#[NOT HIRING] asking for feedback on how hard it is to recruit Elixir devs in UK

57 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

near flame
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We are starting a major project in the UK. I am trying to sell Elixir as the way to go but it might be a hard sell because

  • we are in the FinTech area - clients nervous (to say the least) about unapproved technologies. Java everywhere
  • 3rd party Elixir libraries not always well supported

Nevertheless, if you are are in UK, how difficult have you found getting high quality developers willing to work with Elixir?

Not even looking for Elixir experience (good devs learn) but many won't even consider a relatively fringe technology as not good for CV.

Polite request: please don't reply if you're looking for a job, etc.

light mantle
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There’s a surplus of people wanting to work with Elixir professionally and a shortage of positions for them, so you’re covered in that regard.

Your difficultly in finding good developers will be mostly dependent on your recruiting process.

near flame
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Is that from UK experience?

light mantle
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Most of what I know comes speaking with US-based companies that operate multi-nationally. I doubt your experience will vary significantly.

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I recommend posting job listings on elixirforum, slack, and here. You’re gonna get more people actually excited about working with the language.

Regardless of where you post though, expect hundreds of low quality applicants, even people that don’t know a lick of Elixir.

near flame
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I know that 🙂

light mantle
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Stop me if I’m preaching to the choir - A big problem with recruiting is that first stage screening is often delegated to non-technical non-coding HR people.

They have no concept of merit beyond “x years professional experience”, and most aren’t even aware of open source.

near flame
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Yes. TBH I won't advertise on the forum. Will go through recruitment agencies which will filter out the time wasters.

light mantle
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Well…

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A lot of recruiters are fucking awful

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Like, 99% of them

near flame
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Tell me about it!

light mantle
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A lot of them have the exact same issues I outlined. They don’t know “what an open source is” and have no technical background necessary for actually filtering candidates.

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[company here] doesnt pay attention to the recruiters at mass on elixir as the recruiters just send in all types of folks <heck, some arent even backend let alone elixir and then within that group - hardly production level elixir folks) so that is likely the reason on that feedback…

This is a DM from a recruiter that actually placed several Elixir folks.

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Greg Medland @ SR2 is a well regarded Elixir recruiter

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(That DM isn’t from him)

near flame
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Greg in UK?

light mantle
near flame
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Top hole

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What is SR2?

light mantle
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Socially Responsible Recruitment, his company.

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Or where he works, IDK if he’s owner-operator or what.

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Do you intend to hire candidates exclusively in the UK?

Not a leading question, I already have my hands full 😆

near flame
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Not a nationality issue, just practicality

light mantle
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Gotcha. You’ll have a bit of a harder time b/c Elixir devs are fewer and farther between (thus a wider net is often needed).

That said, I know the UK has good computer science education, so it’s probably not as bad.

near flame
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Maybe I wasn't clear in the OP. Don't necessarily need Elixir devs, just good ones who are open to working with Elixir.

light mantle
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Oh, you’ll very likely be fine then.

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Again, I’d just highly encourage you to be involved in the first line screening, tedious though it may be.

near flame
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No f'ing chance! 🙂

light mantle
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At least file it “under consideration” 😆

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If you wanna make it easier on yourself, start by throwing away half of them randomly. Don’t wanna hire any unlucky people.

near flame
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Lolz

lament snow
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I wouldn't trust an agency to hire Elixir devs tbh. For an agency, Elixir candidate market is non existent so they have little to none incentive to learn it. They are more likely to do bare minimum and report that "well we did our best but the market is too small, wanna see Java candidates instead?". If I were to hire Elixir folks, I would either do it myself or work with an independent recruiter who has that fire in their eyes.

unique willow
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Ironically, I once came across a job post that hired UK only and I was out of consideration just like that haha

shy wigeon
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Most common issues with hiring:

  1. wrong processes for hiring
  2. Location requirements
  3. Low salary
  4. Too tight skill requirements
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What I saw for recent years a lot of companies have issues to hire Elixir devs.

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Sorry, I mean a lot of UK companies have that problem

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@sharp hill can tell you more about it

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But in case you will at least 3 issues from my list you will not have problem at all

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Also tbh in case you want to hire junior or medior developers you will have maybe 100 candidates. Seniors are problem but that is possible to solve as well.

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Missing libraries for fintech 😂 I can write novel about it.

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Most problems are with libraries not elixir but at all. Thanks to elixir you can make own integrations faster than fixing existing ones. Also most of the time people use fraction of features from big libraries.

shy wigeon
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But there are some factors to proper answer your question. The most important are: budget(time,money), limitations (location, seniority,…)

near flame
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Low salary
Not typically a problem in fintech! 🤣

light mantle
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IIRC <ramp.com> and https://teller.io both use Elixir. Brex formerly did, but famously jumped ship (they were successful in their founding though, so there’s that)

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Funnily enough, Ramp markets themselves as an alternative to Brex (who apparently dropped lots of customers)

slate onyx
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i know very little about recruiting in the uk, but i'll be having an intern from the uk this spring and from the contact we've had it seems pretty common among cs students to do internships and start looking for work during the last one-two years. maybe that's an option, go hunting at your closest uni?

this person did an internship at a quant firm before they came to us, so you might find some with fintech experience, they can't be the only one

near flame
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Not looking for interns - will pay proper salary.

slate onyx
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sure, i'm just suggesting you check out the local uni with a cs program, you might find people with previous experience that will be available as soon summer comes

and nothing is stopping you from paying interns, if you were to get some

near flame
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Looking for more mid to senior level, TBH.

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Some bad experience recently with Gen Z who don't really want to work and rely on Google/StackoverFlow/AI to program (badly)

sharp hill
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Thank you for the tag @shy wigeon

Hey @near flame I’m confident I can help.
I’m based in Essex, 10+ years in the BEAM market now starting with Erlang then Elixir as it grew.

I run my own small recruitment business, Beam it, specialising in placing Elixir & Erlang Devs, you can read more at beamrec.com/employers, most of our standard structure is there but if you had something specific in mind I’d be happy to discuss it.

Drop me a DM or I’m available via e-mail at [email protected]

shy wigeon
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I have seen some offers from already mentioned fintech companies and others… nothing more than 100k/y

sharp hill
near flame
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Yup. Fintech.