
Ask HN: I think I'm good at quickly identifying dev talent.  How to prove it? - mattm
I&#x27;m prompted to ask this from this reddit comment: https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.reddit.com&#x2F;r&#x2F;cscareerquestions&#x2F;comments&#x2F;4paeff&#x2F;what_does_socalled_top_talent_actually_look_like&#x2F;d4jf9df<p>Now, I&#x27;ve only been involved in hiring decisions a few times but I feel I&#x27;ve been able to identify someone&#x27;s level of experience and capability pretty quickly (in about an hour).<p>I would be interested in testing this out more to see if it&#x27;s something I can do.  Is this something that would be valuable to companies?  How could I go about proving it to myself and then selling this service if I am capable?
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DelaneyM
You become a recruiter.

Identifying dev talent is one (very important!) part of the job for dev
managers, but not enough on its own to be successful.

The only pure application of that skill would be as a recruiter.

That said, you're almost certainly wrong. I can't find the quote/citation
right now, but distinctly remember that over a decade of data at Google showed
that only one person at the company was really individually exceptional at
predicting performance as an interviewer (and he was a special niche case).

~~~
mattm
Ok, how do I become a recruiter?

Yes, I'm fully aware that I could be misguided but would be interested in
dipping my toe in the water to at least try.

Is it something that's possible to do part-time on the side?

~~~
lscore720
Recruiting is probably not an appropriate career to leverage this skill -
identifying talent is mainly the job of the hiring manager/team to determine.

A recruiter's primary job is to find the talent and convince he/she to
consider the opportunity. Sure, your ability to screen upfront is helpful in
saving your employer time, but the job is far more sales-based.

to play the numbers game & bounce back every morning in the face of constant
rejection and indifference. That, above all, will ensure your success as a
recruiter.

To learn recruiting, like any new job, it's smartest to make a full-time
committment. Once you've mastered it, you can definitely work any schedule
you'd like!

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JSeymourATL
> How could I go about proving it to myself...

Much the same way Devs store projects on GitHub-- start building up your
portfolio of talent profiles and notes on individuals that you interview &
assess. It's a practiced art-- you become exponentially better the more people
you evaluate. Also, understand that people do change and grow as they progress
throughout their careers. Take the long view and be sure to follow up
periodically.

The best executive leaders create a talent pipeline, typically meet &
informally interview 2-3 people a month. Incidentally, this builds-up an
amazing network of true contacts, which is to say NOT Linkedin contacts. The
best primer on this process is Bradford Smart's Topgrading >
[http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/915182.Topgrading](http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/915182.Topgrading)

> then selling this service if I am capable?

Connecting with buyers, in this case Hiring Executives falls into the
specialty function of Sales & Business Development. Professional Services
firms are always chomping at the bit for rainmakers. If you're serious about
this path, take a development course like Miller Heiman >
[https://www.mhiglobal.com/](https://www.mhiglobal.com/)

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hkarthik
Identifying talent is not enough. You also need to know how to sell and close
this talent. I say this as an engineering manager at a top tech company who
got into hiring largely due to feeling like I could identify talent.

Selling and closing is a whole different ball game. You have to be a good
story teller, a good listener, and you have to be geniune. You have to be
relentless and unwilling to take no for an answer.

Whether you go into recruiting full time, move to management, or just be the
engineer everyone uses to sell candidates, practice and hone your selling
skills.

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id122015
You can try it on me, I'd volunteer. Never been employed as a programmer but
I'm curious to know if anyone would hire me, and if so what kind of employer
would that be.

~~~
mattm
Sure if you want we could have a call. Just email me to setup.

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slidese
Most of the comments I've read here assumes these two things are equal:

1\. A good programmer 2\. A good team member

They are not.

How to spot someone that fits in your team is much harder than to spot someone
with talent.

Also, as someone pointed out you need to keep track of both hits and misses to
assess your skill. I would guess it's easier to track someone if they're
successful as opposed to someone who either is not successful or not
successful publicly.

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projectramo
Prove it to whom?

If you want to exploit the talent, I don't think becoming a recruiter is the
best way to go (contra the other advice).

I am not a recruiter, but I don't think their challenge is (necessarily)
identifying dev talent. They have to

1\. Convince dev talent to sign up for the company 2\. Convince the company
that they can find dev talent 3\. Look through a lot of dev talent

It's more like a broker. They have to find a particular talent/price mix that
keeps bother parties happy.

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malux85
Ah hour?!! That is NOT quick. Even Junior developers could identify strong
talent if they sat with them for an hour and just talked.

Get it down to 10 minutes, and that would be quick!

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JoachimSchipper
As to proving it to yourself - start tracking who you (don't) hire, and the
outcomes. You can do this as an employee.

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j45
You could become a headhunter for recruiters and get paid for successful
finds.

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miguelrochefort
This is trivial and any person can do it.

~~~
devmgr12345
Actually, I'd say that identifying GREAT talent and NO talent is trivial. When
a person is "ok, not great but not terrible, never going to be a rockstar but
maybe good enough"... that's the tricky one.

I know everyone wants to only hire the best, but sometimes you don't have that
luxury and you just need a hack to write some CSS.

~~~
brianwawok
Except how great a person is may very well have to do with the team you are
putting them on.

So say you work on a team for 3 years and know everyone well. You should help
the team hire new people with your "skill". You know how the team acts, and
you can tell how the person will fit.

But say as a recruiter with 50 clients.. you won't know all 50 teams as well,
so your accuracy has to go down, right?

