How To Snatch Up The Best Tech Talent

a dime a dozen

When it comes to hiring the right talent, some startups excel at attracting and closing great engineers, while others run into trouble in this area. If you find yourself falling into the latter category, don’t fret–our recruiters are here to help with some advice.

Our team specializes in the technology sector (specifically within emerging markets), so we understand what it takes for startups to land in-demand engineers. We do it every day and we put together the following tips to help you get those positions filled.

Have a good understanding of where your company stands–and hire accordingly

Most startups can’t compete with the compensation packages from–or the reputations of–companies like NetFlix, Google and Facebook. The good news is that most engineers understand this. Great engineers with degrees from the likes of MIT, Stanford and Berkeley will come to the startup world for the challenge, collaboration and impact. If you’re one of 10,000 engineers at a huge company, moving to a smaller team of ten where you can provide input on architectural decisions and strategy can have huge appeal.

Having a greater impact on the product and decision-making are recurring themes amongst candidates we talk to. A company’s mission, DNA and culture are also a big draw. Recognize this and really sell these aspects of your company during the interview process. And don’t forget equity. Having a piece of the pie for a promising company is a big attraction for many.

Court every candidate–even if they might not be the right fit right now

Inviting someone to interview is just that – an invitation. It’s the same as inviting someone to your home. If people are friendly and candidates have a good experience, they’ll remember that and become a brand ambassador even if they don’t get hired.

A company should always provide VIP treatment, especially to those engineers that don’t make it through the interview process. Remember how powerful word of mouth is, and that people are much more likely to be vocal about negative experiences. Understand that the hiring process also reflects a company’s culture in general. A painful interview process is a red flag to a candidate that it may not be the ideal environment for them.

Be aware of the importance of work-life balance–especially for more experienced candidates

For the most part, companies now recognize that mandating a 50+ hour work week is not acceptable to most candidates, but this point bears mentioning. There’s a dearth of engineering talent, so engineers have more options and choices than ever before. Candidates are usually turned off by brutal environments.

People have lives, friends, hobbies, children and a million things going on other besides work. While employees should be invested deeply in a company’s success, they can’t be expected to spend every waking moment working. Startups that value work-life balance will attract the most people.

Don’t drag out the hiring process–you will lose a great candidate to a competitor

One of our recruiters has a great saying related to this: time kills all deals. The longer the hiring process takes, the less likely you are to successfully land a great candidate. Talented people typically don’t stay on the market for long. Process duration is somewhat dependent on the level of the role–we’ve seen it take anywhere from less than a week to more than three months.

However, if a company really knows what they need, a solid candidate should be able to make it from first contact to offer in about two weeks, provided there aren’t scheduling conflicts that delay interviews.

Mike Tumasian and Mike Bearden are recruiters with Riviera Partners, a technology recruiting firm based in California.

3 Key Questions To Ask Before Hiring For Your Startup

Startup Tips, Hiring for your startup,YEC, Guest Post, MySocialCloudOne of the hardest but most exciting things about being a young entrepreneur, first-time business owner or even a startup manager is the hiring process. But there are a few things you have to think about before green-lighting a new startup employee, especially in the earliest stages of starting up.

Here are 3 questions to guide you:

1. Do you really NEED another employee?

When you’re first starting out, you’re hiring someone for one of two reasons: (1) because you have pushed your own limits of how much you can work in a day (aka you’re going insane by working so much), or (2), the person you’re hiring has a skill that you simply don’t have and the time spent learning that skill would not be worth it for your business.

Think of yourself — how many hours you put in, how much work you do to spur your business or the business you’re working for. Now duplicate yourself. Is there actually enough work to be done that there could be a clone of you working simultaneously and not be bored or off-task throughout the day?

And if you simply don’t have a skill needed, rethink that aspect of your business. Is there anyone else already on the team that has that particular skill? Is that task that you think needs to get done absolutely core to your business? If yes, then hire. If not, then hold off until it’s absolutely necessary.

2. How do you hire? Immediately, or a trial period?

Companies bring new hires onto the team in different ways. Some startups tend to hire people like developers on a Friday as salaried employees, and ask them to be at work on Monday — mostly because their skill set is definite and because their job takes place in a space that needs to be confined. (We can’t have our engineers working from Starbucks while writing all of our code to improve security on our site.)

Hiring business teams works a little bit differently. Many of these jobs rely on longer-term objectives and relationships that take time to build, combined with some sort of measurable ROI. At MySocialCloud, we help our employees transition from previous activities (working at another company, going to school, unemployment) to working on our team with a two-week “trial period.”

We give them a couple of tasks and some actionable items for the two weeks. They can choose how and when they go about accomplishing the tasks by the set date. After the two weeks, we go through an evaluation process: Did they complete the actionable tasks? How well were they completed? Did they go above and beyond? Did they, as ambitious people who know it takes more effort to work at a startup, take the initiative to add their own tasks to that list to help spur the business?

If all of these tasks are completed at a level that exceeds your expectation, it’s time to hire!

Pro tip: Interview A LOT of people. Look at a lot of different candidates. At the very least, it gives you a perspective of who NOT to hire, which helps you hone in on the qualities and skills of a person who truly fits on your team.

3. Do you offer equity and if so, when/how much?

When it comes to equity in a new company, there are two main pitfalls to avoid.

One is the overly generous mentality. There are some first-time founders who hand out equity for their startup like nobody’s business. They give equity to every new employee, and anyone who has helped them with advice or getting a meeting with an important person. DON’T do this! Equity at a startup is worth next to nothing, and the only way it becomes something is if you make it something. Only give it to people who really contribute (e.g. another co-founder, a technical lead on your team, etc.). And don’t forget to make it vesting.

The flip side is the “hoarding” mentality. These are the founders who know for a fact that their business is worth bazillions of dollars and they want to have it all. DON’T be this person, either. As mentioned above, startup equity means nothing unless your team makes it worth something — you can’t build a business by yourself.

You do need some people on your team to have equity (maybe not all of them, but definitely some of them). At the very least, it motivates them to work harder knowing they have a large potential payout once you reach your goals.

Stacey Ferreira co-founded MySocialCloud, a technology startup that allows people to store their usernames and passwords for all their online websites for auto-login and share websites with friends easily, during her senior year of high school with her brother, Scott. When she was just 18, she raised a seed round of funding of just under $1 million from Sir Richard Branson and Jerry Murdock.

The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, the YEC recently launched #StartupLab, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses via live video chats, an expert content library and email lessons.

Check out the hiring for your rockstar panel at everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference, EE14, Early Bird tickets and booths still available.

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