Best platforms for finding software developer jobs

Rich Steinmetz -

One of the most frequent questions I get is what are good places to find a job as a software engineer.

I totally get where that curiosity comes from, there is a plethora of platforms, marketplaces, and websites.

I experienced 7 different companies in almost 7 years of studying and engineering. You can imagine that I talked to a lot of companies through many channels.

There are 2 major types of developer job platforms:

  1. active platforms
  2. passive platforms

Active platforms are mostly designed in a way that you go out there and find you employer. These are job board type of places.

Passive platforms work in a way that you submit your profile and the job offers come to you. You can't even really search for employers on a really passive platform.

Some platforms are actually hybrid, like LinkedIn. Still, for you, depending on many different factors, a hybrid platform like LinkedIn will mostly lean towards being more passive or more active.

While I think that the most useful and enjoyable way to find the right place for your day job adventures is networking, avoiding job search pitfalls on the way. I still think that there's value to add job search websites into your mix, especially if you are actively looking for a job.

Let's look at some of them. Apart from the type of platform, you'll also need to account for:

  • You location
  • Your industry
  • Your interests
🎯
That's my personal experience. However, you can also dig deeper. Toptal has created a hiring guide about software developers that includes some very useful interview questions & answers. You can use this guide to brush up on your skills and see how you stack up against the current best practices and trends in the field.

So the below list is a very biased compilation of my experiences and experiences of people I know, just showing a fraction of what's possible.

Best active hiring platforms

The ones for active search and applications 🕵️‍♂️

worldwide

  • A transparency first platform to offer you top picks worldwide: https://pinnedjobs.com/
  • LinkedIn - For me, LinkedIn is more of a vehicle for active search, getting a feel for the market, but most of all, networking and driving of follow-up conversations in the (pre-) hiring process
  • indeed.com - A classic job board
  • For rubyists: https://www.rubyjobboard.com/
  • Freelance: Toptal - high entry barrier because of big onboarding process and some tough coding challenges (I think candidates get matched with companies, so this could also be more of a passive platform)
  • Freelance: Arc (codementor) - mostly US companies 🇺🇸
  • Freelance: Upwork - mid entry barrier (candidates get screened, sometimes this process is not transparent and you just get rejected) and getting gigs is a grind but it can get you rolling
  • Doing good industry: devex.com
  • HackerNews (Who is hiring? threads, Freelancer? Seeking Freelancer thread, Who wants to be hired thread... Probably there are more 😬 Interesting, because some engineers leave their email in there and you could surpass the usual recruit folks)

DACH region 🇩🇪 (Germany, Austria, Switzerland)

Best passive hiring platforms

The ones, where recruiters and employers find you.

💼
Are you an employer checking out the best platforms where you can offer opportunities to Rails developers?As a German Rails dev, I would recommend Honeypot from the passive platforms.As a Spaniard, I would recommend Joppy and Circle.io.(Disclaimer: Just a very biased recommendation, me using those platforms and being hired there and speaking about them with employers; I think they work equally well for both parties)So far, I only had meaningful conversations with American companies via railsdevs.com (affiliate).

worldwide

Europe

  • honeypot.io - 2 of 4 of my full-time jobs came from here
  • turing.com - not sure actually, it's a new one for me but saw it recommended in a couple of places. Looking at it, it has an extensive onboarding process, so entry barrier is higher
  • angel.co - seems now to be a different company by now (Wellfound) and I can't login anymore 🤪 Can also be used as active platform. It was quite useful if you look for startup experience
  • circle.io (mostly focused on Europe 🇪🇺 and Spain 🇪🇸) - a secret invite-only club (send me your motivation and portfolio to be invited there)
  • joppy.me (mostly focused on Europe 🇪🇺 and Spain 🇪🇸) - the tinder of the hiring process, my second full time job came from here.

Best networking opportunities

📝
Define your vision, your goals. Register on the relevant platforms and do the active parts. Persist. It's a matter of time.