Virtual Interviews—Tips for Managers and Candidates A variety of circumstances drive managers in the direction of the virtual interview: When the team members that will be involved in the hiring decision are distributed across the country (or the world), When one of the team members is taking a vacation (well…a working vacation), When the cost […]

Top 5 Tips for Selecting a Custom Software Development Company Are you looking to hire a Software Development Company to build your next great software project? If you are non-technical, or unfamiliar with software development, that can be a daunting task. How do you even vet a company? All companies will tell you they can […]

Top 5 Tips for Selecting the Right Technical Staffing Company So, you want to select a technical staffing and recruiting company. What criteria should you use to make your selection? Here are our top 5, listed in countdown format. Because it’s more fun that way. Number 5: Ensure your agency can offer both staffing and […]

For a career changer, landing that first job in technology can be a challenge. That having been acknowledged, career changers may have some assets that they don’t realize they can capitalize on. Industry or Line of Business Expertise For many people who have been doing the same thing career-wise for a long time, they’re just […]

Which of these descriptions best fits your software development team? (1) The team is highly integrated with the rest of the company and its customers. (2) The team is shoved off in a corner. If your circumstances more closely match the first scenario, well done you. By design or by accident, your structure is helping […]

The DICE Tech Salary Survey was released late in March. I've been behind on my reading, so it wasn't until recently that I got a chance to dig into it. One of the most surprising data points in it was: "Overall technology salaries in the U.S. were essentially flat year-over-year (-1%), at $92,081 annually from […]

Lately, when we talk with our clients, we hear the same story. Attracting great development talent has become quite a chore. And because of that, companies have a heightened interest in making sure that they are doing the right things to retain the talent they already have. As a software development manager myself, I'm keenly […]

Stout recently hired a Silicon Valley software developer. A rock star developer featured in a documentary about one of the seminal moments in the history of the Internet, he found himself struggling to find employment in the Midwest. (Lucky for us.) The reason? His resume doesn't look at all like the conventional Midwestern software developer […]

Remember the line "You can't handle the truth!" from A Few Good Men? I'll put it as a question: "Can you handle the truth?" and then explain. Over and over, we hear about the shortage of technical employees and candidates for new jobs, be they software developers, IT people, or engineers of all kinds. At […]

One piece of feedback that we hear from candidates is that they find portions of the screening, interviewing and decision-making process to be confusing, illogical and frustrating. Questions that we hear are: Why such lengthy and complex interview processes involving some combination of 1-on-1 interviews, panel interviews, technical skills assessments, personality tests, role plays, etc.? […]