Finding the right developer for your organisation

The key aspect to get right, for organisations in New Zealand hiring developers, is to correctly define the requirements first, before getting into the market. Hiring someone too senior for your requirements not only leaves your hire bored, but results in over investing in resources that would have been met with a junior-level role. On the flip side, it’s critical to weigh up the investment worth of bringing on a highly experienced developer, with a well-proven track record. Paying more for a role that will be solving complex business challenges is, in the long term, a much better approach. 

 Then there’s the matter of upskilling and professional development. We encourage our clients to be open to upskilling staff, nurturing them into more senior roles, within the framework of a training programme and realistic KPIs. Perhaps you have a number of senior developers who simply don’t have the hours in the day to deliver what the business needs. By bringing some of that development of juniors or intermediate developers in-house you are ensuring  they are learning best practice. It  helps to promote career development, building  engaged employees who can clearly see the pathways within your business to more senior positions.

Finding the right organisation to join as a developer or tester

If you’re a developer or tester looking for work, you won’t need to look for long. New Zealand has a significant imbalance between candidates (not enough) and job opportunities (a lot). 

 This is an advantage for developers looking for work, but if anything, makes the decision making process even more important to get right. Provided you have the technical skills to do a number of potential roles, our advice is to pick the business that best aligns with your values, and is doing work that you are interested in. Remember, remuneration can change with your good performance, but a business’ culture won’t (not easily anyway).