
Developers: How to get Hired by Every Startup You Contact - brianscordato
http://3degreesnation.tumblr.com/post/23655371280/hey-developers-heres-how-to-get-hired-by-every
======
Swizec
Getting hired is easy, the tough part is working on your own stuff. For me the
cycle is usually like this:

1\. Make a cool pet project

2\. Show it to The Internet

3\. Get a little exposure, feel awesome, decide this project is going
somewhere and you'll work on it for months on end because it's just that
awesome

4\. Freelancing offers[1] start raining in

5\. Realize you actually don't have any money, are a student and don't have a
lot of time next to classes

6\. Accept one or two freelancing gigs

7\. Pet project dies a miserable death

8\. Rinse and repeat a few months later

[1] I freelance for startups, always for startups. Usually I'm the guy they go
to for "Hey, so uhm, I hacked this prototype together in two weeks now there
is more than 1 user. Everything is breaking. Halp."

~~~
jsolson
Eh, you're doing better than I am. In general I don't make it past step one.

~~~
readme
It helps if you pick a pet project that uses the technology of people that are
likely to hire you.

If some decent looking startup publishes a new API, jump on that. If your app
is any good, they'll be excited to try it and help you promote it.

This is how I was extended an offer for good freelance work recently.

~~~
jsolson
Actually, I was lamenting the working-on-my-own-stuff part, not the getting
hired part :)

I tend to build what I think is a cool pet project, then completely fail to
put it in front of anyone other than friends who happen to be in the room
while I'm tinkering with it. Usually by the time I've managed to build
anything substantial, I no longer think it will be interesting to anyone.

------
msutherl
How to get hired by the startup that you want to work for:

    
    
       1. Figure out what you think is the most important thing 
          to be doing in the world right now.
       2. Learn the requisite skills to do it.
       3. Find somebody who's doing it already and write a carefully 
          crafted, enthusiastic email explaining why you think what 
          they are doing is important and why you are uniquely suited 
          to be part of it.
       4. Show some evidence (produced in step 2).
    

If you don't know what you think is the most important thing to be doing in
the world right now, then somebody else is deciding for you.

------
moocow01
"You won’t be the only developer after that job. Second, it won’t be like this
forever. Supply and demand are out of whack, and people are catching on and
catching up"

Seems like a nice way to kick off an agenda with a bit of fear mongering but
its rather the non-technical founders that are exploding in size. On top of it
the actual thing that developers are catching on to is that it doesn't make
any sense in this environment to become a CTO of a very small startup when you
can just start your own and have proper equity.

~~~
brianscordato
Appreciate the comment - I didn't mean it as fear mongering, just pointing out
that the landscape will likely change over the next two years. Great
developers will still be great developers and will have tons of job offers, I
just imagine there will be a bit of a squeeze in the middle. I may be wrong.
As for developers starting something on their own, I'm all for it if they've
got the idea. They'll run into the same challenges any single founder will,
but will definitely start from a better spot than a non-technical founder. I
was more targeting this towards people who didn't have the idea yet and were
looking to join something.

------
technoir
Surprised this guy didn't write an article on how to sell his position to
developers. In spite of claiming to understand the current labor market for
development talent, it appears he's still got it backwards.

~~~
jordo37
Totally agreed. It seems he made some interesting choices about how to setup a
startup for success before bringing on a technical co-founder, and as a
technical co-founder I would be interested to hear 1) what he did and 2) what
he thinks would be useful in convincing someone like me to come join him

~~~
brianscordato
I certainly tried to find a CTO before building a product - it's nearly
impossible these days if you don't have funding, especially if you're founding
your first startup.

So, I raised a small FAF round and outsourced my MVP to two awesome dev shops.
Now I'm raising a second round of funding and can afford to bring on someone
full-time. It's definitely not ideal, but it was the only way I could do it.
I'm hoping the idea, the flexibility of the job, and the above average equity
piece are intriguing to a potential CTO. Would be interested to hear
suggestions on how to make this more attractive?

------
nnythm
I generally disagree with what this guy is saying. This is reasonable from the
perspective of, "How to pitch yourself to a non-technical founder."

