Things to notice when hiring the first engineers at startup

Harj Taggar , a former partner of venture capital Y combinator and founded Triplebyte , a job hunting support site for engineers, is writing a blog "How to hire the first engineer".

How to Hire Your First Engineer
https://blog.ycombinator.com/how-to-hire-your-first-engineer/

When hiring the first engineer at startup, traditional methods such as "hire a recruiter at first" can hardly pass. In addition, the founders are already surrounded by bugs and customers' needs to deal with, and we have not secured the time we need to hire new people. And even if we can do our time, recruitment activities do not release dopamine so much, so it seems like a wasteful effort.

Taggar says, "To clarify what you are really seeking" the first thing you should do in hiring activities. For this, it is recommended that you define the ideal image of the person you want to hire, and this ideal image includes elements that are not technical, such as technological elements as well as whether you would like to work together. Then score the interviewed engineers for each element and think about adoption if the strengths exceed the disadvantages.

Do not miss having trade-offs of time and quality, time and wage for adoption. If you compromise quality you can hire more quickly and you can change job right now by paying higher wages.

With this in mind, Harj Taggar's recommended strategy is as follows. It is arranged in the order recommended from the top.

◆ People Personnel <br> When it comes to the early stages of startup, only this individual's personal network has a different dimension from other things. It is because the element "how much fun working together" can be an element that separates life and death while the company is small. For the recruitment activities using this network, the following procedure is recommended.

1. We will create a list of good engineers out of acquaintances. Following SNS such as Facebook, I remember my memory.
2. Invite me to talk about the startup.
3. Can you join us? I will ask.
4. Whichever reply you ask, "Who would you want to invite others if you were participating?"
5. I will introduce people named after.
6. Repeat steps 2-5.
7. Repeat 1-6 forever.

◆ Use market place
Using a many-to-many marketplace like Triplebyte or Hired is superior in that it allows you to have quick access to skilled engineers. But the difficulty is that these engineers often want to go to companies that already have an engineering team.

Increase Exposure - Post blogs or open algorithmic contests to attract high-level engineers' interests. If you can not draw attention, you will lose a lot of time.

Attack to individual engineers
We send messages directly to individual engineers on platforms such as Github and LinkedIn. Since it will not be replied in most cases, it will be a fight against perseverance. According to Harj Taggar's point of view, "It will take six months to realize employment in reality."

◆ Using recruiters Although it is not recommended to use a recruiter for hiring the first engineer, by hiring a recruiter, instead of doing the above "send message to individual engineers" work instead It is also possible to receive it. The reply rate is higher when the founder sends a message, but recruiters send more messages a day.

◆ Faces the event

Although it can not be said unequivocally because the effect varies depending on the type of event and type of person, big events sponsored by a company are basically waste of time. Small informal events dealing with difficult technology can work out well. When taking this strategy, it is desirable that the person who appears to the event is at least one of "technicians and engineers respected by other engineers" or "highly charismatic character".

◆ Agencies - Excellent engineers do not work with agents. Unless it was very lucky, it is often a waste of money.

Throughout, it is an incredibly difficult job to hire the first engineer. Since candidates are thinking differently from investors, Taggar says that it seems good to think about refining the message along with it.