Ask YC : How to hire moderately skilled help at a startup?

[keefe]

At our startup we have various tasks that require some technical knowledge but no real training. For example, system administration work, running UI tests and this sort of thing. So, basic linux knowledge would be useful and any programming skills an added bonus.

We are wondering if we could find an undergrad intern or someone else looking for experience to do this kind of tasks - where does HN suggest I look? Would some stanford undergrad be interested in this and could we potentially setup something for course credit with additional, more interesting work? We are a semantic web startup operating out of moffet field in mountain view.

[run4yourlives]

If you're looking for undergrad help, most of them hang out at universities.

Yes, I'm being facetious, but it is true. I think the best thing for you to do is to find the best school in your area, and post the job in whatever bulletin board or website they use for these things.

Good luck. Hopefully you can find a real geek though and someone who's not just "taking computers".

[lsc]

I've run my own business by hiring people who are new (or down on their luck) that are obviously smart and have potential. I've done this for several years, and while the business has not done well (I attribute that to my own incompetence) I can point out a long trail of people who worked for me at $10-$15/hr who left my company to get real jobs paying more than 5x that.

Uh, but yeah, actually I've had more people asking me for work than I have money of late, though, so if you shoot me an email lsc@prgmr.com I can send you a few promising resumes.

buy me lunch or something if you like one of 'em.

but yeah, how do I find people? Uh, the first was a few years after the .com bust. The guy was my roommate, randomly. Obviously he was really smart, and an excellent programmer, though he was chronically unemployed. I paid his rent and used him on my 'book price search' venture, which flopped due to competition, and on some consulting gigs. He left for a real job, and hasn't had trouble keeping a job since.

the second was a guy I worked with during the first .com boom. I met him working in a deli a few years after the crash. I hired him for a little more than what the deli was paying, he worked on my current xen vps hosting venture.

The third was that guy's roommate. I really got lucky that time.

The forth was a guy just out of highschool who I met when I spoke at the LUG in Davis. He was a customer for more than a year before I hired him.

Uh, that's the other thing. You have _much_ more flexibility if you are willing to let 'em work from far away. I haven't listed the foreigners I've hired, but there have been a few, good and bad.

But yeah, overall, make sure your social circle includes people who are both poor and smart. Make offers if you know people working jobs that are beneath them. But the thing is you are looking for a market inefficiency. these are rare things. People who are good don't stay cheap for long. Be patient, and don't hesitate to act when you spot someone good.

[jacobscott]

I would recommend putting the word out via your friends/extended social network followed by Craigslist. Especially in the Valley it doesn't seem like it should be hard to get mediocre contractors for a reasonable rate (this is what you want, right?).

[thwarted]

If you consider necessary jobs that you don't understand, like system administration and user experience testing, to be something you can just get anyone to do because they "require some technical knowledge but no real training", you'll get what you deserve.

A good system administrator will assist in scaling and performance and take care of a lot of other stuff that you had no idea needed to be done. A good UX person will produce reports in such a way that the developers will be able to fix things much faster than without.

If you think you just need someone to add accounts on your mail server, why are you not outsourcing this to something like Google Apps?

[lsc → thwarted]

If he doesn't know how to do the jobs, you are correct, he's screwed unless he hires someone who does, and the median Sr. SysAdmin in this area is paid $140K (full load) per year. The market tends to agree that an experienced SysAdmin is worth a lot.

  However, if the original poster does have someone on staff who knows how to do the tasks in question, but lacks the time, (and enjoys and is good at teaching)  then there is value to be had in Jr. SysAdmins.

[perezd]

I would be interested in a clarification, how do you find people who want to work as equity partners for your startup?

IE: smart developers who want to be a part of a growing company.

[breck]

Underclassmen would probably be your best bet.

Facebook ads on the Stanford network maybe?

[lsc]

oh, yeah. ask friends. Let everyone you know that you are looking for someone willing to work cheap to gain experience. Many people have siblings and other contacts who are useful in this context.

[amacgregor]

I agree. Craigslist it?