

Ask HN: What do companies really look for when hiring? - diminium

Ok, a whole lot of companies form start-ups to big giant conglomerates say they are always looking for the best and brightest in the field.<p>In reality, except for a very small percentage of those, most of these companies aren't.  If they were, there would be a lot more smarter people in those companies.<p>Which comes to my question, what exactly is their hiring criteria?  What are they looking for?<p>From my point of view, it seems like hiring is mostly politics and less about your ability to do stuff.<p>What do you guys think?
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karolist
I don't agree - in business, you always want to have the best your money can
buy, because this means their output in terms of your business success will be
better than of those less good.

Companies are not filled with smart people because there's not many smart
people in general, and those who are truly smart figure out a way to escape
the 9-5 lifestyle one way or another.

Also, companies are not made equal, some can throw more cash at employees than
others, and smart people value cash. That's why companies with most money have
the brightest minds (Google, Facebook, banking sector).

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diminium
So basically what your saying by this statement "those who are truly smart
figure out a way to escape the 9-5 lifestyle one way or another." is, most
companies don't have smart people?

If the smart people escape the 9-5 lifestyle that quite a lot of companies,
their current employees, and their current management mandates - doesn't that
mean they can't hire the people they want?

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jf271
Any company wants the best programmer that is a good fit in their environment
that they can afford. Budgets and environments tend to dumb down who actually
accepts the position. I've turned down positions based on the quality of the
management or the working environments before. I assume it happens every day.

