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How to Hire

blog.samaltman.com

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61–70 of 82 posts

Re: How to Hire

#61

Post by bambax »

tptacek wrote: post #25

So much interesting stuff here. For the past couple years, this has been most of my (non-billable) role at Matasano, and we've gotten steadily better at this stuff. So, my thoughts: ›››››› Spend more time ›››››› Have a mission ›››››› Always be recruiting These three are of a kind for me. I recommend that you think about hiring the way Patrick McKenzie things about conversion optimization: as a form of marketing that…

> Get your hands dirty (...) the 37signals motto was "don't hire until you've done the job yourself"

Maybe you can hire people this way, for jobs you're already familiar with, or for very low qualification jobs (janitor, maybe, although there are probably tricks of the trade that are non-obvious, even to a "smart"(!) person).

But if you were trained as, say, a programmer, how do you implement this advice to hire a doctor? A lawyer? A typeface designer? A rocket scientist (SpaceX)?

Re: How to Hire

#62

Post by theorique »

sgustard wrote: post #48
tptacek wrote: post #25

So much interesting stuff here. For the past couple years, this has been most of my (non-billable) role at Matasano, and we've gotten steadily better at this stuff. So, my thoughts: ›››››› Spend more time ›››››› Have a mission ›››››› Always be recruiting These three are of a kind for me. I recommend that you think about hiring the way Patrick McKenzie things about conversion optimization: as a form of marketing that…

Regarding the "hang out" test. Imagine you're a person who only likes to hang out with certain people, namely people already somewhat like you, by way of gender, race, age range, grew up like you in the USA watching sports and 80s sitcoms, and so on. Now your hiring process is probably not only unfair but illegal. But your company will act as a great echo chamber to reinforce your own preconceptions, so you have that…

Certainly if a person is not willing to have his assumptions challenged, then the "hang out" test will tend to attract and replicate more of the same. But it's still an important question for reducing conflict and confusion in hard-working teams who will be spending a lot of time together.

The "hang out" test (or "Sunday test" or "airport test") has its imperfections, certainly. I'm wondering, what would be a better assessment of cultural fit?

Re: How to Hire

#63

Post by taude »

Can startups stop thinking that giving me some meager equity of a company that would be lucky to have a 10 million exit is worth paying me some -XYZ% of my market value? Especially when there's so many companies fishing in the limited talent sea?

It might also be a Boston thing, but I've seen some companies in the startup scene here trying to offer like 60K for senior-level Python developers and such....

Re: How to Hire

#64

Post by kfk »

People that have a great job and have done great projects will ask you for more and can easily leave you if they get bored. I think a great recruiter is someone that gives a chance to people that show other signs of "success" besides pure measurable performance. Especially, I think you are better off sometimes hiring people willing to learn and adapt.

Of course, it is easy hiring the 1% when they are already in the 1%. Much more difficult, and much more valuable, is hiring them when they are in the average bucket or they are not even there yet (i.e. people looking to move into programming).

Re: How to Hire

#65

Post by general_failure »

larrys wrote: post #31
tom_b wrote: post #5

“Experienced” people often have higher personal burn rates and sometimes you’ll need to pay them more, but remember that great companies are not usually created by experienced people (with the exception of a few roles where it really matters a lot.) Scary statement for me to read. I'm getting older and worry that the above thinking will eventually cut off cool and even just new opportunities for me. Also hard to audi…

"but remember that great companies are not usually created by experienced people" What he is saying is that startup shot in the dark companies are not created by experienced people I am guessing. But then again from what I can tell the one company that the author created essentially failed. Now his job is to invest and give advice to others. Anyone who thinks experience doesn't matter in the real world has (for lack…

That logic is silly. How about tennis and football coaches? Were they stars themselves? And the gazillion motivational book authors?

As they say, people who can't do, teach. And there's nothing wrong in teaching.

