Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Tips for a new team lead who is hiring

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 61 posts

Re: Ask HN: Tips for a new team lead who is hiring

#51

Post by chiefalchemist »

Dwolb wrote: post #18

Here’s how I did this at my last job at a growing start-up. My background is in engineering, but I found myself responsible for hiring people outside of my expertise for roles like marketing, sales, finance, and operations. The process: 1) Define the role. What do you need this person to do day in and day out? Write the exhaustive list of tasks and the exhaustive list of behaviors. Task: Write code that does X. Behav…

Four subtle points to add:

- Be consistent in what you ask, at least for the initial round(s). Else the candidate comparisons will be invalid.

- If different people are involve (i.e., interviewers) make sure they prep as a team. Nothing is more annoying - and a red flag to the interviewee - than getting the same question multiple times across different meetings. It also wastes time.

- Along the same lines, when multiple people are involved, be mindful of any post-interview group discussions. Groups create biases (read: group-think). Consistency comes into play again. Prior to a debrief have each interviewer grade the candidate, hbave them form an opinion, then discuss.

- Listen carefully. Listen to the candidates' wants and needs. Short term and long. Professionally and personally. This is beyond (culture) fit. I've been W2'ed for more than one role that I was in the immediate a solid fit for. But the ceiling was too low, the decision making too slow. I left both asking, "Why did you hire me?" In short, don't fuck with someone's career/life simple because you're desperate for their skill set. Don't imply a situation that isn't accurate. Yes it happens. Too often.

Re: Ask HN: Tips for a new team lead who is hiring

#52

Post by whycombagator »

blowski wrote: post #49
intelVISA wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wild, what area is that? Maybe it's a pipeline/intake/compensation issue?

I had this problem recently trying to hire people good at and willing to work with a big Angular v1 codebase.

Angular v1 can be picked up a lot easier than what OP describes. You could/should cast a wider net

Compensation might also have been an issue.

Re: Ask HN: Tips for a new team lead who is hiring

#53

Post by Dwolb »

chiefalchemist wrote: post #51
Dwolb wrote: post #18

Here’s how I did this at my last job at a growing start-up. My background is in engineering, but I found myself responsible for hiring people outside of my expertise for roles like marketing, sales, finance, and operations. The process: 1) Define the role. What do you need this person to do day in and day out? Write the exhaustive list of tasks and the exhaustive list of behaviors. Task: Write code that does X. Behav…

Four subtle points to add: - Be consistent in what you ask, at least for the initial round(s). Else the candidate comparisons will be invalid. - If different people are involve (i.e., interviewers) make sure they prep as a team. Nothing is more annoying - and a red flag to the interviewee - than getting the same question multiple times across different meetings. It also wastes time. - Along the same lines, when multi…

You make an interesting point on career fit. I’ve heard the idea discussed but never explicitly named.

Re: Ask HN: Tips for a new team lead who is hiring

#54

Post by gambiting »

intelVISA wrote: post #38
gambiting wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My problem is that we're trying to hire for a very niche position, where we get maybe 3-4 candidates A YEAR. So we don't really have the comfort of waiting a bit longer to interview those 30 candidates - we have to look at whether the people that come in could maybe work in the position we have.

Wild, what area is that? Maybe it's a pipeline/intake/compensation issue?

Rendering programmers in video games industry. The problem is that any rendering programmers are immediately hoovered up by medical/automotive/research industries at ridiculous salaries that very few gaming companies can compete with, and even then there are very very few programmers who are interested in that area.

Yes, the answer to the problem is "just offer more money" but that decision is way above my paygrade - I have to hire someone though, and the choice of candidates is very small.

Re: Ask HN: Tips for a new team lead who is hiring

#55

Post by dennis_jeeves1 »

blowski wrote: post #49
intelVISA wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wild, what area is that? Maybe it's a pipeline/intake/compensation issue?

I had this problem recently trying to hire people good at and willing to work with a big Angular v1 codebase.

>rendering programmers

How many months will it take for 'regular' programmer with 5 years experience to say have the skills of say a 5 years of a rendering programmer ?

What is the pay range for rendering programmer with 5 years of experience?

Re: Ask HN: Tips for a new team lead who is hiring

#56

Post by jfalcon »

When it comes to meeting new people who present themselves as knowledgeable, I have a philosophy. I believe in giving them enough rope to hang themselves or parade themselves, especially in situations like screening interviews where people tend to over-inflate their resumes. This is particularly true when a person's career progression seems out of sync with what you would normally expect for the role they're being hired for.

