How can organizations hire software developers quickly?
Hiring Managers and Talent Recruiters would agree that it’s not easy finding quality developers for their organization’s tech teams. It’s even harder when you need to source very specific tech profile types. In certain regions such as parts of Western Europe, employers find that they are faced with a limited supply of local developer candidates to hire from.
Summ.link, a data intelligence consultancy based in Belgium, helps clients strategize and improve their digital processes. They specialize in helping companies use data insights of people to drive beneficial change, increase productivity and efficiency.
As an organization with a skill-based approach to hiring employees, they preferred to tap into the international tech talent pool to find the right candidates, since the developer pool in Belgium was very limited. VanHack provided assistance in connecting them with diverse, quality software engineers, which ultimately resulted in 3 successful hires for Summ.link in a very short period of time (3 months!).
VanHack’s CEO Ilya Brotzky had the pleasure of chatting with Kevin De Pauw, CEO of Summ.link, on the highlights of their hiring experience with VanHack.
Here are excerpts from their conversation.
Hiring 3 Software Developers in 3 Months
Ilya Brotzky:
So how did you decide to hire with VanHack? So you’ve hired three software developers with VanHack. How did that journey start? And how was the process for you?
Kevin De Pauw:
To be honest, in a very short period, I think in three months or something like that. So we hired three consultants.
And also, the market in Belgium is not that easy, especially in Europe in general. And we needed to hire very specific profiles. And for us, we are skill-based. We are not contract or area-based. So our focus is we have to find the right skills no matter where they live.
And VanHack contributes to that search in an easier way via the platform that’s in place.
A Software Developer Turned CTO
Ilya Brotzky:
Awesome. And can you tell me more about the people you hired? What kind of skill sets do they have? Years of experience? How they’ve been so far with you?
Kevin De Pauw:
We have Marlon, he’s a platform architect, general .NET background. But he is on board for us in setting up the fundamentals of our product. So he’s a very crucial element in developing the future of… I don’t want to say only Summ.link, but really the product. And we also made him promise to become our CTO, the more we become more mature, because he’s really so very technical and capable in what he did. So to be honest, we are very proud at Summ.link that we could hire him.
And then we have Allan. Allan is also very bright, PhD, data scientist. More or less a person that you want to hire in Belgium, but never will find.
And of course Thainan… he’s a UI/UX designer. We needed the creativity to align our look and feel from our branding, and translate that in the reporting, to provide our customers insights… A young kid with a lot of potential.
Connecting in Person with a Remote Tech Team
Ilya Brotzky:
I think I saw a picture of you visiting Brazil, or you brought the team to Belgium, have that kind of in-person connection, to build a… team-building exercise. But I thought that was incredible. Can you talk about that? What was that actually like, meeting these people you hired from around the world and having that time to work with them?
Kevin De Pauw:
First of all, we have a remote-first principle, what means that everyone can work where he wants.
I think we are also working in people analytics, and we want to really not be in a corporate company. I’m still talking with my guys on a daily basis, to understand their needs.
We have short links between each other, and I think that’s important. Even if you’re growing, that no matter if you are a CEO, a CFO, or leadership in general, our perspective is to stand in the middle of them and try to cultivate them and to let them grow, in a sense.
But if you want to build a team that’s building on your internal products, we’ve decided to really bring people on a regular basis together.
We live in a world where everything can be done remotely, by default. But still, collaboration is crucial. Communication, we need to improve that, and that’s what is crucial for us.
For example, in May we go again there, for three weeks. We’re going to rent a house for a whole week and bring a whole team of eight people from Brazil together, and just have fun. I think that’s what also bonds us. We are a small company, but that does not mean if we will grow to bigger that we will change. That’s our culture, and that’s something that we want to drive also via the people that we hire today.
So we just find a balance between remote work, flexibility, but also improvement of collaboration between the people, and also the communication.
Every Company Needs Software Developers
Ilya Brotzky:
Do you recommend VanHack to tech companies who are looking to hire and build software development teams?
Kevin De Pauw:
I think any company who’s looking for specific profiles in the types of expertise that the VanHack platform can offer are definitely customers. I think the scalability of VanHack’s platform is not the sector or the type of company. It’s more the type of profile that you can offer.
Everyone needs a developer, a data scientist, and other types of profiles.
Every big company that’s looking abroad can use VanHack.
You don’t have to focus only on tech companies, I think.
Ilya Brotzky:
Yeah. For sure. Every company is a tech company.
See the full version of the interview here.
How VanHack Helps You Hire Software Developers
If you’re looking for software developers to add to your tech team, consider exploring international tech talent (if you haven’t already). VanHack helps expand a limited and competitive software developer pool in a local market to a growing, diverse global community of 350,000+ software engineers. Our team does the hard work of vetting and ensuring they have certified English skills, and shortlists candidates that closely match your job requirements.
Whether you’re looking to relocate software developers to one of your office locations or adopt a remote-first working culture, VanHack can assist. Our experienced Global Mobility team takes care of all the immigration and visa application paperwork if you aim to relocate software engineer hires. We also offer partner solutions that cover foreign compliance and payroll services for remote employees, saving you time and resources.
Take a look around our talent pool of 350,000+ software developers to see the candidates you can hire from (sign up for free to access their full profiles).
The average time to hire is 41 days for employers who partner with VanHack, with some even seeing their developers come on board in as soon as 2 weeks. Discover how we can help you hire quality software developers, streamline your hiring process and diversify your team.
VanHack also hosts virtual hiring events where you can meet and speed interview dozens of software developers in skill-focused sessions. Our popular speed interview sessions include JavaScript, Mobile, Python, Ruby on Rails, Java, Quality Assurance, PHP. See our next hiring event here – it’s free for employers to join.