Re: How to Hire

#66

Post by tptacek »

bambax wrote: post #61
tptacek wrote: post #25

So much interesting stuff here. For the past couple years, this has been most of my (non-billable) role at Matasano, and we've gotten steadily better at this stuff. So, my thoughts: ›››››› Spend more time ›››››› Have a mission ›››››› Always be recruiting These three are of a kind for me. I recommend that you think about hiring the way Patrick McKenzie things about conversion optimization: as a form of marketing that…

> Get your hands dirty (...) the 37signals motto was "don't hire until you've done the job yourself" Maybe you can hire people this way, for jobs you're already familiar with, or for very low qualification jobs (janitor, maybe, although there are probably tricks of the trade that are non-obvious, even to a "smart"(!) person). But if you were trained as, say, a programmer, how do you implement this advice to hire a do…

You're stretching the word "hire".

Re: How to Hire

#67

Post by tptacek »

theorique wrote: post #62
sgustard wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regarding the "hang out" test. Imagine you're a person who only likes to hang out with certain people, namely people already somewhat like you, by way of gender, race, age range, grew up like you in the USA watching sports and 80s sitcoms, and so on. Now your hiring process is probably not only unfair but illegal. But your company will act as a great echo chamber to reinforce your own preconceptions, so you have that…

Certainly if a person is not willing to have his assumptions challenged, then the "hang out" test will tend to attract and replicate more of the same. But it's still an important question for reducing conflict and confusion in hard-working teams who will be spending a lot of time together. The "hang out" test (or "Sunday test" or "airport test") has its imperfections, certainly. I'm wondering, what would be a better…

Not assessing cultural fit in that sense at all.

Re: How to Hire

#68

Post by farmdawgnation »

ohazi wrote: post #42
farmdawgnation wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry, but speaking as a software engineer who does have a bit of talent, I disagree with you in saying that this type of audition exercise is below me. We complain and complain and complain as an industry about how the interview process that The Big Boys still use (which is essentially just a pop quiz of vocabulary terms at its core) is broken. Why is this not a better alternative? You wouldn't pitch this as "hey, I…

> I disagree with you in saying that this type of audition exercise is below me. > We complain [...] is broken. Why is this not a better alternative? It's not a better alternative because many of the best developers in Silicon Valley don't disagree with me. There are many reasons for this -- not everyone is a carefree recent college grad, and many people can't afford the luxury of taking the time off to do something…

> They may be more risk averse than someone younger with fewer obligations, for many of the same reasons outlined above.

Arguably, if they're risk averse they have no business in the startup game. But that's neither here nor there.

I see where you're coming from. I guess when I read it I understood it as "Hey, let's get together for an evening an work on something - I'll even pay you with it if it's for our company" type thing, which sounds entirely reasonable. Then again, taking a PTO day to do a trial day of work has a really minimal level of risk to it.

I think there's a happy medium between where the industry is now and the line you're unhappy with crossing. Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. :)

Re: How to Hire

#69

Post by theorique »

tptacek wrote: post #67
theorique wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Certainly if a person is not willing to have his assumptions challenged, then the "hang out" test will tend to attract and replicate more of the same. But it's still an important question for reducing conflict and confusion in hard-working teams who will be spending a lot of time together. The "hang out" test (or "Sunday test" or "airport test") has its imperfections, certainly. I'm wondering, what would be a better…

Not assessing cultural fit in that sense at all.

But what co-workers will I drink beers with until midnight after work then?! ;)

Re: How to Hire

#70

Post by nahname »

tom_b wrote: post #5

“Experienced” people often have higher personal burn rates and sometimes you’ll need to pay them more, but remember that great companies are not usually created by experienced people (with the exception of a few roles where it really matters a lot.) Scary statement for me to read. I'm getting older and worry that the above thinking will eventually cut off cool and even just new opportunities for me. Also hard to audi…

>"...remember that great companies are not usually created by experienced people..."

I was reading a post on quora about ageism that is quite relevant. http://www.quora.com/Silicon-Valley/What-do-people-in-Silico...

TLDR: Jimmy Wales 35 when he started wikipedia

Mark Pincus was 41 when he started Zynga

Reid Hoffman was 36 when he founded Linkedin

Marc Benioff was 35 when he started Salesforce

Robert Noyce started Intel at 41 with a 39 year old Gordon Moore

Irwin Jacobs was 52 and Andrew Viterbi was 50 when they founded Qualcomm

Pradeep Sindhu was 42 when he founded Juniper Networks

Michael Arrington started TechCrunch when he was 35

+ many more

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