The cloud computing market is on the rise, with forecasts predicting it will reach $832 billion by the end of 2025. Playing a central role in this rapidly developing arena are cloud engineers, who have many responsibilities critical to our digital age, like ensuring company data is both easily accessible by the right people and safe from security breaches by the wrong people.
So if your business wants in on this growth or to reap its business advantages (which we're sure you do), you'll need to hire a cloud engineer or two. The challenge, however, is that so will everyone else. In fact, over the past 12 months alone, Burning Glass data shows that there were a staggering 31,478 open positions for cloud engineers.
How can you best compete with the pack and find top talent at top speed? First things first: Here's a handy checklist that gives an overview of the steps you'll need to take in order to make a great hire.
Next, let's work through this list, step by step, to make sure you start you hiring game on the right foot.
Whenever a specific market is on a sharp upward trend — as cloud computing is — time is of the essence. Drawn-out hiring processes can cause your company to lose out on talent, and a loss of talent is a loss of opportunity (and revenue). So make use of the diagram below to determine where you could trim or tweak your current hiring process to drive efficiency.
As the technologies industry continues to boom and talent supply struggles to keep apace with demand, employers have to get even more creative with compensation packages to stay competitive. In addition to a good pay rate, perks and benefits are deciding factors for tech candidates when choosing employers. But even if a sky-high salary isn't going to be your ace in the hole to snag the best candidate (more than half of job seekers claim they'd prefer a superior benefits package to a higher salary), you'll still need to ensure what you offer is comparable to other employers.
You can do this by referring to Randstad's salary guide, which offers national averages for three different seniority levels. But keep in mind that salary averages can vary significantly from location to location. For up-to-date data on salary levels for cloud engineers in your specific region, head on over to our salary calculator.
Like many positions in the technologies space, the skills and experience of cloud engineers can vary depending on a business's needs. So it's important that you be forthright in your job description about which skills your specific position will require.
To come up with your list of skills, discuss the position in-depth with the hiring manager and leaders in your IT department who will have keen insight on what qualities an ideal candidate should possess. Be sure to think of those skills or experiences that are required — like deep expertise in Python and Linux — as well as those that may not be necessary but could prove very useful, like experience in continuous integration.
To give you a starting point for your discussions, here are the top-requested skills for cloud engineers nationwide in the past year:
Python
Linux
devops
Java
Ansible
software development
software engineering
Don't wait for the first-round interview to start wooing applicants — you need to start doing that in the job description. To grab their attention (and keep it), make sure your job description is engaging and catches the eye. Here are a few tips to do just that.
don't write like a robot
You don't want to lose potential applicants because of a dry, obtuse job description. Yes, your posting needs to contain a lot of information. And yes, rambling sentences and dense paragraphs can cause readers to lose interest. However, the winning strategy is not bare-bones, robotic writing that leaves key questions unanswered.
To hold your reader's interest, use amiable language, and go beyond need-to-know information to focus on the typical day and people-oriented aspects of the job that candidates will want to know, such as:
Cloud engineers know they'll be working with programming languages and app development wherever they end up. So by speaking to the personable parts of the job, you're inviting potential hires to imagine themselves working with you — and that's the distinction you're after.
show how the job is meaningful
It doesn't feel good to be undervalued. And no one wants their work to feel devoid of purpose. The job description is the first chance you get to ensure applicants that you understand how meaningful cloud engineers are to the work you do, and to demonstrate that the work you do is meaningful.
Highlight your company's impact and make explicit the common purpose and shared values that drive your decision-making. Share how you feel the position contributes to the purpose and upholds these values. Show how the job is meaningful to your business, and applicants will see how it'd be meaningful to them, too.
Also, because cloud computing is still an up-and-coming field, you can expect cloud engineers to be hungry to learn new skills along the way. This means employers who prioritize continuous learning and professional development will hold extra sway with the best candidates out there.
make it easy to skim
A surefire way to prevent candidates from engaging with your company is by writing a job description that's a chore to read. Long paragraphs and sentences in an indecipherable format can leave readers confused and uninterested. On the other hand, an easy-to-skim description allows them to digest information quickly so that they can consider the position, imagine themselves in it and get on with actually applying.
Here are our top tips for a skimmable description:
Refer to our guide to writing highly effective job descriptions for even more helpful pointers and insights.
Future-proofing is important for every company, but especially so in the engineering world. Engineering trends change fast and businesses need to think years ahead to keep up. As such, industry trends should impact who — and how — you hire.
Here are some industry- and position-specific trends you should keep top of mind during your search for cloud engineers:
These days, there are a lot of methods available for sourcing great talent. From company websites to job boards, LinkedIn searches to employee referrals, your next great hire could be around any corner.
Which channel you choose will be dependent on your company's size, needs and resources. Are you currently short-staffed and have an immediate need? Or simply entering a strategic and deliberate expansion? Does your company have a recruiting budget or not? Have you had a few bad hires in a row and are wondering if quality talent is even out there?
If you're lucky (and adept at working connections), employee referrals can yield top results, but leveraging relationships can introduce a challenging dynamic. Scouring LinkedIn can be a job in itself, and waiting for the right person to apply through job boards can be costly. Simply put, some channels pay off, and some don't.
Working with a professional staffing firm can mitigate a lot of the risk, waiting and uncertainty that can come with conventional hiring methods. Not only are their candidates prescreened and vetted, but staffing firms have the experienced industry experts you need to help you deftly navigate the hiring process within the context of industry shifts and trends.
If a professional staffing firm sounds like a good option for you, reach out to the experts at Randstad Technologies to discuss your cloud engineer needs. Or if you're looking to browse our nationwide pool of high-caliber talent first, head on over to our Find Employees portal today.