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HIRING AT SCALEPatrick McKenzie (@patio11), Starfighter
Missed BoS 2014 Due To A Release Date
Difficulty Level: Matasano
Oh Wait This Spy Story Is Real
$125,487
a) What you pay a recruiter for one engineerb) Buys a lot of things from non-loathsome
people
$25,000
Hiring As A FunnelOutreachAttractAsses
sClose
100 Geeks1001061
General Principles Track it, track it, track it. Sustained effort from founders /
engineering management. Incorporate hiring into day-to-day life of
company. Play long ball.
Goal: increase number of qualified candidates who know your firm is an option
Outreach
Basecamp: Strong Hiring Funnel
Use the events which already exist in your community. If they don’t exist, create them.
Events
MakeLeaps Runs “Hacker News Tokyo”
How Every Dev Ends Their Talks So that was fun. Here are my slides:
http://example.com/linky-linky By the way we’re hiring.
How Your Devs Should End Their Talks
Thanks! We’d love to talk to you more. If you’d like to learn more about this, we
have a lesson here: http://example.com/linky-linky or send [email protected] an email.
The thing I like most about working here is…
We’re hiring and I can jump you to the top of the queue, see me later.
Or, how to create the best candidates in the world for exactly your job.
Cryptopals
Cryptopals Overview Seven problem sets which teach cryptography,
soup to nuts. ~2 weeks of development time upfront. Graded manually. Administered over email. Grading/correspondence was 50% of one junior
FTE… for hundreds of participants. Problem set eight is “Want to work here? Let’s
talk.”
Chapter 1 of 7
Holy Difficulty Curve Batman
Clone Cryptopals. It Will Work! Pick an interesting part of your problem domain. Teach it to interested folks. Start accessible, work
upwards. Don’t build any software. Make it maximally easy to get started.
Don’t make it public. (Cannibalizes perceived value.) Feed interesting folks into hiring funnel.
Don’t use this for assessment!
… But don’t do one. Seriously, that’s our job.
CTFs: Very Valuable!
The Product As Friendcatcher
“Want To Pair With Us?”
In which developers guaranteed to be interested in your company line up and ask to be counted.
OSS / API
Goal: Increase number of qualified candidates who apply for a job
Attract
Send Them A Book: $25 + S&H
Reducing Cost Of Interaction With You “Apply for a job” is a huge mental commitment.
“Come have lunch with the team on Thursday.” is not. “Let’s grab coffee and talk shop.” is less of one.
You can upgrade any conversation into a job application. Just say “Are you interested in working together?”
Always, always, always offer “If you X / since you Xed, we dispense with a bit of the formalities.”
Improve Copywriting For Job Ads The job ads has one purpose. Is it:
To keep HR happy To exhaustively list what requirements
apply to the job To detail in exquisite detail your 401k
matching
Job Ad: Get Them To Talk To You
Dozens of Great Candidates, For Free
This ad has voice, intrigue, and sells the desirability of asking for more details.
Goal: Increase number of desirable applicants you successfully identify from applicant pool
Assess
How To Read a Resume
Work Sample Tests
How Effective Are They?
Developing One For Your Company Create an in-house application which
roughly represents day to day challenges Knock out a representative feature which
takes ~2 hours to implement Package in a Vagrant VM Give it to the candidate
Evaluating The Tests Written rubric followed slavishly
“Did the candidate unit test the $FOO case?” “Did the candidate unit test the $FOO case (failing) ?”
Capture as much granular signal as possible Test grader != hiring manager for the candidate
Forces your “internal test API” to be better Refine the test over time as you find what
outcomes predict your best actual employees.
Sell The Job, Even If You Don’t Give Offer
Goal: Increase rate at which offers convert to employees
Close
Quick Tips To Raise Your Hit Rate Communicate status with the spirit of Steli. Ridiculous leverage in a designed offer letter
and/or customized presentation to candidate. Have rational expectations about market rate.
Can’t afford market? Train more or expand risk profile.
Ask candidates who took other jobs what attracted them to the other position.
Treat All Candidates Like Peers
Thanks! I Like Hearing From People [email protected] I love hearing
from people in software, at any time, for any reason. You cannot waste my time.
Talk to me about hiring. I’ll probably have beta invites in ~3
weeks – feel free to email me for them.
