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Hey! It’s Alex, 3X founder (with failed startups, too!). I’m going to share with you the story about how I looked for developers for my startup in vain for almost half of a year, and how one tech guy from the other side of the world saved my business from bankruptcy.

### The main challenges for US startups

In 2015, I founded an online service that provides bank guarantees and financial services. A software development team is a fundamental detail for such a company. But, building one can be pretty tough for the founder—especially if you’re in the United States. The main question was how to hire developers.

The American IT labor market **is suffering from a strong dearth of software developers**, despite having the highest density of software developers in the world. The period of 2020-2021 was even called the “Great Developer Drought”. 

And if this is a problem for tech giants, then it’s far more challenging for startups. Established companies have a lot to offer: a name and reputation, more money, technology, and business connections. Startups usually can’t promise golden mountains to their employees right away. At first, they only have ideas, a free-spirited corporate culture, and extraordinary tasks. And **startups have to compete not only with other startups but also with big companies for tech talent.**

The problem with developers’ drought isn’t new. Back in 2015, I’d hired everyone I needed for my startup, I just needed to figure out how to hire developers.

#### 1. Independent Search
Our recruitment team spent almost half of the year searching for in-house developers. We used the full power of our social networks and word-of-mouth and searched LinkedIn inside out. It was all to no avail. The developers were taken.

As I mentioned above, startups are charming with the work flexibility, opportunities for self-improvement, etc. they provide. But in some cases, it may not be enough. And our case was exactly that: Most of the developers we encountered and interviewed ended up choosing companies that could provide other benefits, such as a higher salary, health insurance, and a nice line on the CV. They knew how to hire developers due mostly to not being a startup. As a result, my startup was left with nothing and was close to being closed.  

**Failure summary #1:**
What kind of difficulties did I face?
- Startup: As I said before, we didn’t have any kind of extra benefits that would help us win this recruiting battle with the big companies. We only had great opportunities, freedom, and enough money for our workers so they could live in comfort.
- I looked for full-time developers only. If I had needed contractors or freelancers, the search probably would’ve been much easier and faster.

What mistakes did I make?
- Underestimating the complexity of the task.
- Not considering remote workers.

#### 2. Working with Staffing Agencies
What do you do when you can’t do something yourself? That’s right: You go to get help from someone with more experience. That’s what we did next; we decided to go with a staffing agency. In theory, this seemed perfect to us: In essence, you just make a list of requirements, pay a certain amount of money, and wait until they bring the candidate right to you. The search process itself and interviews are all on the agency’s side. But in practice, things were not so rosy. 

In a week, the agency matched us with several pre-vetted candidates with suitable qualifications, but we decided it would be better to be on the safe side and conduct our own interviewing rounds. And it was worth it.  Oversells are quite common, so the only thing you can do is properly vet the candidates. Since staffing agencies don’t always do this well enough, as it turns out, in the end, this task falls on you anyway.

As a result, there’s a huge downside to staffing agencies: the candidates cost twice as much, and you have to spend time checking them yourself anyway. And there is no guarantee that eventually you’ll find the right person. 

**Failure summary #2:**
What kind of difficulties did I face?
- Finding a trusted outstaffing agency quickly.
- Paying for a poor-quality result.
- Additional vetting took time.

What mistakes did I make?
- Not budgeting extra in case I had to go to agencies.

#### Was my project closed eventually?
No, it wasn’t. After several conversations with my fellow founders, I found out that hiring in-house developers is almost the #1 problem for American startups. In spite of the fact that tech jobs are growing in popularity every year, 25% of tech vacancies in the American market remain unfilled. Talking to others who had the same problem as me was helpful, not only because I could see that I wasn’t alone, but also because it gave me some insights into the search process itself.

There were two things that all of the people I talked to had in common: They looked for in-house workers, and searched for developers within the US. And these turned out to be the main reasons for their failures (and mine, too). Not all companies can afford remote workers — it requires certain conditions. But if you have the opportunity or are willing to adjust the workflow — be sure to consider this option.

