Ask HN:How to attract best programmers for non-software company?
Dear Hackers,<p>I am looking for suggestions on how to attract truly exceptional programmers for a non-software company. A variety of sources (Joel on Software, friends at Google, Yahoo, universities, and research labs) seem to say that the best software engineers prefer to work at software companies as opposed to software roles in other companies. Does this have to be the case? What can non-software companies do to attract a few excellent programmers?<p>As background, our group is a hedge fund that uses a variety of fundamental and macro ideas to trade stocks, bonds, currencies, and commodities. In order to manage complexity, we tend to try to automate everything that can be automated and are looking for a great programmer to help manage our software systems and support the investment process. I think some benefits of our group are:<p>* we have excellent people in pretty much every role<p>* we are a small group so we have the fun and excitement of a startup with the stability of a larger organization<p>* programmers get to work on a variety of interesting projects and occasionally contribute to open source projects<p>* everyone has their own (nice!) office<p>* great benefits, compensation, etc.<p>I have always thought that a company devoted to excellence should be able to attract great people in any field. But despite what seems like a great environment I occasionally have people basically say, "I'd rather work at a software company like Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Oracle, etc." without even bothering to listen to what we are trying to do. What are the features that make pure software companies so attractive?  Can these features be replicated at non-software companies or can other features be substituted?  Any comments on how to attract great people in general as well as how to advertise a specific position (e.g., like the one at http://www.baincapital.com/BainCareers/ViewPosition.aspx?position=aaf6b68e-8f63-44a3-9222-14cc21fc0bb4) would be greatly appreciated.<p>Thanks,
-Emin