What does a fintech do when the most experienced coders don’t want to code?

Whenever I speak to fintechs, or pretty much any startup for that matter, getting the right people is always one of their biggest tasks.

With competition for the best people rife and the worry that brexit could leave the UK short of certain skills a fintech’s progress could be stalled. These companies make quick decisions and act on them quickly. That is how they grow, so any skills shortage will make this difficult and mean they may lose their agility.

I interviewed a fintech recently and learned of another problem facing fast growing tech firms when it comes to recruiting software developers.

Maria Scott, CEO of Tania Technology, told me that part of the skills challenge is cause by the fact that the most experienced coders that the fintechs want, don’t want to code anymore. They want to manage.

Taina Technology, which is part of the regtech sub group of fintech, supplies software that automates regulatory compliance for financial services firms (look out for a profile of the company on this blog soon).

Scott said recruitment is a huge challenge. “All of my team are hard core research and development. These are computer scientists, developers and product. I have no sales and marketing or finance.” The company has 10 full time staff in London and also works with three universities in partnership to access the skills it needs.

“There is a lot of competition for great talent. We need very experienced talent and people that have been doing it a long time because they are the best at what they do. But as you will find in any industry when people get to a certain level they start to manage. Experienced coders don’t code anymore.”

So how do you manage this? Experienced coders with the right business background are not falling off trees. Moreover if they have been coding for a long time they have every right to want diversity in their jobs and move into management. Many probably start their own fintechs and have too much on their plates to think about coding.

Answers on a postcard… I mean in the comments section below.

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