Tech hiring in 2022

Key trends and 3 things you need to do to hire effectively

Nikunj Verma
Cutshort.io, India’s #1 place to hire top tech talent
19th Jan, 2022
Agenda

1. A recap of tech hiring in 2021

2. Underlying reasons
3. Trends in 2022
4. Key challenges to hire in 2022
5. 3 things to adapt better
6. Questions
2021 Recap
Tech hiring got disrupted in 2021
Phone calls, WA groups, formal surveys all pointing to the same truth

Question
How difficult has tech hiring become in
the last 1 year?
50% to 100% hikes became common

Question
What is the average salary hike in your
offers this year?
Main challenges faced by companies

Question
What are the main challenges you faced?

● Declines even after offering desired

salaries
● Too high salary expectations
● Not enough skilled talent
● Others
Reasons for these changes?
Two categories
● Facts
○ Real demand supply factors

● Sentiments
○ Less frequent but have a larger effect on public
Factual reasons
● The Covid-19 effect
○ Carried over demand from 2020
○ Covid accelerated tech adoption (fintech, healthcare, ecommerce, etc)
○ More companies competing due to remote work

● Funding boom
○ 46 unicorns. (300% more)
○ $42Bn raised. (4x of that in 2021)
○ 60000 startups in India (3rd largest in world)
Sentimental reasons
● Bold hiring tactics
Sentimental reasons
● Remote companies offering $ pay packages

Have you applied for international remote jobs yet?

Sentiment Fact
Sentimental reasons
● Skewed media reports

What salary hike you received while switching your job?

Sentiment Fact
What will happen in 2022?
Demand will get higher
Funding boom will continue. 50-80 more unicorns likely
Companies will need to plan for higher salary budgets
Higher demand will attract more talent
Existing workforce
New talent pools
New geographies
Candidate preferences stabilizing
“Work from home + some in-person contact” as primary mode
Beyond salaries, quality of work and company culture is an important factor
So what to do to hire better in 2022
First, let’s relax.

1. Hiring is not a winner-take-all market.

2. There are millions of candidates out there. You probably just need a handful.
3. Every company is different and can find talent that are mutually better fits
If you don’t have a plan

1. You go after same talent pool

2. Who apply to get more offers
3. You hope to make higher offers and impress them somehow
4. Candidates get many offers and choose other offers
5. You start playing the number game
While what you want is

1. Discover candidates for your company

a. based on skills
b. based on your uniqueness
2. Attract more of them based on your strengths
3. Design a hiring process that is two-way
4. Measure continuously and improve
Step 1: Find your company-employee fit

● What kind of talent you need?

a. 10x engineers. Top talent. All are
vague terms.
b. Copying other companies is not a
good idea - your product’s
complexity, life stage and existing
team structure and processes could
be very different.
Step 1: Find your company-employee fit

● What is unique about your company that

makes your employees come and stay?

“If you want A and B, then we are a great place.

If you want X and Y, we won’t be a good fit”.
Examples
1. Did research on target candidates.
Product builders, geeks, not
necessarily even formal engineering
backgrounds
2. Started a product podcast “Go figure”
3. Once core engine was setup, it amped
things up by ads on bus stops,
airports etc
1. Did research on target candidates.
People who believe in a high purpose
to overall social welfare.
2. Talks about their team members who
come from unusual backgrounds
3. It is now an aspirational company to
work for
Step 2: Discover and get discovered

● Attract your target talent from right sources

○ social media
○ campus relationships
○ Cutshort - messages and job descriptions
● Filter the right ones from your applications
○ Be merit driven
Eg. Getting JDs right

1. It is transactional. Just a “job”.

2. It is generic - will get a lukewarm yes
from 90% engineers but a strong yes
from less than 5%
3. It is all about the employer and their
requirements.

A typical JD
A better example
1. Starts with a candidate’s perspective
2. Highlights things that their target candidates is
seeking e.g. “work with a great cross functional
team”
3. No long list of “hard requirements” - they think
good engineers can come from anywhere

A JD at Amazon
Step 3: Design a unique hiring process

● Before 2020, it was about you.

● Now you need to qualify and help them
qualify you.
● Open houses, reverse interviews, spend a
day with your buddy, also spread your
employer brand
Step 4: Have a long term focus & learn

● Move beyond just next 3-6 months.

○ Think about org design in next 2-3 years.
○ New options could open up e.g. ”Training of
smart freshers + leadership hires”

● Keep measuring
○ Why someone joined? Why didn’t?
○ Why they dropped off?
○ Why didn’t they apply?

● Keep experimenting with initiatives to build

relationships and spread your brand
Cutshort to help you navigate these changes

We are

India’s #1 place to hire top tech talent

We serve

1.5 Million candidates. 18000+ companies, from

Google to small startups.

Our difference

Unique talent pool + technology to help

companies hire developers while minimizing the
backouts.
Thank you. Questions?

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India’s #1 place to find top talent.

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