Finding techy guys and keeping them on your team

[Entrepadawan]

Hi everyone,

First thread here. I'm in my early 20s and trying to set up a business in the North of Manchester. I now have a lot of free time after realising the navy wasn't for me.

I am looking for developers for some website design and eventually app development.

Ideas I have had to locate wizards :
1) Attending Hackathons around Manchester
2) Reconnecting with old school friends that went down the computer science / programming route

Can we expand on this? To those who have established a good working relationship with a wizard, how did you find them? Was it online?

Is this thread in the right place?


Cheers

 

[garyk]

Any dev worth his/her salt will want to know what *you* bring to the table.

 

[prophet01]

Unless you absolutely must have physical contact on a regular basis with potential personnel why restrict yourself to locals/UK.

Plenty of talent in Asia and SE Asia for example who could undertake assignments for you for a fraction of UK labour costs. I've recently utilised the services of personnel in SE Asia on numerous occasions to undertake computer based work.

 

[beckygolf]

It depends on what type of business you have in mind. You really dont need local unless you need to have daily meetings. You may have the bulk of your work done using a freelancer from SE Asia ( Avoid other Asian countries!) and then someone local on a part time basis just oversea it or vice versa. If you have the money then I guess you are better off going local.

Best way of keep top talent is making them co founders. Best way to find them - well I guess you are already doing that through network events, I am guessing you are using meetup.com? Very tough to start Tech company without having CTO as co founder unless of course you have money. If you have the money then you can just hire them straight out and pay market rates with some equity after X years.

 

[David Reinhardt]

You could try approaching local universities/sixth form colleges and see if they'll let you reach out to students with relevant skills.

 

[japancool]

Can we expand on this? To those who have established a good working relationship with a wizard, how did you find them?

Personally, when I was primarily working as a software developer, I found being called "techy guy" and "wizard" to be quite demeaning.

 

[Gecko001]

Personally, when I was primarily working as a software developer, I found being called "techy guy" and "wizard" to be quite demeaning.

I tend to agree with this. I am not in the IT or web development industry, but I would regard those terms as insulting if I was.

 

[webgeek]

Personally, those terms don't strike me badly. If I was being called the opposite of them, THEN I'd be upset. If it was propeller head or something a bit more nerd than geek, then I might not appreciate it - but it wouldn't be a big concern.

Hrmm. By wizard, did you mean a magician or leader of the KKK?

On second thought, maybe I would be insulted

 

[japancool]

Personally, those terms don't strike me badly. If I was being called the opposite of them, THEN I'd be upset. If it was propeller head or something a bit more nerd than geek, then I might not appreciate it - but it wouldn't be a big concern.

Hrmm. By wizard, did you mean a magician or leader of the KKK?

On second thought, maybe I would be insulted

What's the opposite of a wizard? Presumably not a witch.

 

[David Reinhardt]

I'm with Japancool, those terms come across as a bit demeaning. If these guys are non-client facing, I'd be inclined to go with software engineer. If they're client facing, perhaps just consultant (although that's a bit bland).

 

[Gecko001]

Has anybody here seen the episode 11 of series 5of the Big Bang Theory ? The one where the old school "friend" wants the guys to get involved in an project for making any movie into a 3D movie. If you have seen it you will perhaps see why I was reminded of that episode when I read the first post of this thread.

 

[webgeek]

Presumably male is wizard and female is wizardess, but who's ever heard that term spoken, ever?

What's a gaggle of wizards called? I haven't the foggiest.

What's a room full of geeky webdevelopers called? Cash Machine!

 

[Dan Izzard]

There are talented people out there. Although Wizards, ninjas, deities or however you want to spin it I think are a fairly closed minded way of tracking down such talent.

It kind of implies that you have one dominant skill / use, and the quaint terminology downplays the professional nature and aspiration of such a career.

Regards,

The Social Media Whiz

 

[ffox]

I don't mind being called Techie, or Geek, or Wizard, or anything else - so long as I get paid.

 

[David Hamer]

Try not to forget the most important part of any development process - the Tester!
Any dev,BA or architect however good they are, will miss something or make the odd mistake, this is where a good test resource earns their $$$.
Must confess.....I'm a contract QA and Test Consultant ...and please don't call me a test engineer (unless your paying my invoice, as ffox says...if you're paying it's your choice what you call me!)