Ask HN: Best place for a startup to hire quality coders

7 points by us 15 years ago | 9 comments

For some background info...

1. I've tried meeting people at local networking events of all kinds (technical events/meetups, cofounder events, conferences, hacking events, VC and fundraising events, etc etc etc..) and have rarely come across a developer that doesn't already have an idea of their own that they are working on or a startup they are working for that they are already passionate about. Those that are available haven't really been a fit.

2. Going through my network of friends have been tough. Everyone is looking to hire people so they're all looking to hire people themselves. If they do have friends who are available for recommendation, these guys are either happy where they are or if they do leave, would want to do their own thing.

3. Listing jobs on craigslist and job boards for the most part have returns lots of resumes but few that really meet the requirements (I personally feel not many coders are as good as they think they are or they lack chemistry in other areas beyond their coding ability).

I've talked to a lot of people lately and it seems everyone is having a hard time finding quality talent to hire. For those that have had great successes in hiring talent, what worked best for you?

PS I have a solid idea, traction, technical myself, and profitability so those things are not an issue in attracting talent. It's finding the right fit that I'm struggling with. I am located in the bay area and prefer to work with people locally (personal preference).

kirpekar 15 years ago |

If you ignore subtle nuances (idea, team, fit, equity, blah, blah), hiring is mostly about the money.

Pay $0 --> Nobody will work for you.

Pay $60k --> OK few people interested

Pay $200k --> Suddenly a lot of devs want to give up their idea and work for you.

Pay $1M --> Small, mid-size CTOs

Pay $10B --> Steve Jobs?

The things you mentioned "solid idea, traction, technical myself, and profitability" are about 1% of the deal. 99% is what the employee gets in his or her first paycheck.

(This has been my personal experience, so far. I'm in the Bay Area too)

us 15 years ago | |

LOL I don't think you could get Steve Jobs to leave Apple even if you offered $10T much less $10B but I kid.

On a more serious note, I agree a large part is due to how much you're willing to pay. But even then, and don't get me wrong, there are lots of applicants. The problem isn't finding people willing to go for the job or paying out market rate. It's finding people that are a fit. As they say, good talent almost never look for a job. And that's where the issue comes in...

momo321 15 years ago |

As a developer who recently turned down the chance to work for less money for a share of someone elses idea, but who works for someone else at the moment and doesn't like it and would rather work on my own ideas, I have a solution that would work for me - part time.

Half the time of a good developer advances your project a lot further than the full time of no developer, and the entrepreneurial developer gets paid enough to bootstrap their own idea. Everyone is a winner!

bo_Olean 15 years ago |

My two cents.

When you are searching for quality developers, we assume that you are a quality coder yourself, the developer you hire would sure grasp these things from you and your work environment quickly - if he/she is passionate enough to convince you that you should hire him/her for the job.

As far as i believe quality coding is achieved over time, this is a ongoing learning process. Those who mastered this art are not available - they already have figured their own way to go along. If you went on searching for coders and "quality coder" is your first priority, most probably all of your 3 points will always restrict you from hiring coders and there's where the paycheck flow as @kirpekar outlined applies. Whoever you hire, you as a manager should trust your developer in term of quality and give them a environment to grow not in terms of performance only but in terms of quality coding too.

I don't think i am a quality coder, manager, i am myself learning each days from discussion like this. It cost me 1 month (of my business) to build self learning and growing charisma in a coder i hired recently, he asks me only few question in a while these days - "i solved it, how would you have done this ?" we then discuss for improvements.

Try searching for basic qualities that matters to you and your work ethos and focus on skill set that you are searching for rather than "quality coder", this will ease hiring decisions i think.

craigkerstiens 15 years ago |

If you're in the bay area finding talent is going to be especially hard, not because it's not here, but its already in such demand. The jobs area of stackoverflow and github could be great bets for finding people. As these are newer resources there may be not quite as many companies taking advantage yet.

Networking events while a slow path is a good one to take. It also makes the interpersonal parts of evaluating someone much easier than through the formal interview process.

The final thing, is that even though there is profitability salary compensation will be a factor for talented employees. If you're looking to give up a bulk of equity then you're looking more at a co-founder than employee and should just set expectations accordingly.

transmit101 15 years ago |

If you're really going to a lot of developer events, and rinsing your network to its fullest extent then I'd suggest keep trying. Assuming you're talking about hiring developers for market rate, then you should have success eventually.

You could try to ask friends as to whether anything in your proposition is putting off potential hires.

Finally, personally I wouldn't bother with Craigslist, but you could try the job/career functionality on both Github and Stackoverflow.com.

Hope that helps

SingAlong 15 years ago |

Tried posting here? :) Just thought I could contact you but I didn't find your email in your HN profile.

If you are hiring, I'm one of those on the lookout for something interesting to work on.

pdelgallego 15 years ago |

Have you tried HN who's hiring threads?

SoWink 15 years ago |

Craiglist should be your cheapest and most sure fire bet.