The world is running out of experienced open source software developers– that’s according to a recent Cloud Foundry report, which identified a quarter-million job openings for software developers in the U.S. alone. It’s also predicted the number of unfillable developer jobs to reach a million within the next decade. The 2017 Open Source Jobs Report shows a supporting statistic: 89% of hiring managers surveyed cited difficulty in finding the right open source skills and expertise.
Such figures and forecast means it will get harder and harder for companies and organizations to get great open source talent into their team, unless they do something about it. The Linux Foundation’s guide to recruiting open source developers reveals that while the competition for open source talent may be getting fierce, there are ways you can get ahead and get great talent to want to join your team.
What Developers Want
Of course in order to get open source developers to want to work with you, you will have to know what motivates them. Monetary compensation may seem like the fast and easy answer to this one, but according to The Linux Foundation’s guide developers are really motivated by three things: rewards, respect and purpose. Rewards in the form of their salary, benefits and perks; respect in the form of professional recognition; and purpose, a visible, challenging and measurable goal without which respect cannot exist. When companies pay developers to contribute to open source communities all three of these things are met, while also giving developers the chance to advance their own work and products, and gain respect within the community.
According to the most recent Open Source Jobs Report, open source developers say that the best thing about their job is the ability to work on interesting projects with cutting-edge technology and collaborating with a global community. It is important then, to allow this openness of being able to contribute to other open source communities if you want to attract open source talent.
Counterproductive?
Now some would argue that allowing and even paying developers to work on other open source projects will only lure them to go to other companies and organizations. On the contrary, this openness is what attracts and keeps them working with you. And you want them to continue working with you, as this is also another thing that appeals to open source developers.
Developers want to work with other developers, particularly those who are more experienced. They also want to work in a place where they can see existing developers thriving and making a difference in the open source community.
Training
This is where training also makes a big impact on boosting your organization’s appeal to other open source developers. When you offer opportunities for training, you not only provide venues for developers to improve their skills, you also allow them to work with and learn from more experienced developers through mentorships and apprenticeships. Training is also crucial in grooming candidates for succession should you lose key developers, so it really is a win-win.
Other Strategies
Apart from training and fostering a healthy open source ecosystem by allowing developers a portion of time to contribute to other open source projects, The Linux Foundation’s guide to recruiting open source developers also suggests the following:
- Hire key developers from open source projects important to you. They can attract other developers who would love the chance to work with such experienced colleagues.
- Participate in open source events and support your developers when they present their work.
- Set up proper infrastructure that will allow developers to communicate and work with the global open source community.
- Set up an internal system for tracking contributions and measuring their impact. Recognize and reward meaningful contributions.
With open source talent steadily increasing in demand, the usual recruitment strategies may no longer be enough. To attract top talent, it’s important to apply the right strategies and in the process, delve deeper into the open source culture.