

Ask HN: How should early-stage companies recruit great software engineers? - OhMyGoshJosh

Hi, this is my first post on Hacker News, but I read Hacker News pretty much every day.  My name is Josh, and I'm the CEO of Omedix.  Our company's mission is essentially to deliver Web 2.0 to mainstream healthcare.<p>I am a geek, as are many of my coworkers.  We're based in Scottsdale, AZ which has a decent concentration of technical talent, but nothing close to Silicon Valley or Seattle.  We're looking for engineers who are exceptionally talented and shine particularly well at architecture.  That is, the engineer should be able to take a problem presented by a non-technical person, and translate it into a well-defined and simplified problem that can be solved with a deceptively simple elegant architecture.<p>"Architecture" is just one skill we're looking for, but it seems to be a proxy for most of the other skills we care about.  We've posted on Craigslist and tried networking around the city.  We're about to try posting on LinkedIn.  Posting on Monster.com was pointless.  A friend of mine who's also recruiting tried posting on Dice.com, but again to no avail.<p>So here's my question to the Hacker community.  The readers and contributors of this community are pretty much the kind of people we're looking for -- passionate about technology, smart, entrepreneurial, excited about the possibility of making a difference, motivated by the belief that you can do it better than most of the others out there.  So the community is actually a perfect audience for this question, and I believe all of us would benefit from hearing the responses:<p>What is the best way for early-stage companies to recruit great software engineers?<p>For further feedback, you can see the current job posting in question at:
http://www.omedix.com/careers/software-engineer/<p>I appreciate your responses, and nice to meet everyone!<p>Josh
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manganita
The offer seems decent, not thousands of skills or specific java frameworks
with version numbers :-).

There are many things that makes it difficult for startup to hire great
software engineers : \- A startup usually means low to very medium salary.

\- Long working hours most of the time, with zero flexibility in terms of
hours. Finish at 9pm come back very early, etc. People have a life and
sometimes families. Working 8 hours a day, is almost a crime, even if you only
take 10 mins for the lunch. As the company is a family everybody gets to eat
together frequently which means one hour lost, leave the job one hour later.

\- A one man show: Usually you have to do everything depending on what's
expected or how great you are.

\- Poor recognition as in no real way to advance(cash, tasks, help by hiring
new guys) even if the company becomes more profitable.

\- Very short holidays sometimes 2 weeks max per year in some companies. For a
very young guy it might not be a problem, but for someone with family in town
and abroad it is an issue;

\- Usually in a startup, you don't get to influence strategic discussions. For
example, someone might think that some architecture needs some change to
follow X or Y specification, but it doesn't matter to his boss "Fake
communication. Listen and execute".

\- Young startups often try to play psychologists as they tend to try to
understand/predict/control everything around them, which is impossible.

\- Often you need to cope with developers that were around, have influence and
make poor decisions. As the new guy comes in, he's not involved in
architecture decisions and need to fix trivial, annoying but silly errors for
a while.

\- Sometimes there are no meetings. The master plan is known only by the
founders and there's nothing explained to the engineers.

\- A startup doesn't usually encourage initiatives, new ideas, modern
development practices.

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manganita
I would also add in the offer : \- How many weeks your offer for holidays ?
People might want to know for how long they can rest if they'll have to work
harder than elsewhere(as in government, some banks, etc.).

\- Approximate range followed by "depending on experience" ? That way a person
won't apply and waste his time and yours. If everything seems ok from your
perspective and you meet good engineers, then you know the problem is likely
the salary offered.

Personally for a startup, that would make a difference, as the position seems
interesting.

------
stephenbez
Here are some ideas that might work:

\- Coworkers from previous jobs

\- old classmates

\- friends

\- friends of friends

\- smart people you meet at user groups/conferences

\- mailing the jobs lists at top universities

\- attending career fairs at top universities

Asking any of the above if they know any smart people who are looking for
jobs.

------
notJim
I was a software developer in Arizona for a while, and it was very very
difficult to find decent candidates. I suspect that great developers in
Arizona find the dearth of exciting companies a turn-off and leave, as I did.
(You've got a GoDaddy, a handful of no-name startups, and ?)

The strategy my company (employee, not owner) ended up using was to hang out
in the IRC channel used by our web framework. We were a very developer-centric
company, and I think that was attractive to good developers. We hired a couple
of people from there on a contract basis, and then moved them out to AZ after
they proved themselves. One thing I noticed in your requirements:

> 4-year degree in computer science (or related field) from an accredited
> university

I've worked with great developers who have CS degree and great developers who
don't. At the very least, I would add "or equivalent experience."

------
OhMyGoshJosh
Hey guys, thanks for the comments.

@brianwillis - I have read the Joel writings before but didn't realize
StackOverflow had a careers section. Great pointer!

@manganita - I think you describe a certain kind of startup environment, but
certainly not all early-stage companies. I know from the standpoint of having
to attract great people, we need to offer a good "product" which means great
company potential, nice work environment, reasonable hours, expectation that
it will be fun, etc. Certainly, there are times when you just have to go all
out to get the work done, but in my experience that quickly exhausts a team
and lowers overall productivity anyway.

~~~
brianwillis
To reply to someone on Hacker News click the "reply" link under their message.
This keeps conversations threaded.

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brianwillis
The obvious first choice for advice is Joel Spolsky's excellent writing on
recruitment.

Whaddaya Mean, You Can't Find Programmers?:
<http://joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000050.html>

Finding Great Developers:
[http://joelonsoftware.com/articles/FindingGreatDevelopers.ht...](http://joelonsoftware.com/articles/FindingGreatDevelopers.html)

There's a lot of crossover between the Stack Overflow and Hacker News
communities, so Stack Overflow Careers might be a good place to look for
actual candidates.

------
jefflinwood
Your job posting looks great - the problem might be Scottsdale and the size of
the tech community there. It could be that all the entrepreneurial developers
there are working on their own projects. Have you thought about reaching out
to the Bay Area?

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known
You can't. Great software engineers prefer to work in _great_ companies.

