Everyone that has ever tried to hire a mobile app developer will tell you that finding someone is hard. To find someone skilled and willing to work on your project is made even more difficult with the stiff competition between deep-pocketed tech behemoths.

So what’s the secret to getting that rockstar mobile app developer to join your team instead of your competitors?

A REALLY RARE, hard, or at least interesting problem to solve

You may think your photo app is the next big and interesting thing, but a mobile app developer got that same email from five of your competitors this week alone. This is not to say your idea isn’t great or interesting (we can’t all work on the fun ideas) but it’s what the mobile developers with choices want to work on.

source: wired.com

If you not working on a project to compete with MIT’s military robot, you’re not completely out of luck? Are the developers able to solve problems anyway they choose without a sales or product team sucking the life out of the project? Can they use any technology they want without tons of documentation, legal team involvement, and conferring with the IT team for permission? or Do they at least get to release random projects on the only cool team of a boring Fortune 500? Then you may have a shot.

Time to work on their own stuff

source: businessinsider.com

Part time or work from home opportunities (combine them and you have something magical) may get you further in your request with a developer than anything will.  The truth is, a lot of developers are only in the job market because their project isn’t profitable YET.

Providing a flexible schedule for your developer can give them the extra time they need to work on their own projects. If a developer feels that your position will take up too much of their time compared to their current role, the interview just won’t happen. Sorry!

A remote opportunity

Rent is high in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco (yes, I’m fully aware tech companies exist outside of these places). So maybe the opportunity to travel as they work or live in a cheaper city while earning a good income is a lot more appealing than earning $100k to pay $3,000/month in rent.

Besides, developer do work that are the most conducive for work at home positions. Even flying your developer in sometimes, requiring them to work business hours, and a requirement to attend virtual meetings sounds a lot better than hanging out 12+ hours a day in your office, no matter how many ping pong tables you have.

A known founder

Let’s see which opportunity a developer would jump at…the chance to work with Joe Startup or Elon Musk with a known reputation for forward thinking ideas and experience. I’ll let you guess on that one. Even though Joe Startup may be the next Elon Musk, he isn’t now and with the high failure rate of startups it’s less of a risk to work with Mr. Musk and gain knowledge (or at least a connection) from him than it is with Joe Startup.

Your beer is fine, but your meetups and time off are better

source: @theinferno

Drinking with you during and after work could be fun, but to a mobile app developer, that time could be better spent enjoying the city, friends and family, or time to themselves. Better yet, if you can find a way to help mobile app developers learn fun things with in-house meetups and guest presentations that help build their connections, you MAY just lure that developer to your project after all.

Your office isn’t boring

Forget all the “cool” nerf guns, scooters, and snacks. You’re located in a boring office park in the middle of “no where”. Where is your team supposed to find the delicious food trucks during lunch? How long will it take them to get to the meetups in the ‘hip’ part of time after work? How are they supposed to meet up with their co-founder to discuss their 18th homepage redesign on lunch break?

Don’t make this mistake if you have the option to do something about it now. If your workforce has a lot of developers, consider locating as close as you can to their sleeping quarters!

You realize a good work-life balance is less than 14 hours a day

This one isn’t hard. If you know your office consistently works beyond 9 hours a day, fight the temptation to include ‘work-life balance’ on your website’s job page. It helps no one. Your developer will be watching the clock at the 8 hour mark, while you and your midnight-oil-loving team wonder why he hasn’t ordered in his dinner yet.

Have an awesome Glassdoor review

Some companies may be too small or too new to have a review on Glassdoor, but those of you that actually have them better make sure they’re good. Developers don’t want to waste time working their way through your technical interview just to find out after being hired that they will handling emails until noon and answering to all ten of their bosses during the day.

Real Diversity

When a mobile developer visits your website and sees nothing but 20-something year old dudes, it’s not interesting. Not to say that it’s all over, but again there are 20 other offers in their inbox right now…what’s different about you? Where’s the guy with the salt and pepper hair that coded with Woz and can share his stories about Woodstock? How about the bad ass women coders that coded for charities in Burma? or just anyone that didn’t go to a ‘name brand’ school.

Spending hours a day with five “bros” that share the same opinions, experiences, and social backgrounds just gets old after awhile.

So what do you think really get’s app developers in the door? What would make you interested to work on someone’s team?

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