

Dear HN, how do I hire a good coder? - codeclueless

Hi guys, long time lurker here.<p>I run a (semi) successful Australian startup that requires very little technical knowledge to operate. Now that I have some cashflow, I'd like to hire a software engineer (either virtually, or in the flesh here in Sydney) to work with me on a couple of ideas I have for web applications. I myself have basically no programming knowledge, so pretty much the best I'll be able to do are (CSS coded) mockups.<p>I was wondering if HN had any hiring tips for me? Specifically, what are some ways for a non technical person to tell a good hacker from a bad one?<p>A few other questions if you're feeling generous:<p>- Bearing in mind I'm going for web applications, what kind of language specialisation should I be looking for? From my own research, it seems like Ruby, PHP, and Python are all good contenders.<p>- I know this varies greatly from place to place, but how much do I need to pay to attract the talent? Is equity a more attractive option than a salary?<p>- How much does experience play a role? Is a naturally talented coder fresh out of university a better option than an average one with 5 years of 'real world' experience?
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bartonfink
Codeclueless -

I've heard good things about the hiring posts that show up on HN every month
on the first. Post something tomorrow and see what comes up. Also, if you
wouldn't mind, would you shoot me an e-mail? I'm looking to move to Sydney in
the next 3 years, and I might be interested in starting a relationship.

As for language specialization, if you yourself don't have any preference, it
might make sense to be flexible with your first hire. Ruby, Python and PHP are
all sensible languages, but you could go a long way with someone with Java or
.NET experience and a web applications background. That also opens the door to
alternate JVM or CLR languages without throwing the experience in the
"primary" language away. The only thing you don't want to do is hire someone
whose only experience is in something that's either very hard to apply to the
web or very hard to replace if this person leaves.

For example, I once met a guy on a contracting interview whose day job was
writing filesystem extensions for a government agency out in Boulder. The
discrepancy between what he assumed he knew about the web because he'd been
programming for 20+ years and what he actually knew was PAINFUL. I'm sure he's
an excellent programmer, but the leap from filesystems to GoogleEarth mashups
is a big leap to make, and the startup that hired him as CTO made a mistake.

I'm not sure what salaries are in Sydney, so I can't speak to that. The ? of
equity is a tough one. I know what cash is worth, for example, so if someone
offers me $X an hour, I can say with relative certainty whether that's worth
my time. An ownership stake can be worth wildly varying amounts depending on
what it's an ownership stake of.

Regarding experience, since this is your first hire, and you don't have much
programming knowledge, I would strongly recommend against someone fresh out of
university. You're giving this person a significant amount of responsibility,
and decisions that get made this early on about architecture, tools and other
systems will be important down the road.

Again, would you mind shooting me an e-mail? I'm interested in talking more.
My contact information is in my profile.

Good luck!

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gnocchi
Hi,

I'm working currently for a small startup as a developer. My personal opinion
would be to find someone who can write and deploy code and can build a
relationship with you. Ask for references, live website, repository and so on.
But be careful with people who quote a lot of technology without using them.
Student or 'real world' experience are good options.

This person would do all the major coding task for you. On top of that if you
can create a good relationship, this person would be able to find you other
tech people for tasks he/she can't handle and can give you nice advice.

The programming language at this stage is not very important IMO. But focusing
on a popular programming language with a big community is something to have.
Imagine if you need to recruit 2 others coders to do the job. Or if you main
developers can't work for you anymore.

Something which may help for recruting someone is to write a draft of your
needs (setting-up servers, level of front-end/backend programming...)

Hope that help

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diminium
I would like to say, it depends. The first question to ask is, how big do you
feel comfortable growing? Once you figure that out, then the next part is
basically a gigantic art form that you pray that you don't mess up on.

There's like 9,000 questions you must ask but all them really boils down to
this - can the person do (or figure out what to do) what you want the site to
grow into and does this person get along with you that you get things done?

Since this is your first technical employee, you better get along with
him/her/it because you'll be spending a whole bunch of your life communicating
with them. After that, you have to make sure they have some competence in the
technology field. Language specification and stuff doesn't matter as long as
they understand how the web (HTTP) really works. The rest of the guys here can
probably give some decent advice on that and how to find them.

Just my two cents.

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AjJi
As a freelance developer, I think that for a first project, a salary (either
fixed or hourly) is always better than equity unless you (the recruiter) have
a great portfolio of successful products.

I think experience matters if you have a tight schedule and technology
constraints, and being fresh out of university doesn't necessarily mean you
have no experience.

If you are NOT looking for a full time developer, I'll be happy to have a chat
with you and see if you can work out something (profile for CV/contact)

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hcho
You might try to mitigate your risk by spreading it on a number of developers.
Can you divide the work into smaller chunks? You can hire different developers
on part time basis, and then eliminate the one's you are not happy with and
stick with the ones you like.

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znt
Whatever you do, try to stay away from recruiters.

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veyron
Sounds like you need a technical cofounder. Search the archives -- there are a
bunch of requests -- and talk to some of those people.

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adelevie
Since you have no existing codebase, try to limit the technologies used as
little as possible. You'll cast a wider net this way.