### Consider Your Options
To start with, I decided to look towards workers from Europe, as it’s similar in mentality, and developers have lower rates there. Jumping to Asia seemed too extreme to me at that point. But, I’d have been better off looking there right away after all. 

I found it best to look for developers where they spend most of their time: on GitHub and maybe LinkedIn. For about two weeks, my team and I sent out invitations to developers and conducted interviews. The ones from Europe turned out to be too expensive considering their skills. Most of them wanted to be paid as much as the senior developers when in fact they were nowhere near senior status.

After hiring a man without a profile picture from India who was great. I looked for more developers specifically in India. And I found some more technical talent who’ve been at my startup for about two years and have proposed and implemented dozens of cool ideas. The main insight I got here is that remote work doesn’t reduce employee efficiency, but rather, usually increases it.

### How Insquad Was Born
The experience I’ve shared above led me to create a project that would let you avoid loss of money and—what may be more crucial, as it was for me—time. I know all the pain points startup founders and CEOs have because I’ve been through all of them. In hindsight, I wish there had been something or somebody to:

- get the burden of vetting tech talent off my shoulders
- supply me with developers who really are seniors, not the ones who are just selling themselves as skilled devs
- allow me to get trusted, full-time developers quickly
And maybe somebody who could aid with all the legal paperwork.

### Summing up
If, at the moment, you’re going through the same failures as I did and you still haven’t found the perfect software developer, just stop for a while and ask yourself: what if the perfect match I’m looking for is just on the other side of the world? And then try to look there.

And if you’re in a hurry to launch your product or just tired of the grueling search, Insquad and our vetted developers [are here to help](https://www.insquad.com/) — right within arm’s reach.



How to Hire Developers for Your Startup: Failures & Insights from One Founder

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Building a startup is a tough thing. In most cases, you have to find the balance between great ideas and budget constraints — especially when it comes to finding a cool senior developer who’ll implement your ideas. If you’ve ever tried to find one, you’re certainly familiar with the situation when a specialist that’s your perfect match slips right out from under your nose. And that’s all because they were hunted down by a big company that offered more money. Sad and simple. As for me, I once found a compromise by hiring a developer from India.

Eventually I’d hired everyone I needed for my startup except for the most important: the development team. I spent five long months looking for one, but it always ended up the same way: as soon as the perfect candidate came along, the chance of hiring them slipped away at the last minute, all because a role in a big company with a higher salary looked much more attractive. A lot of my friends who are founders as well have admitted that this is a common problem for American startups. One of them suggested turning to the Indian tech labor market, and it worked out! In a few weeks, I got what I’d wanted for so long: an amazing team of senior developers.

Here are some reasons you should look to sourcing developers from India too, and stop underrating them as many still do.

### Why India?
No, it’s not about the well-known stereotypes — it’s about facts and figures. In the 21st century, it is wrong to be guided by prejudices, just as it is wrong to limit oneself to a single country when looking for employees. Over the past several years, India has become a leader in tech outsourcing. More than 7.2 million Indian users created repositories on GitHub in 2021. Every year, Indian colleges graduate 1.5 million software engineers. By 2023, India is expected to have 5.2 million developers, which is almost twice the US’s number. Although there are lots of IT hubs there in India, the supply/demand ratio is still an issue. Many cool Indian developers are struggling to find a job in their home country. So hiring a developer from India is a win-win: you get a great specialist, and they get a great job. Here’s why this is the case.

#### Cost-effectiveness
Developers in India have the lowest hourly rates among their peers. For example, you would pay $25–30 per hour to a specialist from Eastern Europe and $20–25 to one from Northern Asia. The average rates for India are about $18–25.

But the cost difference doesn’t mean you’ll get a careless worker and shoddy code at all. Indian devs are highly educated due to their strong and STEM-focused education system, which gives a solid technical base and lots of self-study and practice.

So if you hire from India, you’re very likely to get a top-notch developer who knows what they’re doing but who doesn’t cost a boatload.

