it may be slightly more expensive. Arc is one of them!

Read More: Hiring Developers Online: Freelance vs Recruitment Agencies vs In-House

4. Attend Developer Conferences & Meetups

This is perfect when it comes to finding developers near you. You can start by searching online for annual developer conferences or regular tech meetups in your area. And, even before the pandemic,

if you want to find software developers, conferences are a good option

There are a lot of different meetup categories, so keep in mind that it’s also possible to search for the specific developer you’re looking for — skills, tech stack, and programming languages are all useful search terms.

You can then attend the conference or meetup to connect with developers in your area who are in need of work or know someone who is.

5. Become Active on Developer Communities & Forums

Another great strategy to use is to get involved in software developer communities and forums. There, you may find the developer you need or someone who can recommend them to you.

It’s handy to look at prospects’ profiles and set up an interview with those who pass your initial screening. The significant disadvantage when it comes to developer communities is that each community is governed by its own set of rules. This means much more time and engagement will be expected from you before attempting to recruit (assuming that is not against their rules), which makes the process more cumbersome.

Great communities for you to have a look at when considering where to hire developers include Reddit, HashNode, CodeProject, and Dzone.

6. Use LinkedIn to Find a Developer for Hire

LinkedIn is a fantastic search engine for both on-site and remote developers and just about the best site to hire programmers. The big advantage here is that you can look through resumes/CVs, explore the candidate’s experience and connections, and make an informed decision about who to contact.

It’s also a great strategy to combine with some of the other methods in this post. It will enable you to gain more insight into the candidates that you discover via other means. Furthermore, you can use the social media portion of LinkedIn to ask your network for leads to find developers looking for work they might know. Make sure to use social media scheduling tools to ensure that your posts are strategically timed, reaching a wider audience consistently.

On the flip side, a lot of recruiters tend to use this method. For developers, especially those who are solid developers, this channel may seem overwhelmingly full of “spam” and may not be the best way to reach out to them.

Wondering how to write a compelling employment ad on LinkedIn sure to help you hire software developers and find freelance programmers? We’ve covered what various job descriptions should include in these posts:


Check out our entire set of tech job descriptions and choose the one which fits your hiring needs best:

Or, say goodbye to writing job descriptions altogether with HireAI. Discover top remote developers instantly without manual searching and screening. Try HireAI now!


Read More: 25+ Best Tech Gifts for Programmers, Software Developers & Engineers

7. Read Medium & Other Dev Publications

Many great developers are passionate about sharing what they’ve learned and write for websites such as Medium.

On Medium, you can search for potential developer candidates based on the area of expertise or tech stack you require. What’s great is that Medium posts tend to cover a large variety of software development topics, so you’re bound to find someone who has worked with whatever tech stack you are using.

Additionally, developers that write for popular publications like HackerNoon or freeCodeCamp may also be good candidates to consider.

Like the other strategies for hiring software developers, it’s often best to expand your search outside of Medium once you narrow it down to particular candidates. Some writers will link their Twitter and/or Facebook accounts to their Medium profile, so not only can you see what the writer has written and how well-received the posts were, but you can also learn more about who they are to help you figure out who to interview.

Keep in mind that a developer that is a strong writer does not necessarily mean that they are a skilled developer — be sure to look at their body of work beyond just their writing.

CTA Sign up to hire developers 728x90

You can also explore HireAI to skip the line and:

⚡️ Get instant candidate matches without searching
⚡️ Identify top applicants from our network of 350,000+ devs with no manual screening
⚡️ Hire 4x faster with vetted candidates (qualified and interview-ready)

Try HireAI and hire top developers now →

8. Ask Questions on Quora

Similar to Stack Overflow, you will find that Quora hosts talented developers, who love to share their knowledge there. The easiest thing to do when looking for a developer is to look for topics in your area of interest. These may be either topics related to developers looking for a job, or topics related to a certain tech stack.

Besides, you can also use Quora Spaces to search and connect with developers in your area of interest. Overall, there is a lot of talent on Quora. However, keep in mind that many of the Quora answerers who are developers work full-time at top companies such as Facebook, Twitter, or Microsoft. This makes finding a match much more difficult — like a needle in a haystack!

9. Join Facebook Groups

This tactic is another great way to find both freelancers and developers in your area. You can search for groups of developers based on location and/or the relevant tech stack.

First, try to join a few relevant to you and what you’re hiring for. Some may require approval from a group moderator before you can participate, and make sure you read and abide by the rules of each Facebook Group you join.

Once inside the group, engaging with the community and providing value are very important. After you are more familiar with the group, you can either make a post about your job opportunity (if allowed) or privately reach out to some of the more active members. Proceed to interview those who are showing interest in your offer.

Read More: How to Create a Remote Work Culture That’s Supportive, Positive & Fun

10. Get Tweeting on Twitter

On Twitter, you can search for the relevant tech stacks, click on the “People” tab, and you will find some developers with the required skills.

