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We Only Hire the Best

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Re: We Only Hire the Best

#21

Post by LargeWu »

leroy_masochist wrote: post #13
asb wrote: post #11

Corp: "We only hire the very best" Programmer: "What's the salary?" Corp: "Market average. Also, we're looking for people who aren't just motivated by money"

We want people who are motivated by the mission .

If the mission is feeding starving children, or curing cancer, or public service, then yes, I want people who are motivated by the mission. But usually the mission, the real mission, is to make the founders exceptionally wealthy, and forgive me if that doesn't get me out of bed in the morning.

Re: We Only Hire the Best

#22

Post by whatever_dude »

stillworks wrote: post #19

The best line I heard "we don't hire a$$$holes". That's a check-mate statement. I think to myself what if I don't get selected :-( . I did get selected only to realise they hired people down the line whom I'd consider rectal orifices. Can't catch a break really...

The "No assholes" rule should really be the #1 rule when hiring.

I've heard a lot of complaints from friends and family in the tech industry over the years, as I've had my own issues. While details vary, it always comes down to the acting up of one obvious asshole or another. It infects the whole team/company/project.

In the long run, a team of average but positively motivated people more often than not beats a team with an asshole in it, even if he/she is a rockstar/guru/ninja/jedi/whatever. And their lives won't be miserable in the process.

Re: We Only Hire the Best

#23

Post by blisterpeanuts »

leroy_masochist wrote: post #13
asb wrote: post #11

Corp: "We only hire the very best" Programmer: "What's the salary?" Corp: "Market average. Also, we're looking for people who aren't just motivated by money"

We want people who are motivated by the mission .

Yup, and if I get a nice block of stock options, then I'll be just as motivated as the founders! Been there.

Re: We Only Hire the Best

#24

Post by daniel-levin »

"We Only Hire the Best" doesn't have to have any truth to it to be of use to companies. Their purpose in hiring is to extract value from candidates. Convincing people that they'd be amongst the best is all you have to do. The rhetoric comes from existing employees, who may be rationalising their decision to work there. It feels good to be amongst "the best" - I want to be amongst the best! I am sure I'm not the only one with such aspirations. If being 'the best' means over-fitting to the requirements of a company, then the most successful (viz. "best") candidates will optimise for what that company wants. It means by the time they arrive at work they're already largely conditioned into behaving as their new company would like them to.

Yes, "the best" is a transparent lie. It doesn't matter though, because it serves the interests of companies who espouse it. DHH is calling a spade a spade here - but I'd hazard that the vast majority of the HN crowd already know.

Also, globally, there are lot of extraordinarily shit software people out there. If we define quality by "gets things done and doesn't break things and act in a crappy and deleterious manner", then it is not difficult for "the best" to mean the upper 60% of software people. It is completely reasonable to assume that the companies with this mantra do indeed hire from the top 60%, if only because of how many rubbish people there are.

Re: We Only Hire the Best

#26

Post by IndianAstronaut »

leroy_masochist wrote: post #13
asb wrote: post #11

Corp: "We only hire the very best" Programmer: "What's the salary?" Corp: "Market average. Also, we're looking for people who aren't just motivated by money"

We want people who are motivated by the mission .

>We want people who are motivated by the mission

Startup hiring process in a nutshell.

Re: We Only Hire the Best

#27

Post by andybak »

LargeWu wrote: post #21
leroy_masochist wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We want people who are motivated by the mission .

If the mission is feeding starving children, or curing cancer, or public service, then yes, I want people who are motivated by the mission. But usually the mission, the real mission, is to make the founders exceptionally wealthy, and forgive me if that doesn't get me out of bed in the morning.

This man speaks the truth. :-)

I think it's a lost battle but I used to rage whenever I saw a company talk about their 'Vision'. Unless you're a poet, religious mystic or philosopher king - then you're being pretentious and grandiose.

Re: We Only Hire the Best

#29

Post by pjc50 »

One of the chapters of "Parkinson's Law" (the book that among other things coins 'bikeshedding') discusses hiring from a satirical point of view. He makes the point that the easiest kind of hire is when only one candidate applies, so it's good to load down your adverts with as many requirements as possible so as to put applicants off.
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