A. Programming languages do matter. Talking to other programmers, a good way
to find people who actually love programming is to ask people what languages
they use. People who have experimented with haskell or clojure are usually
people who love programming more. PG has a good essay on why it makes sense to
start a startup based around an esoteric language. I know for a fact that Jane
Street uses their heavy reliance on ocaml as a recruiting tool. Your life will
be much, much easier if you can hire better programmers. Hence, the startups
with the really good engineers will want to know what programming languages
you know. So yes, I agree that resumes are not that interesting, but also,
programming languages are useful indicators for certain kinds of employers.
The recruitee's github should reflect this. [1]

B. Sending links to apps or websites is all well and good, but as another
commenter said, for some startups, it is basically useless. If you are trying
to be the CTO of a company like 10gen (their CTO is a co-founder, but bear
with me) you will want to know about their systems skill, not how pretty they
can make a website. Backend talent, or understanding of algorithms is
something you absolutely cannot get from this.

So at startups where backend technical skill is not highly valued, and the
founder is very non-technical, this might be useful. If you are trying to work
at a Palantir or a DropBox, you should probably ignore this advice, although
admittedly, both are much further along than this guy is thinking of.

[1] <http://paulgraham.com/pypar.html>

~~~
brianscordato
Thanks for the comment - lot of good stuff in here. As for the languages
piece, broad knowledge on languages definitely shows something, I agree. And I
want to know what the applicant knows. I just meant that I could get a lot of
that from the github account (as you point out), and that it doesn't need to
be displayed in a resume. A resume telling me you know things is one thing, a
github acct showing me you know things is another.

The links note is a good point. I was tailoring this towards my specific
startup, and really early startups in general making their first "tech" hire.
Once you've got a CTO or someone technical on staff, they'll handle the
technical hiring and will understand the process and applicants far better
than a non-technical founder ever will.

------
slantyyz
I find it interesting that the OP seems to think that being a lead developer
and being a CTO are the same.

~~~
troels
Indeed. If he is hiring for a CTO, why has he made the technical decisions up
front? I realise he has had a MVP built in Ruby, but that shouldn't dictate
the technical platform - leave that for the future CTO to decide.

~~~
brianscordato
I made them so I could get something built quickly, and the development team I
clicked with happened to build Ruby applications. I'd certainly be open to a
change once I hire a CTO. I honestly don't know how hard it is to switch from
one platform to the next, I assumed "very" so I looked for Ruby devs only.
Maybe a bad assumption?

~~~
troels
Oh, I'm with you on the "get a prototype up and running, using consultants"
part. Definetely a good investment. But depending on how much work was poured
into this, it's probably relatively trivial to re-implement. It is a
_minimally_ viable product after all, I hope?

There are three reasons why I would suggest that you don't emphasise the
proficiency in Ruby. The first is, as mentioned above, that you're probably
overestimating the effort required to switch platform at this point. The
second is that a good programmer who just happens to have no/limited
experience with Ruby will probably be able to adapt pretty fast, provided he
has experience with similar technologies. By limiting your search to those
that already know Ruby well, you're avoiding a lot of potential.

But the main reason why I think it's a bad idea, is because you are making
decisions that I believe is the domain of a CTO to make. By doing so, you are
sending a signal that you don't respect/trust him to make that decision. That
is going to make the type of person you'd want onboard think twice about
joining. I'm not suggesting that you actually feel this way (I don't know you,
so I couldn't pass that judgement), but you should be aware of the way it will
read to - at least some - people in your target demography.

------
jasonlotito
Oh, good. One of these again. It's been almost a week since I've read the last
guys guarantee on how to get a job.

Regardless, the proper title for this piece is: "How to get hired by me."
Nothing more.

The best way to get hired? Follow the instructions on applying provided by the
company. If they fail to provide proper instructions, they'll probably fail at
a lot of other things as well.

------
Spoom
Another post saying that if I don't have a highly populated Github and a well-
trafficked blog, I'm worthless as a candidate to a startup. Good to know; my
employer will be disappointed.

