Teamwork makes the dream work. High energy. Low BMI. Eager to solve problems. Fast learners.
Give me 10 of those and you can kiss anyone goodbye.
Ask HN: What do you look for in your first 10 hires?
21–30 of 45 posts
Re: Ask HN: What do you look for in your first 10 hires?
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Re: Ask HN: What do you look for in your first 10 hires?
#23Something that is not in the 1M+ people studying for interviews and throwing pieces of paper (CVs, cover letters, degrees) at the job application: A verifiable track record beyond the CV, that is extremely hard to fake with valuable experience that you did not know you needed. As I said before at least 2 of the following: 1. Open source contributions to high-profile / major repositories (with code-review in the open…
If someone has side-projects with paying customers, why would they be seeking employment ?
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Re: Ask HN: What do you look for in your first 10 hires?
#24In such a small team you will have to wear a lot of hats. You will be constantly making important decisions and setting your own priorities with very little guidance. You will have to dig into areas you're not prepared for because there's no one more specialized to do it. Independence (with practicality! not idealism) is very important.
Re: Ask HN: What do you look for in your first 10 hires?
#25[dead]
Re: Ask HN: What do you look for in your first 10 hires?
#26Something that is not in the 1M+ people studying for interviews and throwing pieces of paper (CVs, cover letters, degrees) at the job application: A verifiable track record beyond the CV, that is extremely hard to fake with valuable experience that you did not know you needed. As I said before at least 2 of the following: 1. Open source contributions to high-profile / major repositories (with code-review in the open…
This is funny, because these exact same things were great filters to eliminate BS candidates. It's always the ones who talk a big game who tend to be the worst when the tire meets the road.
Some of the absolute best candidates were always the ones with a github that hadn't seen a commit in half a decade, nary a presentation or conference mentioned in their cv. This was true at two different FAANGs and a couple of other FAANG-adjacent companies.
Re: Ask HN: What do you look for in your first 10 hires?
#27First you probably need some silent, persistent and occasionally cantankerous folks that can grudgingly work on annoying boring problems all night just because they want to solve it no matter what. If you have a few of those, you really have to start looking for more social people that can glue the herd of cats together so all noses point the same way. My experience has been that solving a very technical problem and…
> First you probably need some silent, persistent and occasionally cantankerous folks that can grudgingly work on annoying boring problems all night just because
So you want people who are willing to be overworked and underpaid with the statistically worthless equity?
What next? You also want people who after they do a 996 work schedule to also have enough “passion” to work on open source projects during their free time?
I find this attitude and expectation disgusting.
Re: Ask HN: What do you look for in your first 10 hires?
#28Specifically what i used to check, whether candidate also motivated with mission that I have. If its not motivate them then there is a cultural fit problem and might not good fit for early days.
Unless you are saving starving children in Africa, no one cares about your mission. Any interviewee with any type of social skills knows how to pretend and feed you the BS like they are excited about the mission.
You are the founder but even for you once you take outside funding, your “passion” is irrelevant, your investors only care about the “exit” and if you do get acquired, two weeks later you will more than likely have a blog post on your website about “Our Amazing Journey” announcing the sunsetting of your product.
It is naive for anyone to go into any company and treat it as any more than a trade for money for labor.
Re: Ask HN: What do you look for in your first 10 hires?
#29Something that is not in the 1M+ people studying for interviews and throwing pieces of paper (CVs, cover letters, degrees) at the job application: A verifiable track record beyond the CV, that is extremely hard to fake with valuable experience that you did not know you needed. As I said before at least 2 of the following: 1. Open source contributions to high-profile / major repositories (with code-review in the open…
> Open source contributions to high-profile / major repositories (with code-review in the open with core maintainers). No hello world / demo projects.
And surgeons should also have a track record where they can talk about how they do open heart surgery during their free time at home…
Re: Ask HN: What do you look for in your first 10 hires?
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
Basically no one who has a life outside of work, or a household to upkeep or a family to take care of. Your criteria heavily biases towards very performative and obvious signs of hard work in a commercial setting, completely oblivious to hard work and character outside of it.
> Your criteria heavily biases towards very performative and obvious signs of hard work in a commercial setting, completely oblivious to hard work and character outside of it. Hiring people based on knowing what should be built, how to build and especially knowing how to make the business money is not performative. I'd rather optimizing the hiring process for builders instead of rest-and-vest day-care slackers or lee…
You mean you don’t want to hire someone who does 40-45 hours a week and closes their computer and has a life outside of pecking on a keyboard?