#### Diligence and amazing speed of work
You’ve definitely run into those viral memes about Indian programmers who have the answers to any questions. Yes, they’re completely true. Now, you may be wondering: What do these memes have in common with diligence? The point is that there wouldn’t be so many coding tutorials on YouTube and, of course, memes on the topic, if Indian developers weren’t truly that meticulous in what they do.


You’ll never see these guys just sitting and chilling in their workplaces. If you give them an urgent task that must be done by the afternoon, they’ll definitely get it done on time, no matter how complicated it is. They’ll find all the necessary data themselves or cooperate with colleagues in a pinch. In a word, they’ll figure out the best way and won’t let you down.

The truth is that tech training and work in India is an extremely competitive environment. The competition among tech specialists is arguably fiercer than in any other field in India. So the fact that a person managed to achieve a high level in development and earn their senior status speaks volumes.

#### Innovative thinking
You may hire a highly skilled developer with a brilliant CV, but that doesn’t guarantee they’ll be proactive and eager to come up with fresh solutions, unless you’re lucky enough to work with an Indian tech person. And these are exactly the qualities that every startup CEO would be incredibly glad to see in their employees, aren’t they?

### How to find and hire a developer in India?
Now that you know the particular benefits of hiring an Indian dev, the next problem to solve is the abyss of several how-to questions that lie between you and the perfect technician.

How to find developers in India?
#### There are two main ways:

1. Regional job boards
2. Employment platforms that match tech specialists with employers
Job boards are a classic and time-tested way to seek employees. Their key drawback, though, is that you may get thousands of responses, run hundreds of interviews, and have no worthwhile candidates at the end of this exhausting process. However, there’s a more convenient way: the third-party companies. They specialize in helping startups and even corporations find the best developers. For instance, Insquad facilitates the hiring process by providing a vast pool of vetted tech talent from around the world and takes care of all the paperwork. You only have to choose a perfect candidate from the base, and they’re yours in a couple of weeks.

#### How to evaluate a candidate’s soft skills?
As a founder, CEO, or CTO, you probably already have clear expectations for a candidate’s hard skills, since you know what you’re building. With soft skills though, things can be a little more complicated. Every nation has its own cultural peculiarities, which may be to some extent unusual for you. For example, because even now most Indian companies are quite hierarchical, some candidates may have difficulty taking on unfamiliar tasks. Yes, they can come up with a lot of innovative ideas, but not all developers from India will be ready to implement them themselves. Furthermore, not all Indians are familiar with the remote working format.

So the priority items you need to focus on when conducting a soft skills review are cultural fit and a candidate’s ability to work remotely.

To make sure a candidate shares your company’s approach to work, you can ask some questions about their professional values, what could be improved in your project, or design a situation that would require particular soft skills you’d like a developer to have. Check out our list of the best cultural fit questions and these great examples from other founders so you can feel more confident about what to ask and how to interpret the answers.

Another thing you definitely need to evaluate when hiring a developer from India is whether they’re remote-ready or not. Nowadays, it’s a soft skill that needs to be tested, too. It consists of three elements:

- **Proactivity.** Working from home makes it easier to lock yourself in your own shell. Maybe that’s acceptable for a big company, but not for a startup where collaboration and ambition are crucial. For instance, ask a candidate to give a couple examples of when they took initiative.
- **Concentration.** It’s crucial for remote work. Roommates, relatives, phone notifications, food etc. — working remotely means being surrounded by multiple distractions. Ask a candidate how they plan their day and how they deal with the productivity killers mentioned above.
- **Reliability.** The ability to meet a deadline and cope with emergencies at work and in everyday life can be tested with behavioral questions. For example, ask a candidate to tell you about a situation when they decided to be absolutely honest with their boss and team despite the potential risks.
The hiring process is a necessary experience, but it takes a lot of time and effort. And it’s not only the candidate who needs to prepare for an interview, but you too. Wouldn’t it be great if somebody could relieve you of these chores? That’s why hiring platforms like Insquad exist — to serve you and make your life as a CEO easier.