To gauge their actual knowledge, I go through their resume and pick out key pieces of their technology stack. Then, I have them explain how it works, how it interacts with other components, etc. This works even better if it's a technology stack I'm familiar with, since I'm aware of the competitors within that space and can find a better tool to use next time around.

To catch people who are lying or exaggerating their experience, I ask them to reiterate a tech stack that's not DNS (which is often overplayed) or a familiar tech stack that I can quiz them on. By doing this, I can test their knowledge both in print and in their own words. I look for people who can both talk the talk and walk the walk, rather than just talk a good game.

My goal is to hire people who are considered peers or adjacent to my current team, rather than those who are too junior to onboard quickly. Unfortunately, sometimes someone slips through the cracks and the team regrets it.

Likewise, when in a coding interview, most people aren't 100% code perfect on the whiteboard, so I don't require them to be exact. When I first learned how to code out of the back of a Compute! magazine, I was reading it... learning how BASIC in magazine print turned into BASIC the instructional code interpreted by a computing machine. Therefore, most all who code can read that or even Pseudocode down to the level that are able to reiterate the logic and function which is something that ChatGPT doesn't even have correct (how often does it produce buggy examples?)

But if a person can show me how their logic is processing by talking it through with descriptions - and they can do the same on shared desktop remote interviews as well, and I am able to understand when I question them or add in new features I ask for and can confidently interpret their answer, then I feel confident enough that with google, they will likely be successful building a solution just on rote description.

A person does not need to get my solution, they need to get a solution that works to solve the problem.

Re: Ask HN: Tips for a new team lead who is hiring

#57

Post by Dwolb »

lsowen wrote: post #23
Dwolb wrote: post #18

Here’s how I did this at my last job at a growing start-up. My background is in engineering, but I found myself responsible for hiring people outside of my expertise for roles like marketing, sales, finance, and operations. The process: 1) Define the role. What do you need this person to do day in and day out? Write the exhaustive list of tasks and the exhaustive list of behaviors. Task: Write code that does X. Behav…

This is a great framework, and similar to what I follow. One thing I would add: If hiring falls within your scope, it is one of the most important things you can do. I see too many new leads/managers try to "outsource" it to HR, etc. But while it can be super time consuming, finding the right people for your team has an outsized impact on your team's future success, so make it a priority!

HR can be a great partner, but they're not going to know the role like you do.

Re: Ask HN: Tips for a new team lead who is hiring

#58

Post by mellosouls »

throwawaybbq1 wrote: post #41
mellosouls wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think both extremes are problematic; while you (rightly) cover the cliquey/othering/representation side, the counter is the introduction of people to the team who - at best - cannot or will not socially integrate, and at worst are positively frictional and demoralizing. You see this happen a lot when (say) poor management look too much at cost or box-ticking over team morale and competence. "Can they do the job?" a…

Working with someone professionally is not the same as a beer buddy. In fact, I value having colleagues who are distinct enough from me that I would feel a bit uncomfortable having them over/hanging out (e.g. political views, humor, world view), as long as they are 100% professional and technically excellent. Btw .. a lot of technically excellent people do not drink (religion or just choice), and a bunch of people wo…

You've read too much into my "can we get on with them?" which is just about having common ground and relaxed relations at work, nothing to do with drinking, being buddies etc.

Re: Ask HN: Tips for a new team lead who is hiring

#59

Post by majestic5762 »

Understand the company, the product, the business model and the vision. As a lead it's expected from you to be autonomous and take good decisions. I always used my sincere common sense to find answers to these problems and often i took my time to research, ask others, overall i tried to understand the domain as best i could while ignoring the impostor fear, and then things start falling into place. If you like to code, you know how code should be written. If you respect yourself, you know how to handle others. If you ever had your own company, you would know how to treat others' company as well. Don't hire from a dry feeling to step up to your lead role. Hire because you have arguments, hire because the company needs investment in fresh blood everyone and make it fun for everyone

Re: Ask HN: Tips for a new team lead who is hiring

#60

Post by apstyx »

jacknews wrote: post #33
apstyx wrote: post #9

* ensure that the person can acknowledge mistakes and handles criticism/feedback in a positive manner. obviously that needs to be communicated in a fair and responsible manner * do you want to have a beer/coffee/social interaction with the person outside of work? does not mean you will but you will need to build a relationship with the person * make sure you know what you are expecting from the hire, write that down,…

"(no capital letters, speed has a price :D)" purely on this point, having two cases does seem quite unnecessary and burdensome you have to learn the alphabet twice, for one thing and in fact, much punctuation is also superfluous just put each 'thought' on it's own line, for example no need for fancy untypeable punctuation like the recently popular —

excellent "point"

will implement

Post reply on HN