I'm curious. We're trying to hire for our startup and have no clue what sorts of questions to ask. An algorithm based interview doesn't make sense, nor does it seem appropriate to give senior engineers (8+ years exp) a take home project. We ideally want someone who is 1. Adept at good architectural and design patterns. 2. Understands library internals and performance nuances. 3. Can scale a complex codebase with software engineering practices (Test cases, CI-CD, migrations, etc) 4. Can mentor the team to better themselves. How do you test for all these? Note : None of us currently on the Frontend team have over 4 years of exp. The person coming in will be leading the team. |
First, accept that the vast majority of people you want to hire are already employed and normally couldn't be bothered with your startup. The leftovers are either really unlucky or not worth hiring.
Second, go after the top 98% and leave the others for the rest of the industry. Don't waste time trying to interview them beyond a quick phone screen on personality, because any time of theirs you ask for is extremely expensive to them and you need to acknowledge it from the start (or they'll not respond). Offer them _more_ than they're earning now. After you find one you like, and you're willing to pay them more than they're currently getting, and they're willing to jump ship for that, close the deal as quickly as possible.
This works because their current employer vouches for them (by employing them), and their current employer is presumably a better judge of technical skill than your team is. So leverage that skill instead of cobbling together some facsimile yourselves.
The downside for this approach is that if they're currently earning $200k and you have a budget of $120k for the position (or even $220k), you're not going to hire anybody. It's a shared delusion in the industry that everybody can lowball the senior talent and they won't wise up.
It's been said before, but it bears repeating. For senior talent, you're not buying the job, you're selling it. It's a buyer's market and you need to play motivated salesman and not choosy PITA customer.
reply