### How to settle legal aspects like contract and payment terms?
There are a couple of important things you need to know before hiring from abroad to prevent trouble and misunderstanding down the line. They key questions are:

#### What currency to pay in?
The answer to this is simple: Indian citizens employed by foreign companies must be paid in rupees (INR). It’s obligatory.

#### Do I need to pay taxes for my remote full-time Indian developers?
Probably. This is the trickiest aspect of working with remote employees from abroad. There are two possible solutions for overcoming the regulatory hurdles and avoiding severe penalties:

1. Establishing an entity for your company in the country you want to hire developers from, which is a long, pricey journey.
2. Using an EOR (employer-off-record), a company that takes the burden of all the payroll and taxation matters.

### Wrapping up
Are you convinced, or still not sure whether hiring developers from India is the best way to build an efficient team for your startup? In case you have any questions or doubts, Insquad’s here at your service. 300+ tech startups in need of developers have found their ideal candidates and are now successfully building the products of the future. You can be one of them.

Why your Startup is Destined to Succeed with a Developer from India

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In 2022, the US is the most lucrative and, consequently, the most attractive country for tech specialists from all over the world. For now, the median annual salary of a software developer in America is about $73,000—and the better qualifications you have, the higher it goes. In addition, there’s been a continuous lack of qualified US developers in the last few years,  so the US tech companies are more open to hiring specialists from abroad than ever. 

But despite the shortage of developers, American IT companies won’t just give jobs to the first candidates who send their CVs. If you want to be someone who works for the greatest tech companies in the US, you need to know several things about the work culture and the hiring process there.
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_Median software developer salary in the US as for March 29, 2022. Statistics by salary.com_

### Cultural features
The work culture in the US is different than in other countries. Here are a few things you should know.
#### Integrity
In the US, people are often more concerned about the developer's integrity than their hard skills. Simply put, the average developer who shows a good level of integrity has a better chance of getting a job than the cool programmer whose "behavior at work" mode and "behavior outside work" mode are very  different.It’s important for American companies to have a person who has the same values in their personal life as they do in their work environment. 

For instance, at an interview, you show yourself as a person who supports openness and freedom of speech, but on social networks, you make fun of those who adhere to such views. It’s not a problem for a company to investigate your social networks—on the contrary, it’s a must for companies that  care about  their reputation. So if the company finds anything suspicious, anything that may cause them to question your integrity, there’s a decent chance that you’ll be declined as a candidate.

**Tip**: It may sound obvious, but don’t lie to the recruiter in any way because it won’t do you any good. Be honest and mean what you say.

#### You won’t be trusted if you change jobs often
Before inviting a person for an interview, recruiters always look at the CV for a list of previous jobs with dates. If the candidate has been at their last one or two  jobs for six months or less, that’s a red flag for most American companies. They either try not to hire such people at all, or will interview them much more thoroughly than usual. In other words, the shorter the period of employment at the previous place,the worse, even if the previous employer was unpleasant to work for.

**Tip**: If you’ve changed jobs frequently, try to explain your  reasons for switching to the recruiter. Convince them that you seek long-term cooperation and that you’re not going to run away after three  months of work. And, again, don’t lie: Remember our point about integrity.

#### Ability to fit in with a  multicultural community
Let’s say this again: US companies often hire employees from all over the world. That means they’re all different from each other: Each of them grew up in different cultures, they all have different values, they may have different views on the same things, etc. Of course, they’re expected to be able to get along with each other and to cooperate effectively. It’s good not only for the development efficiency itself, but for the mental state of the employees. If there are constant quarrels, what kind of cool products and efficient work can we expect?

### Formal requirements
So, we’ve discussed  which  personal qualities are welcomed by US tech companies. What else do you need to know? 
#### Education
**Spoiler alert:** If you don't have a technical degree, it will be much harder to find a job with big companies like Google or Facebook. But we have good news for you: IT training courses are fine, too. If you have neither, don’t worry: There’s a little loophole called social proof. This can take two forms:
Having your app uploaded to the AppStore. But an app with five lame downloads won’t be enough—it must have at least a couple thousand downloads and look like it’s in demand.
Having  a company from the United States on your list of previous workplaces. Europe won’t always work—it’s kind of terra incognita for Americans.
It’s not necessary but is very desirable to have both. But if you have only one of the above-mentioned points, the chances of getting a job in a big American company are much higher than in  a situation where you have neither a degree nor any of these things.

