How do you find 10x Engineers? | Hacker News Reader

How do you find 10x Engineers?

2 pointsKushal607011 comments

I am trying to hire engineers for my startup. I am a semi-technical solo founder who understands technical capabilities and limitations but just doesn't want to code.

I have hired 2 engineers recently but now I feel like they are mediocre. Although I took help of a senior engineer to screen and interview the candidates.

Is there a guide, or playbook to hire 10x engineers for startup founders? How would I find them? What criteria to look for? Is it incentive problem?

Especially with AI IDEs like Cursor and Replit getting popular for influx in productivity, I'm confident we should be able to prototype and launch at speed.

But I don't feel confident with my current hires. Also, is there any service that takes interviews and screens candidates for their technical abilities?

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I can't imagine why you're not able to find perfect hires while I'm reading your post where you describe your recent hires as mediocre.

Hi, yes we a run a dev shop that does it exactly so we will interview and do technical test task for yourself. We will also help with onboarding, HR, payroll aswell. Let me know if you would like to jump on a call. What's your budget for the engineer?

>I am a semi-technical solo founder who understands technical capabilities and limitations but just doesn't want to code.

if you are looking for 10x engineers, why you would wanting to code be a relevant factor? you have to be be able to see these people as much smarter than you, rather than think you could do it if you wanted. smart engineers don't mind working for super smart people, but they don't like people who overestimate themselves.

Filter out the ones that have done Python/AI Bootcamps..... Then throw those Resumes in the Bin and hire the ones left.

Why not hire 11x engineers?

gotta get lucky and then you want to hold onto them like gold

Well you've got to spend a few years or more working for at least one, until you naturally get a very good sense for what it takes and who has it.

It sounds like you need to find some solid 1x engineers.

Just don't do 2 1.5 hours technical interviews after an intro call, hire good by relying on resume mostly. I was in a call with a startup, highly relevant experience to their value proposition, worked on startup for 3 years, as I believe I'm 10x engineer.

Then talked with this startup, %99 job match with same experience they want. After a call, he mailed me that I'll be interviewed by two different guys two times, that'll take 2 hours.

Now probably I'll switch to corporate, interviews were much easier with the similar pay.

I've never tried to hire a 10x Engineer.

That said, here's one potential approach:

- ask your engineers who they are learning their skills from (YouTube / blog posts / universities / online courses / etc)

- go and ask those people who they would recommend in the specific area you are working on (consulting fees for an hour chat are a normal part in this world)

- if a few names come up, those will be your 10x engineers

> Is there a guide, or playbook to hire 10x engineers for startup founders?

If this exists and everyone can easily use it, will they still be 10x? It'd be a commodity, no?

> But I don't feel confident with my current hires.

Side note: not sure if you'd really want to openly post this about existing employees?

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