In my experience hiring takes a lot of time and effort. I'm curious how companies scale their development teams while keeping enough capacity to develop?
Ask HN: How long does it take to hire a good developer?
1–10 of 25 posts
Re: Ask HN: How long does it take to hire a good developer?
#2Time Price or Quality
Shift the deadline
Pay contractors
Sacrifice quality by either working overtime or reducing standards
Depending on organization the hiring process can be fast and effective.
Re: Ask HN: How long does it take to hire a good developer?
#3You could probably hire someone good in about 2 weeks. I interviewed for my current job at 6 PM, got an offer letter at 8 AM the next day. Most of the people in the company go through a quick hire as well and while there's some bad hires it's more that they're inexperienced/cheap rather than the process.
I've had interviews that take months, but I don't really see the value of this. Why do you need 6 people to make a decision? Why do you need to ask them technical questions when you can ask for their college results? Why do you need to test them for skills they'll use maybe once a year?
Re: Ask HN: How long does it take to hire a good developer?
#4You could probably hire someone good in about 2 weeks. I interviewed for my current job at 6 PM, got an offer letter at 8 AM the next day. Most of the people in the company go through a quick hire as well and while there's some bad hires it's more that they're inexperienced/cheap rather than the process. I've had interviews that take months, but I don't really see the value of this. Why do you need 6 people to make a…
Thank you for sharing your experience. I thought about cutting the process short like you suggested and live with the chances of bad hires but:
1. How do you avoid having a bad effect on the current team when they see churn like that?
2. College results could work for junior hires, but senior ones? Rely on feeling about their previous work experience?
Re: Ask HN: How long does it take to hire a good developer?
#5Time Price or Quality Shift the deadline Pay contractors Sacrifice quality by either working overtime or reducing standards Depending on organization the hiring process can be fast and effective.
It's always about the right compromises indeed..
Re: Ask HN: How long does it take to hire a good developer?
#6You could probably hire someone good in about 2 weeks. I interviewed for my current job at 6 PM, got an offer letter at 8 AM the next day. Most of the people in the company go through a quick hire as well and while there's some bad hires it's more that they're inexperienced/cheap rather than the process. I've had interviews that take months, but I don't really see the value of this. Why do you need 6 people to make a…
The reason is that bad hiring, depending on your current size, is one of the most ruinous things you can do. So people take their time. The alternative is ‘fire fast’ (with caveats), but a lot of places are afraid of doing that. Personally I prefer it.
> Why do you need to ask them technical questions when you can ask for their college results?
Genuinely no offence, but this one hurt to read!
Re: Ask HN: How long does it take to hire a good developer?
#7I'm not sure if this is an "American thing", but in (Western) Europe usually a candidate that holds a degree in engineering or has a couple of years of experience is enough to be considered a competent developer. Sure, there are tech interviews and the like, but in all my years of experience and companies I have worked for, most if not all of the colleagues I have worked with were normal developers (which for 99% of the tech companies out there means 'good developers').
I'm not talking about rock stars.
Re: Ask HN: How long does it take to hire a good developer?
#8My experience is around half year. That includes searching for that good developer and the other 9-10 senior interviews which you had your hopes up but didn't match. It's really hard to find a good senior dev these days...
Re: Ask HN: How long does it take to hire a good developer?
#9My experience is around half year. That includes searching for that good developer and the other 9-10 senior interviews which you had your hopes up but didn't match. It's really hard to find a good senior dev these days...
That's similar to my current experience. Not to mention, competition from bigger companies is fierce when it comes to good senior devs.
Re: Ask HN: How long does it take to hire a good developer?
#10You could probably hire someone good in about 2 weeks. I interviewed for my current job at 6 PM, got an offer letter at 8 AM the next day. Most of the people in the company go through a quick hire as well and while there's some bad hires it's more that they're inexperienced/cheap rather than the process. I've had interviews that take months, but I don't really see the value of this. Why do you need 6 people to make a…
> Why do you need to ask them technical questions when you can ask for their college results?
Unfortunately, college results are not the most reliable. A in Algorithms class from a world-class CS university means something very different than the same A from some completely no-name Uni where teaching standards are very low and cheating is widespread and accepted. What's worse, even the people from top uni could be cheaters (it's just less likely) or rode on the backs of their colleagues in group projects.
Also, some people are like me and are not motivated to do well in school just for arbitrary and meaningless grades (I once got a grade corrected by the prof from C+ to A and didn't bother to go collect it, because what's the point of grades anyway?), while they will be very motivated in a job where they're paid good money.