From a better work life balance to an increase in salary ranges. We spent 5 minutes with our US team Manager James Pinder to talk through the latest developments in this week’s US market update.

What have you found your candidates are looking for most in their next role?

• With lots of new technologies being brought to market over the last couple of years, many candidates working on older, legacy systems don’t want to be behind the curve and are often looking for an opportunity to get hands-on with cutting-edge tech.

• A better work-Life balance has been a huge attraction for many candidates recently. With the impact Covid had on remote working, many candidates are now starting to realise the difference a better work-life balance can have on their home and professional life.

• The salary ranges for the majority of talent we work with have seen a sharp increase over the last 12-18 months. Many candidates realise they are underpaid and are looking to rectify this

Why are people leaving their current role? 

• Many different reasons… Poor management/direction is often one

• Underpaid

• Lack of remote working options

What job titles are the most in-demand?

• Site reliability engineers

• DevOps Engineers

• Frontend Developers (UI/UX is more important than ever to stand out from the competition)

What is the standard interview process? Has it changed in the past year?

• It has definitely got shorter and more precise.

• Many companies are happy to use “placeholders” or other methods to block off calendar spots in the chance a candidate impresses, and they need to move fast.

• Instead of the lengthy tech tests, the best companies use their senior engineers to evaluate the technical abilities of candidates. This has made a huge difference

• The standard process I am seeing is =: 1. HR call/hiring manager to set expectations and ensure both parties are on board. 2. Technical conversation 3. Final wrap-up call

• One thing I have noticed is that clients are more willing to be flexible on this. If a candidate feels he would benefit from speaking with other team members, they are usually happy to do so

What’s exciting about the US market? What developments have you seen?

In comparison to last year, clients were mostly focused on bringing in a high volume of candidates, maybe losing sight of quality. In recent months I have seen clients instead focus on Lead/Principal level candidates who can take on more workload; the budget for this type of candidate has seen a huge increase.

On the candidate side, the main difference I have seen is candidates have a more precise idea of what they want. Whether this is due to speaking with more companies or just realising what they value, it seems most candidates have a clear idea of what they do best and where they see themselves going.

James works our Netherlands and US markets. If you want to get in touch James.pinder@oliverparks.com