3 Things I’ve Learned To Recruit Great Hackers

9 Apr
2010

1) “try before you buy” –> enlist contractors that aren’t tied to agencies so you can retain the option to hire full time.

2) “lots of coffees” –> do the leg work of meeting interesting people even if they aren’t looking. Nothing beats getting the word out and generating excitement. Great people know each other, and they talk.

3) “hyper focus on one school” –> don’t just show up at the annual career fair at 5 schools. Go DEEP on one. Give informal presentations and brown bags, show up to the affiliate dinners, drop in to student open houses. Hold “meet ups” after recruiting fairs and invite the best students. It’s better to make a name for your company at one school than to be passively involved at 5 schools.

I apologize for the quick post…was testing out WordPress on my iPad and didn’t expect this to get so much uptake via Hacker News.   For a longer post related to hiring, see Hire the Do-It-All Office Admin.

Like this post? Please click retweet »

Related posts:

  1. Crucial first hire: the "do-it-all office admin"
  2. 5 Tips for Conducting Successful Board Meetings
  3. Unexpected Startup Lesson #1: Quitting the day job
  4. Does Seattle shun startup failure?
  5. How much traffic do you get from being on the front page of Hacker News?
  • Joe, you always have solid hiring advice. Thanks for sharing your experiences.
  • hoffmanc707
    don't ever apologize for a short post
  • Touché!
  • hoffmanc707
    never apologize for short posts
  • John Doe
    "Give informal presentations and brown bags, show up to the affiliate dinners, drop in to student open houses. Hold “meet ups” after recruiting fairs and invite the best students."
    And conduct interviews instead of directing students to apply online. Too much behavior like that killed student attendance at the career fairs here.
  • Good point. We take little white boards to career fairs and ask coding questions on the spot. Also, we always follow the career fair up with a same-day informal private event, which serves as a 2-way "fit" conversation. Thus, we're completing a pretty solid screen at the career fair itself.
  • User
    Obviously "a top-40 consumer internet site. " means number 40. So why not cut through the bullshit and write the 40th biggest consumer site?
  • Just borrowing from Casey Kasem. Maybe its old school...
  • Voila
    > don’t just who up at the annual career fair at 5 schools

    Spellcheck is necessary but not sufficient.
blog comments powered by Disqus
top