On his site Tomas Votruba has a post sharing one thing he thinks is holding back your company from doing well: not open sourcing code.

Do you want to hire developers? Do you want to hire those developers who help your company in the long term? Do you want to save money for random picks of HR agencies? Do you want to hire developers who already know your code before even meeting you? Do you want to attract developers in the long term with zero investment?

Go Open-source!

He goes on to talk about some of his own experiences in the job interview process and how "old-school methods" aren't working as well as they used to. He then makes some suggestions about how to attract programmers "in a 2018 way". He uses a comparison between the traditional hiring process and a newer one ("open hiring"). He makes the suggestion of, when looking to fill a role, going to the contributors list of your or other popular packages and see who has contributed and reach out to them first. This allows you a preview into their skills and lets you evaluate it (and other contributions) against your needs for the role.

Cal Evans has a new post to his site with a great suggestion for those looking to hire PHP developers: get your jobs page right and show that you have a good "developer culture" to attract good, solid talent.

When building an online strategy for finding developers to hire, start with your web site. It is amazing that so many companies miss this totally or mess this step up. Make sure you have a top level menu item that is easy to identify as “this is where we post jobs”. Call it “Jobs”, “Careers”, “Work with us” whatever, just make sure it’s in the top level of your menu and not something that people have to dig down into your site to get to.

He also suggests that you treat the "Jobs" page as an important part of the site. Vague or incomplete descriptions of the positions turn off developers and will make them move on to something else. Link to the deeper details and don't overwhelm the viewer with it all up front. He gives two examples of companies that he thinks have gotten it right and how it reflects on their investment in developer culture.

So step 0 in the process of finding developers to work on your team is to build a culture of respect. If you get this right, attracting developers – attracting the best developers – will be easy. Get this wrong though, nothing else will matter. Remember, developer talk to each other within their community. They will know if you are not a good place to work.

In his latest post Adam Culp talks about an interesting (and slightly disturbing) trend he's seeing in the technology and developer community in his area: developers are leaving/being picked up faster than they're being replaced.

Over the past couple years I’ve noticed a rise of good companies no longer outsource offshore to save money, instead they outsource because they can’t find developers here. [...] I’m sad to see the dwindling number of developers available to fill a growing number of jobs in South Florida. [...] Couple this with most companies and recruiters simply drain the pool without giving back, and governments sinking more and more of our hard earned taxes into already flooded non-tech related fields. The end result is higher unemployment, folks with a degree who can’t find work, and the vicious cycle continues on and on.

As the demand grows for more talented technical people, this gap is only going to widen. New developers aren't coming in fast enough (or learning fast enough) to fill the holes. He talks specifically about what he's seeing there in Florida, but it's a story that's happening in many places around the country...and some places around the world. Developers get "snatched up" by companies and they're no longer allowed or have the time to contribute back and teach the newer developers. He links to an article that discusses the same topic and comes to many of the same conclusions.

From the Prescot Linux blog today there's a new post with some advice on hiring a good PHP developer for you or your company.

There are a good number of programming platforms and languages that developers use today to provide businesses and consumers the right web applications to help them with their requirements. PHP is one such programming language that has gained a huge popularity over time, and that too quite rightfully. [...] However there are a number of factors that you must consider while looking to hire PHP programmers for your web development requirements.

Tips included in their list for things to look for in developers include:

• Make sure you work with an individual PHP developer or business that has the right skills and experience, and are in constant touch with PHP development projects.
• Communication is of the utmost importance. You should be able to deal with the PHP developers efficiently using a project management tool and contact them easily as and when required
• [They can offer] you the right services related to web integration and maintenance, as well as further development
• [They will offer] you the most competitive price plans with the maximum reliability

On the Debuggable blog Felix Geisendorfer points out the need for some more "cooks in the kitchen" - people to fill some CakePHP related positions in companies all over.

There are new jobs in the world of CakePHP. The CakePHP job board has seen the following additions.

The new items include positions at About.com, Makatto.com and Blue Chips. Check out the job board for more information on these and other open CakePHP-related positions.

If you're a PHP developer in the Greater Toronto Area and are looking for a job, you should check out this new post from Chris Hartjes' blog about positions with the company he works for - VerticalScope Inc..

Want the chance to work with me? If you live in the Greater Toronto Area (we don't pay relocation costs or sponsor people) and know PHP, we may have a job for you. We're looking to fill at least two positions I'm aware of: nne junior developer and one intermediate developer.

There's a a description of the position in the post, including requirements and a little background on the company. Interested applicants for eaither type of position should send their resume on to Chris at chartjes@verticalscope.com with the subject of "PHP / MySQL Developer position".

If you're a PHP developer in the Greater Toronto Area and are looking for a job, you should check out this new post from Chris Hartjes' blog about positions with the company he works for - VerticalScope Inc..

Want the chance to work with me? If you live in the Greater Toronto Area (we don't pay relocation costs or sponsor people) and know PHP, we may have a job for you. We're looking to fill at least two positions I'm aware of: nne junior developer and one intermediate developer.

There's a a description of the position in the post, including requirements and a little background on the company. Interested applicants for eaither type of position should send their resume on to Chris at chartjes@verticalscope.com with the subject of "PHP / MySQL Developer position".