Ask HN: How do Startups Look for Employment Candidates? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How do Startups Look for Employment Candidates?

6 pointsiamdave1 comment

Hey there HN.

I went from a grunt-level help-desk employee, to team leader, to office support specialist, to IT Manager in about two years. Almost all of this came from resourcefulness in my field, making connections with larger companies and helping my parent company attract new business. Towards the middle of 2009, I struck out on my own and used my oversized wallet, full of business cards to my advantage.

I turned into a business consultant who specialized in candidate placement and HR assistance. This started with me making cold calls to companies I had made connections with, reintroduced myself and offered my services to scout, review, interview and recommend outstanding individuals new and emerging companies. A lot of what I did was very old fashioned, but it worked and everyone was happy.

Well, just a few minutes ago I read through the Dropbox: Startup Lessons Learned presentation, which got some gears turning in my head: exactly how do startups go about hiring? I know a few post job postings here on YC, what about the others? Do they have hiring managers? Do they outsource? Do they throw up a job posting, hope someone will reply and then pull a senior team member away for a few days to review the applicants?

That's my question: for the average software startup, what is your candidate review process? Is outsourcing candidate placement even a viable option for startups? It works well in corporate environments, but I think this is something I want to start looking at more seriously.

In my experience:

Their network. So you're doing well there.

When that's exhausted, if they can't afford recruiter fees, classified ads. I would assume Craigslist nowadays.

Only if and when they can afford recruiters fees and there is one good one in their area do they turn to them. My last experience there, in 1997 or so, was that only 1/2 of the resumes sent to us by one of the two best in the D.C. area were potentially viable (I can't remember how many we made that judgment about before or after the interview).

Outsourcing candidate placement ... yow. I don't know. If a company takes recruiting seriously, its top people are going to spend the time it takes to do it right. To the extent you could off load some of that burden it would be great, but for technical staff you're going to have to get a good programmer in your team, someone who can administer the "can you program your way out of a paper bag" tests. Ditto for systems, unless you've developed enough skills on the side in that area.

Good luck; this is a field that is not done well and needs all the help it can get. I'd recommend spending a lot of quality time on this site http://www.asktheheadhunter.com/ for some additional tips and such.

Pay particular attention to this essay, "Death by Lethal Reputation": http://www.asktheheadhunter.com/halethalrep.htm

"On the surface, the company's problem was a nasty reputation for a number of bad hiring habits. At a deeper level, the problem was a lack of pride and a lack of concern about how it presented itself to its professional community. If the company had been able to shake the bad habits, it might have been able to regain the respect of its community."

To the extent you can help companies avoid problems of this nature while they're in furious heads down startup mode you could add serious value to your services.

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