You can also use hashtags to search for the top or latest tweets related to tech stacks that you’re hiring for. A small percentage of those tweeting with those hashtags will be developers, and that’s another means of finding them. Those developers may be well-known thought leaders (who may already have jobs), while others may be skilled developers who are constantly learning and sharing the latest information on various software development technologies — which is a good sign.

Overall, Twitter tends to be better for finding freelance developers but requires a lot of time and effort, which can be a hit or miss. You will often need to combine this method with others to get more information about potential developers and software engineers.

With paid ads or direct advertising, you can easily target and find developers with a certain skill set. The next step will be to set up interviews with the right candidates once they reach back to you. The disadvantage of this method is that you’ll have upfront costs, and may not even find the ideal candidate in the end.

You can advertise via many online platforms such as Facebook, Reddit, Google, and LinkedIn. Online media is excellent for both local and freelance developers, whereas offline media tends to work better for developers in your area.

If you want a specific advertising platform created for recruiting software developers, check out Carbon. They help you reach tech audiences with their placement network of top tech blogs and communities, helping you find coders where they hang out.

12. Visit Coding Challenge Websites

Developers that perform well on coding challenge websites are often featured on those respective sites. It’s a great place to look for potential freelance developers. You can search by specific skill set, and in some cases, even see code the developer has written.

Great challenge websites you can have a look at for developers include TopCoder, Coderbyte, HackerRank, CodeChef, and even HireVue. The leaderboards, forums, and blogs of those websites are useful to look at when searching for programmers. Some websites, such as HireVue are even specially designed to give coding challenges that you can use during your hiring process!

Keep in mind that strong technical skills are only one part of what makes a good developer — soft skills like communication are also extremely important to prevent any issues during the engagement.

Read More: Transparency in Tech Recruiting: Remote Companies Lead the Way

13. Use Graduate Outreach

Looking for fresh talent? Then there’s no better way to get it than by getting in touch with student groups with an interest in computer science, or the computer science department itself at the university of your choice.

In fact, you can even expand your outreach to specific training courses or boot camps in relevant programming areas. This method is great for finding fresh talent, especially if you’re looking to develop and grow the people along with your business.

14. Find Developers Through Professional Recruiters

a professional tech recruiter can help you locate the best software engineers

Tired of searching for “software developers near me” without getting the answers you were looking for?

If you’re searching for local software developers and programming talent, you can’t go wrong with a professional recruiter. However, if this is the approach you choose, you should be ready to pay for it. This is one of the more expensive strategies out there for finding professional coders.

If you have the budget, this can be a good investment. Professional recruiters will also help you take care of multiple aspects of the hiring process. This includes interviewing the candidates, and deciding what your perfect candidate looks like.

Recruiters are better off for hiring developers full-time and in-house, as they are better motivated when they have a substantial commission to look forward to. On average, recruiters tend to charge around 15% of the hired developer’s first-year salary. They’ll be less inclined to work as hard to find freelance coders, as they’ll get much less.

15. View Top Dev Job Boards

Developer job boards are a speedy way to find those who are already looking for a job. The big advantage is obvious. These people are already searching for a job, and it means that you can possibly do less screening work than with other methods.

You can take a look at places such as Angel List, Dice, Monster, The Ladders, Mashable, Indeed, and much more. You will find that some of these boards are also specific to tech jobs, which will help you find a greater abundance of candidates.

The main drawback with some job boards is that there may not be any vetting going on. Combining this with the high volume of applications, it may take a long time to sift through everything properly.

Read More: Remote Work Glossary: 50+ Words and Phrases on WFH & Virtual Careers

16. Head to Hiring Marketplaces

Hiring marketplaces are also a great alternative. Many of them will help you with the vetting process, and collect a lot of the information you would otherwise have to collect from different sources.

This will help you reach out to quality candidates faster, and speed up your decision-making process. On most hiring marketplaces you can post a job announcement, review the candidates, and select who to work with.

The best hiring marketplaces to look at include Hired, Triplebyte, Crunchboard, Skillgigs, Underdog.io, Product Hunt, and The Muse.

17. Hire a Staffing Agency

A great choice when looking for skilled local talent to add to your team! Many agencies also take care of other aspects of the hiring process and will help you out when it comes to screening, interviewing, and other activities.

The disadvantage of this strategy is that you’ll incur significantly higher costs in the hiring process. If you want to find out more details about the best staffing agencies to contact, we’ve gone over some prominent staffing agencies here.

18. Ask HN: Who’s Hiring?

Ask HN: Who’s Hiring” aka “Ask Hacker News: Who’s Hiring” is a monthly post on one of the popular tech news aggregators out there, Y Combinator’s Hacker News, where businesses can add their job post to. This aggregator is popular amongst entrepreneurs and developers alike.

