4 Things that Software Developers Want from a Company

While a competitive salary and sweet perks are appreciated, snacks, foosball and electric scooters only go so far. For many software developers it is the intangibles that influence whether they choose to work for a particular company.

"To be happy at work, I need two things: challenging problems and talented coworkers,” says Scott Mattocks, director of development at GSN. “Working with smart people makes solving tough problems all the more exciting. If the problems are too easy or the team isn't motivated and passionate, I can't stay excited."

We asked software developers what they value in an employer. If you want your company to be attractive to great tech talent take heed!

Here’s what we discovered:

Challenging, Unique Problems: “When deciding which company I want to work for, the most important thing to consider is the types of problems the company is trying to solve. There needs to be fun, challenging problems that I won't have the opportunity to tackle in other places. If the company is doing the same thing as everyone else, I have no real reason to pick that company over any other.” – Scott Mattocks, GSN Digital

[Read: 7 Things You Need to Attract Awesome Software Developers]

Flat Hierarchy: “Don't value authority -- if a VP and an intern disagree in a meeting, sometimes the intern is right. And when they are you should do what they say. Don't ever do anything just because someone important said so. From time to time there's a disagreement that must be settled by a person of authority, but this should be the rare exception, and that authority should not necessarily be the person with the biggest title. It should be the person most likely to make a good decision in that situation.” – Robert Johnson, Interana (via Quora)

Transparency: “For me as a developer, an ideal company culture is one that highly values transparency and openness. Every team member should be fully aware of everyone's responsibilities and achievements. The daily progress of the whole team should be shared systematically. When employees work in a transparent culture where everyone's input is valued, they are happier, more loyal and willing to work harder.” – Carsten Scheuer, teamspir.it

Read: 3 Things You Don’t Know About Software Developers

Control Over Work: “The single most important thing is for engineering priorities to be set by engineers, instead of non-technical management.  That's the biggest draw for top engineering talent, and the primary thing companies point to as evidence of their strong engineering culture. – Trevor Austin, Plantir (via Quora)

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