With a relatively short tenure compared to other industries, demand for software engineers and DevOps professionals is clearly high. This creates a highly competitive industry where companies scrutinize hires for the commanding salaries that a specialist would accept. With an average median tenure of just 20 months at a company, cloud specialists continue to keep their eye firmly on who is hiring and the next step in their career.

So how can a specialist balance their demands with the opportunities in front of them? And how can a company compete in a market with limited specialists available and increasing demands?

This seems like an unstoppable force meets an immovable object scenario, but as we look deeper into our placement data over 2021, we can see where successes have been made in landing new specialists consistently.

For Applicants

1) Keep up with trending languages

At the tail end of 2021, we saw plenty of companies transitioning to Golang, and we were happy to support them with their staffing requirements. Those who landed the role took an interest in Golang and started to brush up on their skills prior to the interview. You don’t always have to be a specialist across each different type of code, but a positive attitude to learning new languages goes a long way. We’re seeing it again with TypeScript – which looks set to grow massively over the next few years.

​2) Develop your own projects

To take point one a step further, applicants with different projects outside of their work-life stand out from the crowd. This is particularly true for more junior applicants who don’t have years and years of experience behind them. 2 or 3 personal projects where each line of code can be explained shows a real value over other applicants.

​3) Talk to the experts

Specialist recruitment consultants that work solely in the software and Cloud industries have a deep knowledge of careers in this space. They know exactly what organisations want in an applicant and will guide you through an interview process to success. They will also be able to communicate your needs clearly too, negotiating on your behalf to ensure you receive the package you desire and get any extra added benefits!

​For Hiring Teams

1) Think work environment, team culture and flexibility

Our 2021 Salary Guide revealed that 69% of cloud specialists said that a work from home option was the most popular benefit they received in their package, followed closely by both flexible hours and a positive culture/work environment.

​Of course, this creates the interesting challenge of building a remote team, but it is something that should be considered when searching for the best specialists in today’s market. It takes time and diligence to instill but we have a few tips that could help from a recent blog on building remote teams culture.

​2) Interview Process

Is your interview process fully remote? Fully remote interviews are a lot more flexible for applicants who do not have time to travel to an interview. As more and more teams transition to a fully remote workspace, it makes sense to conduct interviews online too.

​Your interview process can make or break landing your next hire, it’s important to have hiring managers buy-in from the outset so that quick, seamless and well considered interviews can take place.

​3) Training

Hiring teams that take a view to develop successful applicants benefit from a wider talent pool as well as retaining the applicant for longer. Hiring an applicant who has some of the right skills and can be trained to take on new responsibilities gives the company longer service as the new employee sees a clear development path ahead of them in their career.