Nearly all of my work is behind the screen of an NDA. When I am looking for a
job, I'll send code samples, but I get the feeling that's no longer good
enough. Is this correct?

In any case, I am noticing these things and will probably force myself to
start a blog at some point, even though it's completely counter to my nature.

~~~
wpietri
I'm sure it depends on the startup, but I was perfectly happy to get code
samples instead of a github link.

In that case, though, you should work a bit to demonstrate your engagement
with the field in some other way. The kind of people who I most want to hire
at a startup are the ones who would still be coding on something even if that
weren't the job. I strongly want to avoid clock-punchers who only program
because that seemed like an easier job than dentistry.

Note that a blog isn't the only way to show your engagement. A bunch of good
Stack Overflow answers. A very thoughtful cover letter. A link to some
personal tech project you did. The presentation you did for a local user
group. Mentioning the time you spend volunteering with the FIRST Lego League.

------
exim
I got an impression that author is looking for the specific experience that
his company needs at the moment - this is OK for quick contract or one-shot
jobs, but in general, I think it is quite short sighted. I wouldn't favor
someone because of twitter or facebook integration experience or similar.

Regarding not sending resumes - this is quite in hype now, which is bad - I
prefer structured text over some heart-touching tale - and not everyone is
great at writing. What author is looking instead of resumes, it is actually
called a cover letter - so it can be sent _with_ a resume, not necessary a
replacement.

------
noelwelsh
Generally good stuff. Not sending a resume is interesting -- I bet there are
people who would expect one and argue the opposite.

What really struck me were two things:

\- Outsourcing the MVP. I've seen a few people do it but it seems a very
expensive way to get started. Wouldn't it be easier to pitch for funding/a
technical partner without this?

\- Building a recommendation engine in Ruby? Really? I've never used Ruby for
numeric code but I wouldn't think it would be particularly fast and it doesn't
have libraries equivalent NumPy AFAIK.

(Don't feel you have to vote this up. I'm on 666 karma right now. ;-)

~~~
technotony
I think outsourcing the MVP is a great way to go in the current climate.
Pitching for funding without a technical co-founder is impossible beyond a
friends and family round, at least in the established startup hubs. It's also
very hard to find a good technical partner without already having demonstrated
some traction: this makes sense as good technical partners have many options
and want to see that you can deliver the non-technical side of the business
(40% of a company worth 0 is still 0!).

So in this context spending a little savings on an MVP is a great way to go,
it lets you show traction to get the funding or technical partner and can be
done by raising from friends/family or working nights at another job.

------
Peroni
Here we go.

 _There’s just no real barometer – it’s not like being a Doctor or a Lawyer
where you can check the applicant’s college, GPA, and Bar Score (is that a
thing?) and know the person is proficient._

If you're hiring technical staff and you clearly understand what you need
these people to do on a daily basis and why you need them to do it then there
is absolutely no excuse for not having even a basic set of minimum technical
criteria.

If you don't clearly understand what you need them to do on a day to day basis
then I think you may need to re-assess why you need them, or it's possible
that someone else in the business should be handling the first stage of this
hiring process.

Now to your 6 key points

1\. Don't send a resume - That's a huge statement and your supporting points
are severely lacking in elaboration. _listing all the different languages you
know is really only interesting to you and your peers_ Refer to my first point
above.

2\. Keep an updated blog - Sure. I can see this. What about the fantastic
developers who don't have sufficient time to blog? Some of the best developers
I know have a blog, most of the best developers I know don't.

3\. Link to your previous work - Comfortably the best piece of advice in the
entire article and I can't support this advice enough. I was recently looking
for an iOS developer and the amount of CV's I received from people claiming to
have amazing apps published in the app store yet no links to said app was just
baffling.

4\. If you’re not from the US (or the country you are applying for a job in),
let me know what that means - Sorry but if you're my employer, the onus is
upon you to be familiar with international hiring policies.

5\. Show you’re interested in the product, and the process - _if you could
show that you’re interested in the business and aren’t going to leave when the
next startup comes calling, that’s great_ That's one of the many reasons to
interview someone. It's an opportunity to find out how much they truly know
about you and your company. If you think you can derive this from an initial
application, then again, I feel you are misguided.

