Read the article "Interview guerrilla" from Joel: https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2006/10/25/the-guerrilla-guid....
The best advice about recruiting new developers all this years was "hire people smart and get things done".
Ask HN: Tips for a new team lead who is hiring
21–30 of 61 posts
Re: Ask HN: Tips for a new team lead who is hiring
#22A few quick thoughts:
1. Make sure that your focus is aligned with the expectations of the management. You are probably right that the team needs more members and that you should hire some, but it is quite possible that the management expects other short-term results (either in preference ot at least in addition to growing the team).
2. When hiring, there are two equally important areas you need to figure out about each candidate: a) their experience and skills in relation to the requirements of the role, and b) how well would they fit within the existing team. In your case b) might easier since there is only two of you, but make sure that you keep that in mind when interviewing.
3. When assessing the technical ability -- the a) in the above point -- keep in mind that your interviewers are at least at the same general skill level as the candidate; and ideally higher. It is very difficult for a junior to interview a mid-level candidate, and basically impossible for a senior one; the same patterns repeat on all higher levels. This also applies if an interview is of a similar level, but in a wrong area - a senior Java developer will not be able to interview a senior Python one, and vice versa.
Re: Ask HN: Tips for a new team lead who is hiring
#23Here’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!
Re: Ask HN: Tips for a new team lead who is hiring
#24Just remember, a junior is someone who has little work experience, NOT someone who isn't qualified. If you hire someone that knows the work but just needs experience you will find yourself working with someone who is engaged and enthusiastic. If you hire the latter you will spend all of your time holding their hand.
The problem is that it's pretty difficult to identify which of those a junior is while with a senior candidate you can easily talk about their work experience.
Re: Ask HN: Tips for a new team lead who is hiring
#25I've been interviewing software engineers for around 15 years. In total, I think I've interviewed around 600 people in a range of roles. My main advice is to listen to your gut instinct. Things that mildly annoy or worry you in the interview will probably come to dominate your working relationship with them. Don't assume you can fix someone's flaws after they join. Get other people to give their gut instinct too, and…
My 'agent' found me the perfect job, so I wouldn't avoid recruitment consultant.
But you have to ask the question : how long have you worked with him/her (the first job I landed with her was not a good fit).
Re: Ask HN: Tips for a new team lead who is hiring
#26Don't underestimate how much work a junior causes so it's a valid risk. Most importantly, hire for someone you like on personal level and could go on for a drink. One of my past managers said i shouldn't have to be "friends" with any of my reports and only look for their output qualities. I disagree with this. Having a good connection with your teammates will make your life as a manager so much easier and if you can…
I disagree about the being friends - its important to get along - but you dont need to be friends
I also think you risk excluding people from hiring who would make great hires because they dont fit into your view of "friend", and there are plenty people who cant do things like go for work drinks due to family commitments, being carers and just want to get the job done
Re: Ask HN: Tips for a new team lead who is hiring
#27Just remember, a junior is someone who has little work experience, NOT someone who isn't qualified. If you hire someone that knows the work but just needs experience you will find yourself working with someone who is engaged and enthusiastic. If you hire the latter you will spend all of your time holding their hand.
Definition of "junior" missing.
A qualified junior is someone who can take a well-specified, narrowly-scoped, low-risk task and execute it in a reasonable, not record-breaking, amount of time. They fundamentally need someone to hold their hand, if only to ensure that the task is truly well-specified and narrowly-scoped.
If someone has any experience, and they're interviewing for junior roles, that should raise eyebrows. It's not an automatic disqualification - shit happens, people find themselves working for abusive bosses, whatever - but having any experience whatsoever should come with it a lessening of hand-holding (and its bureaucratic expressions in workflow).
Re: Ask HN: Tips for a new team lead who is hiring
#28I'll put just one tip here: a 'maybe' is a 'no'.
In my experience most bad hires that don't work out in the end were a 'strong maybe' and for whatever reason I convinced myself to still go ahead. One common reason is hiring fatigue, when you interviewed a lot of people and just want to close the position.
If it's a 'maybe', identify why it's a 'maybe', and schedule an additional round where you get signal on those specific topics. If at the end it's still a 'maybe', then it's a 'no'. Doing an additional round may suck, but it's less of a suck (for both sides) than firing the person after they left their previous job, started working, completed onboarding, and it's their last week of probation in your team.
Good luck!
Re: Ask HN: Tips for a new team lead who is hiring
#29I've been interviewing software engineers for around 15 years. In total, I think I've interviewed around 600 people in a range of roles. My main advice is to listen to your gut instinct. Things that mildly annoy or worry you in the interview will probably come to dominate your working relationship with them. Don't assume you can fix someone's flaws after they join. Get other people to give their gut instinct too, and…
My 'agent' found me the perfect job, so I wouldn't avoid recruitment consultant. But you have to ask the question : how long have you worked with him/her (the first job I landed with her was not a good fit).
I've also had reasonably good experience with agents. but it's important to understand their position. potential employer != recruiting agent
Re: Ask HN: Tips for a new team lead who is hiring
#30Personally, I’d begin from figuring out company strategy and how the team will deliver on it and what KPIs I’d use to measure the team’s output. I’d then map out what are the strengths and weaknesses of the team including skills gaps. This will include things like seniority, ability to deliver at an individual level. Since there’s only one team member so far, this would be more of a plan/roadmap of the team you’d like to grow into.
Junior members are great at knowledgeable tasks but may lack real-world experience to understand tooling, deliver quality work and put something into production (not always - there are exceptions of course). Since you’re in R&D, this may not be a huge factor/risk so junior engineers may be a good fit.
I’d be happy to discuss further over a call if you’d like. Happy to share my experience growing teams from 1 to 200.