After a few long years I’m back and stoked to be able to relaunch this site.
The past year has been a roller coaster of finding my feet and grounding myself in the JavaScript community and I’m still just scraping the surface! It’s seen me place some amazing talent with clients that I’m proud to partner with.
These include some of the best start-ups, financial services, telco’s, media agencies and software development houses in Sydney.
They all have similar things in common – they value the service that I provide which is finding them talent in the software engineering space they aren’t able to source themselves. They also provide an environment that fosters growth, innovation, communication and provides a challenging working environment for their staff.
The awesome Front-end talent that I have worked with over the year are naturally drawn to these companies due to this environment – and funnily enough, even though the market has pushed candidate salary expectations through the roof, this is not the main driver for movement.
Engineering is constantly changing, and so are engineers. These people are pushing the boundaries of software engineering with this incredible technology. A quality engineer is thinking outside of the box in how they approach problems and deliver on these solutions.
What I have learnt in the last 12 months is this; whilst framework experience is ideal for short term hires and engagement, it should not be that important for long term permanent hires. This is because, and this is constant feedback that I get from the people that I do business with, technology can be taught (even bluffed). What is difficult to match is culture, attitude and habits.
One of the most imperative strategies for successful long term hires and in hiring talent (which I have adopted) is seeking out culture fit and be sure of quality software engineering practices.
Every framework can be taught and picked up quickly if people understand the fundamentals and have the right attitude. These candidates, who may not know React.js or Angular2 WILL NOW be able to pick them up quickly if provided the right environment. What they also offer is their ability to influence others of correct software engineering habits, bringing culture and correct engineering principles to your team.
Here are some tips for building long term sustainable teams of JavaScript software engineers:
- Have a team that foster’s innovation, growth and change
- Get people in your team that have knowledge of the fundamentals of software engineering and JavaScript
- Promote a continuous learning environment
- Don’t get caught up on particular framework knowledge when hiring – while it might be your need, attract good talent by offering this as a skillset to be taught NOT required.
I’d love your thoughts on this… please feel free to comment/share/like – if you ever want to reach out contact me on here, twitter @sydjstalent sam.elderfield@ambition.com.au
Picture credit goes to @seth_bergman thanks mate!
Cheers,
Sam
Sydney JavaScript Chat 
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