Ask HN: How do you find Hungry and Motivated people? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How do you find Hungry and Motivated people?

4 pointscodegeek2 comments

Really not trying to be clickbait here and it is a genuine question. As a founder of a SAAS company that is not really a startup but very small and established, I am always looking for people who are hungry and motivated for success. Lately, I am finding a lot of young people who are just looking for a job and the ones that are motivated/hungry just want to do their own thing. When I was young, I was motivated like crazy. Not trying to blow my own horn but it is disappointing to see that almost 90% of young/recent grad/college candidates I am talking to, motivation/attitude is missing.

Since we cannot pay Top Dollars like FAANGs or even a relatively mid level company, how else can you attract hungry and motivated people even though I can pay close to average market rates in my area? I can offer equity but it's meaningless for a private company at the moment at least. Do I just make peace with the fact that unless I can offer FAANG level money, it's game over ?

Competing with FAANGs is a losing game, and probably not relevant for 98% of technology roles. I would highly recommend that you pick a few key senior engineers and compensate them well via paid time off and salary. When you have major problems this will be the group of technologists that will fix it for you.

For your mid-tier to junior technologists look for individuals that are trying to transfer into tech roles and don't have alot of experience BUT can demonstrate real ownership of problems in whatever business they were previously in.

For mid/jr level people one of the most important things you can provide is a clear path that shows your company is willing to invest training in your software & common industry tools.

As for finding them: check out your local technology meetup groups (online or in person), look for recommendations from your social network, check about posting opportunities with local universities/colleges.

If remote hiring is an option, and you are okay with a big time zone difference, Eastern Europe has plenty of great software developers who will gladly work for the sort of wages you are describing. Of course, remote hiring is incredibly difficult. However, if you do some thorough googling on the right way to hire remotely, and you're extremely careful, you might be able to find some hungry developers.

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