6\. Have a good answer for why you’re leaving your current job - _This won’t
be in the initial email, but is important, so I had to include it_ This should
be in the initial email. This is always one of the first questions I ask prior
to interviewing someone. If they tell me the reason they want out is because
they are bored, then the obvious next question is 'why do you find it boring'.

This article should be titled _How to make life easier for a non-technical
hiring manager_ as I can almost guarantee your approach will contradict the
thought process of most decision makers within the tech start-up community as
opposed to getting a job offer from 'every company they apply to'.

Sorry to be so scathing as there are some useful pieces of info in your
article however the title angered me.

~~~
raverbashing
So much this

The "startup ninja hacker" world is in need of a reality check

The "tradicional hiring" methods has some glaring defects, but people don't
realize it's got a lot of things right as well!

I want your resume, yes. You don't need one if your name _really_ rings a bell
like Gosling, Stroustroup, Torvalds. Not "built JQuery UI plugins" famous,
sorry.

Also, it's great if you can link to a previous work, but if you can't it's ok.
Projects go offline (happened to me), are sold as part of a product (yes), or
are part of a really expensive product (yep).

"Sorry but if you're my employer, the onus is upon you to be familiar with
international hiring policies." I lost count of how many "recruiters"
contacted me offering a job in the US (residents only). But you know, in the
same place you got my email there was a disclaimer "need sponsorship to work
in the US". So if you ignore this, I'm gonna assume it's a poor job offer (and
it usually is)

------
geebee
I enjoyed the post, and it reaffirmed a very interesting transition away from
resumes and toward actual work. Now that blogs and github are so easy to
start, why would I want to read that someone has extensive programming
experience and good writing skills? If you do, it'll already be on display.

That said... I actually generally get an interview with many of the startups I
contact through a traditional resume and cover letter. I've been hired by
some, rejected by others, but I believe it usually comes down to how well I
handle a series of difficult technical interviews. They're usually around
algorithms and data structures, and often test recursion. Threading is also a
commonly tested subject.

Are these tests highly rigorous? All I can say is they're pretty tough for me.
I've run the questions by other programmers, some say it's tough, others say
it's not so hard, many just get so interested in the problem that they start
working on it.

Anyway, I'd still say that the best way to get hired by every startup you
contact is to be a pretty badass programmer, with a very strong grounding in
algorithms and data structures, recursion, threading, and be ready to show you
can apply that stuff in a very short amount of time under some pressure at the
white board. It's just my opinion, but I believe I know very, very talented
programmers who have been passed over because of their performance during
these interviews.

Here's something good to take from this blog post - if you are a good and
productive programmer who has trouble with the tech grilling, definitely make
an effort to put some work out there on blogs and github, it might make the
difference. Maybe the threshold for the technical grilling is more forgiving
when the hiring team has more to work with, better examples of a candidate's
ability?

------
gexla
Generally agree with this. Whenever I hear about people not getting job
offers, there is mention somewhere in there about sending resumes. I have
never sent a resume to get a job or a gig, however I do sometimes attach the
PDF output of my LinkedIn profile which comes out in resume format. Other than
being an attachment, I only mention it as a one-liner. Not sending resumes is
probably not intuitive since that's what everyone has been doing to get jobs
in the U.S. for decades.

I disagree that the lack of supply is temporary. I'm not even sure that's
really the case. For one, there will always be more demand than supply for "A
level" developers. This is a field where people have to really push themselves
to keep up with the game and continue expanding their skills, and most people
don't want to go through that effort. All you have to do is run faster than
the average developers and the bar isn't very high. Also, there will always be
"niche" areas where developers are hard to find and well in demand and those
niches are everywhere.