Developers who are looking for work can check this post regularly for their next opportunity, whether it’s on-site, remote, or freelance.

The best part about it is it’s free! All you need to do is to sign up for an account, and find the latest “Who’s Hiring” thread here — a new thread is automatically created the first weekday of every month at 11 am EST.

Your job post will be a comment on the Who’s Hiring post, and you can request those prospective candidates to send you their social profiles or any other requirements to help make your vetting process faster.

In addition to the above, there’s also a monthly “Ask HN: Freelancer? Seeking freelancer?” post and “Ask HN: Who wants to be hired?” post to keep an eye out for as well.

Read More: 15+ Most Popular Programming Languages & Technologies to Know/Learn

19. Ask to See Their Portfolio

Here’s the thing: You don’t need to view their portfolios when looking for software developer candidates. However, clicking through a portfolio will certainly help you understand their particular programming skills and depth of experience that much better.

Software developers tend to highlight some of their proudest achievements in detail in their online portfolios. For example, if you’re looking for a web developer to overhaul your online store, check out their web dev portfolio.

A portfolio sometimes replaces a resume, but ideally, it’s meant to augment the applicant’s cover letter and CV. Whereas a resume only provides enough real estate to jot down a few words about their past work, a software developer portfolio can give you image slideshows, the story behind their work, a walkthrough of their decision-making process, and much more insight.

20. Consider Outsourcing Software Development Projects

Instead of looking for programmers to hire full-time or hiring a developer on a contract basis, you could skip the initial headache of finding software engineers by outsourcing to a third party.

There are plenty of outsourcing software development firms with their own staff ready to accept tasks or projects your engineering team may not be equipped to handle. With an outsourcing agency, you’ll have a single point of contact responsible for delivering progress reports, acting as a project manager, and generally leading efforts to get your tickets complete.

With this method for how to find a developer, you’re actually hiring an entire team (depending on the package you pay for). There’s no vetting required, as the outsourcing agency will have already done so, and there’s no delay. You can get started almost immediately after signing the contract!

However, instead of vetting developers, you’ll have to do your due diligence to vet the agency, instead. While at least there are reviews of outsourcing agencies available online, you still won’t have the overall control and management aspect you would if you recruit a developer yourself.

21. Get to GitHub (Defunct)

Update: GitHub Jobs has been shut down as of August 19, 2021 🙁

GitHub is a treasure trove, especially when it comes to seeing past projects and software engineering portfolios. While it may not be as useful as some of the other strategies on its own, it’s certainly great when you employ it in combination with some of the other methods.

Getting to see the actual code that the developer has written before and seeing what repositories the developer has contributed to can help you make a more informed decision. And if that’s not enough, you also have access to the GitHub Jobs board, where you can post your job and reach a vast number of developers.

22. Flow on Over to Stack Overflow Jobs (Defunct)

Update: Stack Overflow Jobs has been sunsetted as of April 1, 2022 🙁

Stack Overflow is one of the largest communities for developers that you can access online. Many developers discuss code and interact together on this site. To find useful candidates, it’s best to search for the most active members in certain sections, have a look at their profiles, and contact those you’re interested in.

An alternative is to post on Stack Overflow’s job board about your position and see who applies. Regardless, the big advantage of Stack Overflow is the quick access you have to a large number of developers. The downside, of course, is that it will be more challenging to find local developers to hire. There is also a fee to pay to post a job on their boards.

Wrapping Up

There you have it! Hope you discovered some new strategies for finding the ideal software developer or software engineer for your business. It’s now time to choose which methods are best for you based on your goals and budget, and see how things go.

Using these strategies will help you find any kind of developer, regardless of the tech stack, the location (on-site or remote), or commitment (part-time, full-time, freelance, contract, etc.)!

If you want to find out more about hiring expert developers and speeding up your hiring process, here at Arc, we offer just that. Each developer is screened extensively for both technical and non-technical skills, which will ultimately reduce the workload on you and your team.

Do you have any strategies that you have found to be the most effective when it comes to hiring developers? Let us know in the comments section below!

Read More: Andela vs Arc: Andela Alternatives Quick Guide

You can also explore HireAI to skip the line and:

⚡️ Get instant candidate matches without searching
⚡️ Identify top applicants from our network of 350,000+ devs with no manual screening
⚡️ Hire 4x faster with vetted candidates (qualified and interview-ready)

Try HireAI and hire top developers now →

Written by
Jennifer Fu
Join the discussion

2 comments
  • This is a really great blog. It’s so difficult for the tech recruitment and hiring managers communities to source, filter and hire 100% best quality tech candidates. I feel the process needs an automation and creativity to expand within this field and these can be fixed easily through using coding assessment tool that can help one to assess coding skills within no time, all automated and accurately.

  • Developers are the backbone of any software. They take care of the programming, design, and implementation of software. Finding a good developer is not easy and usually takes time and effort. Thank you for your helpful article.