But having a great education, a brilliant technical background, and a long list of merits is only 50% of success. What’s the other 50%? First of all: the CV.

#### Your CV
It should be noted that the word «CV» has a different meaning for Americans. While for others it means a short summary of a person’s work history, skills, education, and other things that may be important to an employer, the American CV (or “resume”) is different. It’s a very detailed, chronological list of a candidate's entire career, and also includes  info on their achievements, publications, education, etc.

These are two key points about writing a great CV that we’d like to share:
- Note that nowadays, employers in the US—especially huge ones like Google, Amazon, or Facebook—tend to use an Applicant Tracking System (ATS). The ATS helps them process hundreds of daily applications by automatically scanning the CVs for particular keywords and phrases that are also in the job ad text.To avoid being filtered out by the ATS, tailor your CV for the desired role. Read the job ad text very carefully first, and then write the CV—or give this task to somebody like [Insquad](https://insquad.com/), who will copywrite your CV for free with all the specifics of employment in the USA in mind. If you decide to write the CV yourself, you can check it for the keywords by uploading it to specialized services like ZipJob or TopResume when it’s finished. 
- Keep an eye on the length and the structure of your CV. An American resume is usually one page long, but for a tech specialist it may be hard to fit all their skills and qualifications into a one-page document without decreasing font size, which has to be 12pt for the main part and about 14-16pt for section titles and headers. So it may be 2 pages long as maximum to keep it concise and should include such sections as Title (the position you’re applying for), Contact information (name, e-mail, phone number, LinkedIn profile link), Summary (2-3 sentences on your skillset and experience), Professional experience, Work history (in reverse chronological order), Education, Skills, Hobbies (optional), Certificates (optional). References are not usually required in the resume. If an employer needs references, they will ask for them after the interview.

### The interview process
So you’ve passed the previous stages and now you’re invited to an interview. What should you know to follow through and get your dream job?

The interview process is usually divided into several rounds (anywhere from two to six), each conducted by different recruiters or managers.
Why? Because each stage has its own purpose, and every interviewer is looking for different competencies. The stages of the interviewing process in large companies and startups differ.

This is the list of the basic interview stages in companies like the Big 4 (Amazon, Facebook, Google, Microsoft):

**1. Phone screen.** It lasts from 15 to 30 minutes, during which you’re asked straightforward questions about your qualifications and work experience.

**2. Phone interview.** It lasts from 30 to 60 minutes and includes open-ended behavioral questions and other types of questions. You can prepare carefully for this round by checking the most asked questions on Glassdoor, for example.

**3. Onsite interview.** This stage is held to check your:
- Problem-solving skills
- Creativity
- Analytical thinking skills
- Coding skills
- Communication skills
- Culture fit
- Ability to  handle feedback
 
The interview rounds **in startups** usually include:
**1. The phone-call interview.** Typically this is a 20-30 minute call with the recruiting team where you’re asked whether you think you have the qualities needed to work for a startup.

**2. Technical interview.** You’ll be given some tests and practical tasks.

**3. Panel interview.** You’ll be interviewed by a group of people from different departments.
Again, the number of stages may vary, but the ones mentioned here are typically held in most companies in the United States.
 
### Conclusion
Everything said above is just the tip of the huge iceberg called «The hiring process in the US». But the deeper you go, the more you learn, and the better candidate you become. Fortunately, there are  lots of informational sources and companies willing to help you reach your goal of getting a dream job in the US.
 
Good luck!

 
_Contributed by Alex Svinov, Co-founder and CEO at Insquad_

How a Developer Can Get Their Dream Job in the US: Tips

Blog

How to Hire Developers for Your Startup: Failures & Insights from One Founder

Why your Startup is Destined to Succeed with a Developer from India

How a Developer Can Get Their Dream Job in the US: Tips

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