~~~
yelloblac
How is it possible that you've never gotten a job from sending a resume? I'm
generally curious how that's possible, unless you're doing all freelance work?

~~~
gexla
Networking and / or visibility. Job offers come from people who either already
know me or they have come across my name through the ecosystem.

Make sure that you are doing more than just sending out resumes. Get your name
out there by being visible in places where employers might be looking for
developers. Use Twitter, LinkedIn, create a tech blog and generally help
people out. The more your name is out there, the greater your "luck surface
area."

Freelancing is also a great way to land a job for a lot of reasons. When you
are looking for a job, you have to sell yourself to the employer. With
freelancing, you can get a lot of practice with selling and generally you will
get more immediate feedback for your efforts because hiring a freelancer is
far less risk / commitment than hiring a full time developer. Freelancing is
also good for possibly meeting your next employer, if you are a great fit,
then your freelance gig might turn into a full time position. Freelancing is
also good for building up experience.

------
sunahsuh
Just a personal viewpoint based on the limited information available (and not
meant as a personal knock on the OP since I don't know him or his particular
situation in detail):

I would be extremely wary about joining a tech start-up that has to go through
an open job application process for a CTO. If the founder can't make enough of
a believer out of someone within his or her own network to join, I would see
that as a bad sign -- not just in terms of the start-up's idea but also the
founder's ability to sell his or her idea. If it's the case that the founder
doesn't know viable candidates in his or her own network, then I'd be doubly
concerned: it's a tech start-up and a strong network within tech circles will
be necessary for other resources down the line (future engineering hires,
advice, potential investors that add value to the company, etc). Additionally,
if s/he isn't really plugged in to the tech community, I'd worry that s/he
doesn't truly understand the business, my skills as it relates to the
business, and the value that I bring to the table. And in this particular
case, I'd also be concerned that social networking is _what this start-up
revolves around_ and the founder (again, from my limited view on the outside)
doesn't appear to be able to network effectively enough to at least get
introductions to suitable CTO candidates through secondary connections.

I'm not saying that this is necessarily the situation here but that's my
thought process just based on the information available. I consider things
like sales ability, existing network and hiring ability to be essential things
for a non-technical founder to bring to the table before I would consider
working for him or her -- otherwise, I'm almost as well-off starting my own
thing and own a hell of a lot more equity.

There are a handful of non-technical people I know that I would join in short
order if one of them ever called to talk about a job at his or her start-up.
And if I declined I would refer them to other people I know that might be
interested because I know no matter what he or she is doing, s/he has a great
chance of succeeding. If you're not the kind of person that inspires that
level of loyalty, being a lone non-technical founder at a tech start-up seems
like it would make an already arduous journey _incredibly_ difficult.

------
thedaydreamer
Send them your portfolio and tell them why and how you can be very helpful to
them. Easy ?

~~~
brianscordato
For front-end dev, absolutely. Back-end is trickier to judge for someone less
tech-savvy.

~~~
fidz
How about showing portfolio of open source application like how many our
commits in Github? Is it relevant?

~~~
jiggy2011
If you have it , sure.

Of course this causes a class divide between:

A) People who are paid to contribute to open source (either as part of their
job or in some cases their whole job) and therefor have many commits.

B) People who write a little open source code on the weekends.

C) People who already work 60-80 hour weeks on proprietary/in house software
and have other commitments for the rest of their time.

Also the "you need to contribute to open source to get a new job" thing has a
perverse incentive for companies. If they know that having you contributing to
open source makes it easier for you to either leave or demand a higher salary
(because it is easier for you to get hired elsewhere). It is then in their
interests to stop you doing it whenever possible.

------
shimsham
This is pretty interesting, regardless whether you agree with it. It's always
useful to listen to and engage with people outside your direct area of
responsibility to see things from other perspectives.

------
schme
I really wish someone would post one of these related to students still in
school (we need to work too). Or is the field so competitive the posts would
make no difference?

~~~
jakejake
There's probably plenty of startups or consulting gigs that would be happy to
have a student. Full-time developer positions maybe not so much just because
you wouldn't be able to show up to the office 9-5 every day and still go to
class.

My advice would be to build up your portfolio with personal dev projects, fork
projects on github, etc. The more of that you do it's likely people will even
start contacting you with offers.

------
collint
Hey don't tell everybody about the resume thing. It'll stop working ;)

