Ask HN: Hiring managers, what tech skills will you be hiring for in 2017? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Hiring managers, what tech skills will you be hiring for in 2017?

#21

Post by beachstartup » Tue, Dec 13, 2016, 2:58 AM UTC

throwaway95837 wrote: post #18

I am 100% owner of an internet company making 7 figure profits annually. I am extremely secretive of my business, almost to the point that some would consider a pathology. However, I will divulge my hiring strategy, because even if everyone uses my method, there will still be many employees for me to choose from. I look to hire people who just need a job. People who are qualified, but not overly qualified. People I k…

here, i'll paraphrase for you, since i'm a "real world" hiring manager as well, with a business that i keep anonymous/secretive on hn.

"a reliable person who can actually, really, like, totally for real drive a problem to resolution and then go spend time with family. if there's an emergency, they pick up their phone and try to help."

this is a small percentage of the population, but big enough. it's why we (based in california) have a 75% remote workforce. hint: we still pay california $. that's how you retain talent. everyone on my team lives in huge houses and i live in an apartment.

you'd (well maybe not you, but you know what i mean) be surprised at the number of super-intelligent ("smart") people who can't solve problems when the pressure is on.

Re: Ask HN: Hiring managers, what tech skills will you be hiring for in 2017?

#22

Post by tossaway1 » Tue, Dec 13, 2016, 3:02 AM UTC

throwaway95837 wrote: post #18

I am 100% owner of an internet company making 7 figure profits annually. I am extremely secretive of my business, almost to the point that some would consider a pathology. However, I will divulge my hiring strategy, because even if everyone uses my method, there will still be many employees for me to choose from. I look to hire people who just need a job. People who are qualified, but not overly qualified. People I k…

The question was what tech skills will you be hiring for and your answer was essentially I just want a plodder who's not overly smart and won't question my authority. Sound about right?

Re: Ask HN: Hiring managers, what tech skills will you be hiring for in 2017?

#23

Post by troygoode » Tue, Dec 13, 2016, 3:02 AM UTC

dothebartman wrote: post #8

troygoode wrote: post #3

We're an Enterprise B2B SaaS company headquartered in San Francisco. Our stack is node.js/React/Postgres so knowing any/all of those is a bonus, but we don't specifically target those skills – we instead look for a diverse, intelligent set of engineers who have a strong technical background or a newer technical background but heavy experience in a non-programming field (mathematics, economics, architecture, teaching,…

I'm not looking for a job, but I appreciate the level of detail you put into your response. One of your statements caught my eye and I wanted to ask - Do you really consider mathematics to be a non-technical field? I'm just curious to hear your point of view on this, nothing confrontational haha.

You're absolutely right to question that – ultimately what I meant there is "non-programming" rather than "non-technical" and have updated the original post to reflect that. Poor choice of words on my part!

Re: Ask HN: Hiring managers, what tech skills will you be hiring for in 2017?

#24

Post by sanswork » Tue, Dec 13, 2016, 3:02 AM UTC

I am looking to hiring a jr ruby or elixir developer in the next few months that doesn't mind cross training on the job. They will probably be remote since I live in a small surfing town half way up the Australian coast at the moment.

Since it's a jr role I'm looking more for evidence that they want to learn than examples of accomplishments.

Re: Ask HN: Hiring managers, what tech skills will you be hiring for in 2017?

#25

Post by alex-mohr » Tue, Dec 13, 2016, 3:05 AM UTC

I manage the Google Container Engine and Kubernetes team in Seattle (we have other sites in Mountain View and Warsaw).

Aside from the obvious interest in building container orchestration systems, I look for a passion to solve real user problems, not only building a piece of tech.

Bonus points for knowing about Docker or containers or clouds or Golang or security.

More points for meeting users where they are. And the most bonus points for leadership and initiative.

We're particularly looking for someone to lead and/or manage our software eng team building security features into Kubernetes and GKE.

Re: Ask HN: Hiring managers, what tech skills will you be hiring for in 2017?

