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Ask HN: I think I'm good at quickly identifying dev talent. How to prove it?

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Re: Ask HN: I think I'm good at quickly identifying dev talent. How to prove it?

#11

Post by projectramo »

Prove it to whom?

If you want to exploit the talent, I don't think becoming a recruiter is the best way to go (contra the other advice).

I am not a recruiter, but I don't think their challenge is (necessarily) identifying dev talent. They have to

1. Convince dev talent to sign up for the company 2. Convince the company that they can find dev talent 3. Look through a lot of dev talent

It's more like a broker. They have to find a particular talent/price mix that keeps bother parties happy.

Re: Ask HN: I think I'm good at quickly identifying dev talent. How to prove it?

#12

Post by lscore720 »

mattm wrote: post #4
DelaneyM wrote: post #2

You become a recruiter. Identifying dev talent is one (very important!) part of the job for dev managers, but not enough on its own to be successful. The only pure application of that skill would be as a recruiter. That said, you're almost certainly wrong. I can't find the quote/citation right now, but distinctly remember that over a decade of data at Google showed that only one person at the company was really indiv…

Ok, how do I become a recruiter? Yes, I'm fully aware that I could be misguided but would be interested in dipping my toe in the water to at least try. Is it something that's possible to do part-time on the side?

Recruiting is probably not an appropriate career to leverage this skill - identifying talent is mainly the job of the hiring manager/team to determine.

A recruiter's primary job is to find the talent and convince he/she to consider the opportunity. Sure, your ability to screen upfront is helpful in saving your employer time, but the job is far more sales-based.

to play the numbers game & bounce back every morning in the face of constant rejection and indifference. That, above all, will ensure your success as a recruiter.

To learn recruiting, like any new job, it's smartest to make a full-time committment. Once you've mastered it, you can definitely work any schedule you'd like!

Re: Ask HN: I think I'm good at quickly identifying dev talent. How to prove it?

#13

Post by devmgr12345 »

miguelrochefort wrote: post #7

This is trivial and any person can do it.

Actually, I'd say that identifying GREAT talent and NO talent is trivial. When a person is "ok, not great but not terrible, never going to be a rockstar but maybe good enough"... that's the tricky one.

I know everyone wants to only hire the best, but sometimes you don't have that luxury and you just need a hack to write some CSS.

Re: Ask HN: I think I'm good at quickly identifying dev talent. How to prove it?

#14

Post by hkarthik »

Identifying talent is not enough. You also need to know how to sell and close this talent. I say this as an engineering manager at a top tech company who got into hiring largely due to feeling like I could identify talent.

Selling and closing is a whole different ball game. You have to be a good story teller, a good listener, and you have to be geniune. You have to be relentless and unwilling to take no for an answer.

Whether you go into recruiting full time, move to management, or just be the engineer everyone uses to sell candidates, practice and hone your selling skills.

Re: Ask HN: I think I'm good at quickly identifying dev talent. How to prove it?

#15

Post by brianwawok »

devmgr12345 wrote: post #13
miguelrochefort wrote: post #7

This is trivial and any person can do it.

Actually, I'd say that identifying GREAT talent and NO talent is trivial. When a person is "ok, not great but not terrible, never going to be a rockstar but maybe good enough"... that's the tricky one. I know everyone wants to only hire the best, but sometimes you don't have that luxury and you just need a hack to write some CSS.

Except how great a person is may very well have to do with the team you are putting them on.

So say you work on a team for 3 years and know everyone well. You should help the team hire new people with your "skill". You know how the team acts, and you can tell how the person will fit.

But say as a recruiter with 50 clients.. you won't know all 50 teams as well, so your accuracy has to go down, right?

Re: Ask HN: I think I'm good at quickly identifying dev talent. How to prove it?

#16

Post by mattm »

id122015 wrote: post #9

You can try it on me, I'd volunteer. Never been employed as a programmer but I'm curious to know if anyone would hire me, and if so what kind of employer would that be.

Sure if you want we could have a call. Just email me to setup.

Re: Ask HN: I think I'm good at quickly identifying dev talent. How to prove it?

#17

Post by slidese »

Most of the comments I've read here assumes these two things are equal:

1. A good programmer 2. A good team member

They are not.

How to spot someone that fits in your team is much harder than to spot someone with talent.

Also, as someone pointed out you need to keep track of both hits and misses to assess your skill. I would guess it's easier to track someone if they're successful as opposed to someone who either is not successful or not successful publicly.

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