Why Engineers Just Aren’t that into You: 3 Tech Talent Turnoffs

You have a killer office space, a flexible work schedule, and an innovative product. Recruiting and retaining the top engineering talent should be a piece of cake, right? Not if you’re sending up these three red flags they can’t ignore.

By the time they’ve built their first engineering teams, many expansion-stage software companies have pinpointed the perks and benefits for recruiting top-notch engineers to their business: A desk with dual, 27-inch monitors? Check. A futuristic chair? Check. An unlimited supply of organic and non-organic cheese puffs? Double check.
But what about the things that demotivate software engineers and send them running for the hills (i.e., to your biggest competitors)? In many ways, those things should be obvious after reading Balihoo CTO Paul Price’s advice in the first post in this three-part series. That said, here are three more things that Price, who built Balihoo’s engineering team from the ground up, says companies need to fix if they hope to attract and retain software engineers at the top of their game.

Abort, Retry, Fail? 3 Things that Send Software Engineers Running

1. Corporate Bureaucracy

If your business has a very obvious leadership problem, Price says you’ll develop a reputation that keeps the best engineers from coming to (or staying with) your company. The ability to work autonomously is typically a major draw for engineers. Simply put, while the best engineers appreciate clear direction and project scope, they want to be able to focus on their own work without being drawn into office politics.

2. High Risk

While salespeople or marketers might be attracted to high risk/high reward scenarios, engineers are not. That mentality is beginning to change, Price admits, but the quiet majority of engineers remain resistant to risk. Unfortunately, this issue can work against startups and expansion-stage companies that are competing against more established competitors. But Price says strong leadership and clear company aspirations can also quell engineers’ fears of working for growing companies.

3. Lack of Vision

If top-notch engineers are unable to understand why you’re building what you’re building, or how your product solves a bigger problem, they’ll likely ignore your outreach or look for other opportunities. The best engineers actively seek out opportunities to creatively solve interesting problems and build something that genuinely makes a difference in a customer’s life or business, so you must be able to illustrate how your business is doing that. Again, Price stresses these issues will vary by market, industry, and, frankly, age group. He also warns that this list is by no means comprehensive. But if your business struggles with any of the things above, it can send up red flags that make attracting and retaining top engineering talent difficult.

“No one enjoys working in a chaotic environment of constant power struggles and ever-shifting priorities. If engineers get the sense that your business isn’t stable or that it doesn’t really understand where it wants to go, it will be exceedingly difficult to recruit and retain the best people.” – Paul Price, Balihoo

How have you overcome hurdles when it comes to recruiting engineers? Are you an engineer? What other turnoffs can you add to the list?