How to Hire Remote Java Developers for Fast-Growing Companies

When you’re a company that is growing quickly, it’s sometimes hard to find the time to hire. You probably have a lot of ideas and products in the pipeline, but you can’t make them happen without tech expertise. And if one or some of your solutions are going to be built with Java, it’s high time to think of hiring remote Java developers. Recently, we have helped Jasper.ai, one of the most hyped unicorn startups of 2022, hire Silicon Valley-caliber engineers with experience in Java and specific JS technologies, and in this article, we are happy to share our talent sourcing strategy in detail so that you can follow it and succeed as well.  

The challenges of hiring remote Java developers

If you’re struggling with hiring remote Java developers, it’s probably not your fault. There are several factors that make finding and attracting them especially difficult. Let’s take a look at the main ones.

• The Great Resignation. The Great Resignation is one of the ongoing IT labor market trends, meaning that tech workers are massively fleeing their workplaces in search of better job opportunities, work-life balance, and higher salaries or with the goal of launching their own startups. Java developers aren’t an exception. Since their skills can be applied across multiple industries, most of them aren’t afraid to make a move. 
• Tech talent shortage. The tech talent shortage is another trend and a challenge that makes hiring Java developers difficult. Regardless of the tech skills, the demand for ICT professionals significantly exceeds the supply globally, and the tech talent gap is projected to grow up to 37% by 2030. To some extent, remote and global hiring are ways to overcome this challenge. 
• High demand for Java programmers. Java ranked 4th in TIOBE Index for January 2023. This programming language has been one the top most popular ones for many years because of its versatility, and for a reason. For example, with its help, you can build general-purpose mobile apps, or it can be used in Big Data, Metaverse, Web3, blockchain, and AI development. So there is no surprise that fast-growing companies leveraging innovative technologies are looking to hire Java developers. 
• High salary expectations. The average salary for a Java developer is $8200 per month in the USA. While this is not the highest salary in the ICT industry, it is still a significant amount, especially for startups on a budget. And since Java is used basically everywhere, businesses are ready to pay a decent reward for top talent. 
• Time and cost to hire. According to CodeSubmit research, it costs $13,000 – 41,000 to hire a full-time developer, depending on the hiring strategy and the tools you use. As for the time to hire a programmer, it takes 49 days on average, while filling in more specific positions may drag on for several months or even years. Hiring remote Java developers isn’t an exception. 
• Most great candidates are passive job seekers. Many programmers don’t look for new job opportunities actively but still would like to hear about them. That’s why this pool of candidates requires a specific approach. A desire to improve or try themselves in a new, more exciting project is something that many programmers are looking up to, so the task is to learn their wants and persuade them that they will get this when working for you. 
• Candidate’s qualification and company’s needs mismatch. According to different estimates, there are 9 to 10 million Java developers globally but not all of them are equally skillful. Making the right choice in such a wide talent pool is challenging, especially if you have no pre-screening and vetting technology in place. That’s why in the next section we will describe a professional profile of a Java developer you should look for and share a case-based strategy to hire them right. 

What should you look for in your perfect Java developer candidate? 

If you’re looking for a Java developer, you’ve probably already got a few things on your list of must-have hard and soft skills. Check whether you have listed the most important ones:

How to hire Java developers in 2023, following Jasper.ai successful path

The remote Java developers’ skills we have listed above are pretty basic and don’t take the peculiarities of your project into account. Our experience shows that fast-growing companies usually require more specific expertise to build their products.

Recently, we helped Jasper, one of the leading solutions in the AI content writing niche, hire front-end and full-stack developers who, in addition to having Java and specific JavaScript programming skills, were expected to show interest in machine learning (ML) development and live in a specific area, namely Austin, Seattle, and New York. Having experience working in product-led companies was a plus for their perfect candidates as well. 