#26

Post by foota » Tue, Dec 13, 2016, 3:06 AM UTC

iopuy wrote: post #13

hobonumber1 wrote: post #2

I work at SoundHound as a Senior Software Engineer, and take part in interviewing/hiring. Full-stack JavaScript engineers are still in very short supply. Lots of people claim to know JavaScript but many fall short when working across the stack. When I say full-stack, I mean being responsible for building and managing everything the front-end webserver (NodeJS), Database (Postgres/MySQL), and front-end (usually ReactJ…

We are also hurting for front-end javascript engineers and have found the exact same thing. People put javascript on their resume because they recognize the loops and other syntax from their cs classes but in reality know almost nothing about it.

Curious, what kind of things are you looking for?

Re: Ask HN: Hiring managers, what tech skills will you be hiring for in 2017?

#27

Post by throwaway95837 » Tue, Dec 13, 2016, 3:06 AM UTC

tossaway1 wrote: post #22

throwaway95837 wrote: post #18

I am 100% owner of an internet company making 7 figure profits annually. I am extremely secretive of my business, almost to the point that some would consider a pathology. However, I will divulge my hiring strategy, because even if everyone uses my method, there will still be many employees for me to choose from. I look to hire people who just need a job. People who are qualified, but not overly qualified. People I k…

The question was what tech skills will you be hiring for and your answer was essentially I just want a plodder who's not overly smart and won't question my authority. Sound about right?

Tech skills are only one dimension of a multidimensional process that employers like me use to make decisions. I am here to offer contrarian advice that might be helpful to someone early in his career who might be a great programmer but may also be dismayed because he thinks the only path to a successful tech career is devoting your life to your job or going to an ivy league school and I am here to say that is not the case.

Re: Ask HN: Hiring managers, what tech skills will you be hiring for in 2017?

#28

Post by antisthenes » Tue, Dec 13, 2016, 3:08 AM UTC

throwaway95837 wrote: post #18

I am 100% owner of an internet company making 7 figure profits annually. I am extremely secretive of my business, almost to the point that some would consider a pathology. However, I will divulge my hiring strategy, because even if everyone uses my method, there will still be many employees for me to choose from. I look to hire people who just need a job. People who are qualified, but not overly qualified. People I k…

Where are you based? Sounds like the type of company I would like to work for, because you figured out the almost lost art of vis-à-vis loyalty.

Re: Ask HN: Hiring managers, what tech skills will you be hiring for in 2017?

#29

Post by jasonmacdee » Tue, Dec 13, 2016, 3:08 AM UTC

At JDA our hiring will vary, but my division in Store Operations needs people with SaaS experience, especially with GCP. Angular, REST, DDD, and agile thinking are a bonus. But also need C#, ASP.NET, Web API, and ExtJS for other teams. Have a few spots with strong math skills too, doing complicated forecasting and scheduling work alongside PhDs.

Interviews have practicals where you work on problems you'll see regularly with skills we expect you to have (like writing code, debugging, and task breakdown). Good communication, pairing skills, quick learning, and taking responsibility for your circumstances stand out.

https://jda.com/careers

Re: Ask HN: Hiring managers, what tech skills will you be hiring for in 2017?

#30

Post by blueatlas » Tue, Dec 13, 2016, 3:09 AM UTC

tossaway1 wrote: post #22

throwaway95837 wrote: post #18

I am 100% owner of an internet company making 7 figure profits annually. I am extremely secretive of my business, almost to the point that some would consider a pathology. However, I will divulge my hiring strategy, because even if everyone uses my method, there will still be many employees for me to choose from. I look to hire people who just need a job. People who are qualified, but not overly qualified. People I k…

The question was what tech skills will you be hiring for and your answer was essentially I just want a plodder who's not overly smart and won't question my authority. Sound about right?

I read it more as he doesn't really care as much about specific skills, and will hire for grit and some level of loyalty. He also doesn't seem to beat people over the head with their job.

I get this.