I often get asked this question. How did I get into DevTools and why?
Well, my story started 2 years ago with Bazel.
I was introduced to a US/UK firm that was struggling to find Bazel engineers and needed some headhunting expertise. I had NO idea what Bazel was at the time, but after initial research the one thing I discovered…….Bazel engineers were those needles lost in haystacks.
For those of you who don’t know, Blaze was a build tool created internally at Google and later open sourced and renamed Bazel. Aside from Google, there were a number of organisations who were using Bazel as their build tool, but they were in the minority compared to other build tools like Maven, Gradle etc. So I set about finding and then building up a database of companies that I still update and maintain today.
With a few Bazel engineers ready to make a move and my original roles filled, I set about finding other companies who had a need for Bazel expertise and came across Helen and Ulf at Engflow. For once, a cold initial outreach worked and they agreed to have a conversation.
My journey with Engflow over the last two years has been my most successful and enjoyable client journey in all of my 20 plus years of recruitment. I’ve secured their Head of Sales, Head of Product, multiple engineers for both product and integration (all of whom have Bazel expertise) and Product Designer to name a few. I’ve secured hires in America, Germany, France, England and I am proud to say, a very hard hire to fill in Australia. During this time, I’ve deepened my knowledge of Bazel but also developer tools overall.
The term “By developers, for developers”, is often used in the DevTools world. In essence, it’s about building tools /utilities that will be used by developers /engineering teams, so deeply technical products. With engineering teams often having added pressure on them to increase software output but with reduced engineering teams, you can see why companies are looking to buy versus build. Ultimately, it’s about increasing developer velocity and yes, you guessed it, that’s where the name Develocity came from (way before Gradle decided to rebrand their Gradle Enterprise to Develocity might I just add).
With so many startups entering into the DevTools world over the last 2 years, I have had the chance to work with founders who are building a variety of different tools. From building AI enterprise cloud platforms, to cloud security, ML platforms for Data Scientists, tools to tackle technical debt, the one common theme that runs through, is an understanding of the day to day role of these engineers, DevOps professionals and how tools can help to increase productivity.
With our DevNews weekly roundup, we keep an eye on the latest developments in the DevTools space including funding, launches, feature upgrades. So naturally, we are the go to recruiter for those looking to build in the DevTools space and have a desire to hire candidates with prior experience in the space.
Having worked with tech startups for a number of years now, I’ve been able to bring this startup hiring expertise to a very niche industry. Knowing who is who in the DevTools world, from the bigger players (think Snyk, Databricks, Elastic) to the newer startups, enables us to find and talk to developers or designers with a real passion for building technical products that impact their fellow developers. We’ve also built up great relationships with VCs who specifically invest in the DevTools world and on a few occasions, have even been able to make a few introductions between Founders and VC scouts.
As a recruiter, I always want to be able to add value to my clients in such a way that I no longer become a cost, but a saving. Being able to present candidates within shorter timescales due to our worldwide network, has meant quicker hires at key stages for our startups.
So I suppose I have to thank Google really, for initially creating a build tool that sounds a lot like a herb 🙂 And to Engflow, for not deleting my Linkedin message and for putting their continued trust in me as their recruitment partner.
Please feel free to connect with me on Linkedin.
