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I find it interesting that the OP seems to think that being a lead developer and being a CTO are the same.
I really wish someone would post one of these related to students still in school (we need to work too). Or is the field so competitive the posts would make no difference?
Getting hired is easy, the tough part is working on your own stuff. For me the cycle is usually like this: 1. Make a cool pet project 2. Show it to The Internet 3. Get a little exposure, feel awesome, decide this project is going somewhere and you'll work on it for months on end because it's just that awesome 4. Freelancing offers[1] start raining in 5. Realize you actually don't have any money, are a student and don…
Eh, you're doing better than I am. In general I don't make it past step one.
If some decent looking startup publishes a new API, jump on that. If your app is any good, they'll be excited to try it and help you promote it.
This is how I was extended an offer for good freelance work recently.
There’s just no real barometer – it’s not like being a Doctor or a Lawyer where you can check the applicant’s college, GPA, and Bar Score (is that a thing?) and know the person is proficient.
If you're hiring technical staff and you clearly understand what you need these people to do on a daily basis and why you need them to do it then there is absolutely no excuse for not having even a basic set of minimum technical criteria.
If you don't clearly understand what you need them to do on a day to day basis then I think you may need to re-assess why you need them, or it's possible that someone else in the business should be handling the first stage of this hiring process.
Now to your 6 key points
1. Don't send a resume - That's a huge statement and your supporting points are severely lacking in elaboration. listing all the different languages you know is really only interesting to you and your peers Refer to my first point above.
2. Keep an updated blog - Sure. I can see this. What about the fantastic developers who don't have sufficient time to blog? Some of the best developers I know have a blog, most of the best developers I know don't.
3. Link to your previous work - Comfortably the best piece of advice in the entire article and I can't support this advice enough. I was recently looking for an iOS developer and the amount of CV's I received from people claiming to have amazing apps published in the app store yet no links to said app was just baffling.
4. If you’re not from the US (or the country you are applying for a job in), let me know what that means - Sorry but if you're my employer, the onus is upon you to be familiar with international hiring policies.
5. Show you’re interested in the product, and the process - if you could show that you’re interested in the business and aren’t going to leave when the next startup comes calling, that’s great That's one of the many reasons to interview someone. It's an opportunity to find out how much they truly know about you and your company. If you think you can derive this from an initial application, then again, I feel you are misguided.
6. Have a good answer for why you’re leaving your current job - This won’t be in the initial email, but is important, so I had to include it This should be in the initial email. This is always one of the first questions I ask prior to interviewing someone. If they tell me the reason they want out is because they are bored, then the obvious next question is 'why do you find it boring'.
This article should be titled How to make life easier for a non-technical hiring manager as I can almost guarantee your approach will contradict the thought process of most decision makers within the tech start-up community as opposed to getting a job offer from 'every company they apply to'.
Sorry to be so scathing as there are some useful pieces of info in your article however the title angered me.
Seems like a nice way to kick off an agenda with a bit of fear mongering but its rather the non-technical founders that are exploding in size. On top of it the actual thing that developers are catching on to is that it doesn't make any sense in this environment to become a CTO of a very small startup when you can just start your own and have proper equity.
Generally agree with this. Whenever I hear about people not getting job offers, there is mention somewhere in there about sending resumes. I have never sent a resume to get a job or a gig, however I do sometimes attach the PDF output of my LinkedIn profile which comes out in resume format. Other than being an attachment, I only mention it as a one-liner. Not sending resumes is probably not intuitive since that's what…
A. Programming languages do matter. Talking to other programmers, a good way to find people who actually love programming is to ask people what languages they use. People who have experimented with haskell or clojure are usually people who love programming more. PG has a good essay on why it makes sense to start a startup based around an esoteric language. I know for a fact that Jane Street uses their heavy reliance on ocaml as a recruiting tool. Your life will be much, much easier if you can hire better programmers. Hence, the startups with the really good engineers will want to know what programming languages you know. So yes, I agree that resumes are not that interesting, but also, programming languages are useful indicators for certain kinds of employers. The recruitee's github should reflect this. [1]
B. Sending links to apps or websites is all well and good, but as another commenter said, for some startups, it is basically useless. If you are trying to be the CTO of a company like 10gen (their CTO is a co-founder, but bear with me) you will want to know about their systems skill, not how pretty they can make a website. Backend talent, or understanding of algorithms is something you absolutely cannot get from this.
So at startups where backend technical skill is not highly valued, and the founder is very non-technical, this might be useful. If you are trying to work at a Palantir or a DropBox, you should probably ignore this advice, although admittedly, both are much further along than this guy is thinking of.
"You won’t be the only developer after that job. Second, it won’t be like this forever. Supply and demand are out of whack, and people are catching on and catching up" Seems like a nice way to kick off an agenda with a bit of fear mongering but its rather the non-technical founders that are exploding in size. On top of it the actual thing that developers are catching on to is that it doesn't make any sense in this en…
almost invariably, not at all. Even though it is easy to find coders who have a legitimate claim to having 5-10 projects they did by themselves. This would mean they have "100% equity" in all of them. Then again, the 10 projects might have 30 active users between them.
Meanwhile, the non-technical founder in question has already outsourced a MVP, which is a product, gotten enough buzz for you to be reading their blog posts on hn, and you can join something that - unlike your own last ten projects - actually has a chance to make a great deal of sales in a real market. Whereas, in actual reality, if you took the idea and coded it up yourself without any further input than the concept pitch from the non-technical cofounder, it would go nowhere - just like your last ten projects.
Just saying... I would trade 5% of a company that raises a round at.. just about any amount, over 100% of ten 'companies' that never incorporate and have donation buttons which make a grand total of $76 over the same period of time.
It is easy to discount what the non-technical founder - or in this case owner - brings to the table. I wouldn't be quite so quick to do so.
Generally agree with this. Whenever I hear about people not getting job offers, there is mention somewhere in there about sending resumes. I have never sent a resume to get a job or a gig, however I do sometimes attach the PDF output of my LinkedIn profile which comes out in resume format. Other than being an attachment, I only mention it as a one-liner. Not sending resumes is probably not intuitive since that's what…
How is it possible that you've never gotten a job from sending a resume? I'm generally curious how that's possible, unless you're doing all freelance work?
Make sure that you are doing more than just sending out resumes. Get your name out there by being visible in places where employers might be looking for developers. Use Twitter, LinkedIn, create a tech blog and generally help people out. The more your name is out there, the greater your "luck surface area."
Freelancing is also a great way to land a job for a lot of reasons. When you are looking for a job, you have to sell yourself to the employer. With freelancing, you can get a lot of practice with selling and generally you will get more immediate feedback for your efforts because hiring a freelancer is far less risk / commitment than hiring a full time developer. Freelancing is also good for possibly meeting your next employer, if you are a great fit, then your freelance gig might turn into a full time position. Freelancing is also good for building up experience.