In addition to such a specific request, the company had to scale its team as quickly as possible. Staying in control of their talent sourcing costs and a predictable sourcing process were the company’s main priorities, too. So, here is how we resolved the challenge of hiring Java developers for Jasper step by step, and you are welcome to follow this strategy as well. 

Step 1 – Create a job requisition

After you clarified the technical skills, knowledge, competencies, background, and experience your perfect candidates should have, creating a job requisition becomes easier. Use the next framework to do it. 

1. Introduce your company. Talk about the company’s goals that require scaling your tech team. 
2. Introduce the role. Here, you can briefly describe the position you’d like to fill.
3. Describe the responsibilities. In this section, you have to list the specific tasks your Java developer will deal with.
4. Highlight the required technical skills. List the tools and technologies applicants should be skilled with in as detailed manner as possible (but don’t go too far). Mention the skills which will be a plus for a candidate. 
5. List the soft skills. In this section, avoid such soft skills as stress resistance and multitasking. Despite such soft skills sounding neutral, a cautious candidate might perceive this information as that the workdays in your company are likely to be stressful and disorganized. 

According to Jasper’s requirements, all candidates had to satisfy the following criteria:

• Live in the most popular engineering areas (Bay Area, Austin, Seattle, New York)
• Have experience working at product-led growth companies
• Show interest in artificial intelligence and machine learning. 

Step 2 – Gather the database of suitable candidates

At this stage, most companies distribute a job description across the platforms manually, spending a lot of time and still having a probability of missing a hot and targeted job board. Next, they wait for the candidates to apply on their own, but given the fact that the majority of great developers are passive job seekers, such a strategy is unlikely to be much fruitful. 

To optimize this hiring stage, we suggest boosting the process using a data-driven solution for tech talent sourcing. Our proprietary sourcing engine allows for setting multiple filters, specifying the required skills, experience, and candidate’s location. With its help, we  significantly decreased the time needed to build a pool of candidates that match Jasper’s needs, meeting tight deadlines. 

Step 3 – Create several custom outreach messages and test them

Candidate’s outreach and their interest validation is the next step to hiring remote Java developers. As with gathering a database of candidates, you can do it either manually or automatically, but in this case, automation doesn’t meet zero cost. There are several candidate outreach solutions you can use but each of them comes for a fee, and you still need an in-house recruiter to handle the process. 

At Bridge, we do it as a part of our sourcing-as-a-service. Our human recruiters create custom outreach messages, using the proven ideas they’ve already tested, validate the candidates’ interest, and help them move to the bottom of the hiring pipeline. 

Step 4 – Get in touch with the best candidates

If you’ve gone through the first three steps of hiring remote Java developers for your company, you’re almost done at this point. In the last step, get in touch with the best candidates for your opening. To do this, we recommend first scheduling an informal interview with them over Google Meet or Zoom. 

Informal interviews help you get a better understanding of candidate’s personality and communication style. This way, you’ll be able to make sure that their values and perceptions fit your company culture and vice versa. Afterward, if everything seems like it’s going well, proceed with a technical interview and then, assign a simple test task to the best candidates.  

Get qualified Java developers with Bridge

Following the simple yet effective strategy we have described above, Bridge sourced 20 qualified candidates for Jasper in a month. During the next two months, we provided 30 candidates. With our help, Jasper.ai hired 5 Senior-staff level  engineers in 3 months in total at the $1500 cost per hire. 

Jasper’s case was a success, and we are proud to contribute to one of the fastest-growing startups of the previous year. We would also be happy to source top-quality tech specialists for your company. Just apply for our sourcing-as-a-service and get 15-30 finest-tuned candidates per month. The only task remaining for you is to interview them, hire the best programmers immediately, or grow your talent pool with them. Our data-driven engine sources top technical talent 5 times faster and 60% cheaper compared to looking for them manually – that’s why both startups and big companies choose us to bridge their talent gap.

Let’s get in touch today to hire top-notch development talent at a better speed and cost!