Comprehensive Guide to Resources for Hiring Great People
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Looking for services to help with sourcing: See this list of services for hiring engineers.
Step 0: Company wide
Goes without saying: Do people like working here? Do they think it is a promising opportunity? Would they want to recommend it?
Do you know where more talent is truly needed?
Begin by taking a look at your existing [company] and identify where your company’s skill set is strong and where it can be improved.
Tweaked from http://feld.com/archives/2006/12/recruiting-a-new-director.html
Do you know what kind of engineer you are looking for? Is your answer stage appropriate?
… not the ‘low in the organization, straight out of school, scrappy, badass engineering hire’ you are looking for for your first 2–3 hires. Usually investors know people later in their careers who have worked in their portfolio (or who network a lot). These types of people typically want to manage a bunch of people but not really get their hands dirty with all night coding. This is often the worst possible first hire for you on the engineering side — they will be expensive (cash and equity), not do a lot of work themselves, and potentially bring in a lot of habits from their enterprise software (or whatever) experience. There are always exception to the rule, but I have found this to be true more often than not.
http://blog.eladgil.com/2010/02/ninja-hiring-techniques-for-early-stage.html
If you are hiring your first 5 engineers, have you read: http://blog.eladgil.com/2010/02/hiring-first-5-engineers-what-sort-of.html
Do you know how you are evaluating a position?
Establish and prioritize your selection criteria: The criteria you determine you need from your GAP analysis are unlikely to be equal in importance given the current state of your company and the nature of your existing [team]. Make sure you’ve got a handle on the critical capabilities, the nice to have ones, and the ones that don’t really matter much.
Adapted from http://feld.com/archives/2006/12/recruiting-a-new-director.html
Have you thought about values in hiring?
Here’s an example: Businessweek says hiring managers are now asking candidates questions like, What’s your favorite movie? Or, What’s the last book you read for fun? If you’re asking interview questions like these at your startup, you need to make sure you’re screening for values and not for vibe. Just sharing your love of The Big Lebowski doesn’t make someone a good cultural fit for your company: in fact, it’s often the people who give unexpected answers who end up being your company’s most creative problem-solvers.
http://feld.com/archives/2013/08/dilbert-on-cultural-fit.html
Has the hiring manger acted in the role they are hiring for?
The very best way to know what you want is to act in the role. Not just in title, but in real action — run the team meeting, hold 1:1s with the staff, set objectives, etc. In my career, I’ve been acting VP of HR, CFO, and VP of Sales. Often CEOs resist acting in functional roles, because they worry that they lack the appropriate knowledge. This worry is precisely why you should act — to get the appropriate knowledge. In fact, acting is really the only way to get all of the knowledge that you need to make the hire, because you are looking for the right executive for your company today not a generic executive.
http://www.bhorowitz.com/hiring_executives_if_you_ve_never_done_the_job_how_do_you_hire_somebody_good
Do you know what the person will be doing in their first 30 days?
Finally, be clear in your own mind on your expectations for this person upon joining your company. What will this person do in the first 30 days? What do you expect their motivation to be for joining? Will they instantly have 10 reqs to hire or will they have 1?
http://www.bhorowitz.com/hiring_executives_if_you_ve_never_done_the_job_how_do_you_hire_somebody_good
Candidate Profile and Qualifications. There should be a universal understanding of what the profile is and why the company is looking for this new hire. What is the charter of this hire over the next six months to one year? What does the company/hiring manager expect this person to deliver during this timeframe and what does success look like for this hire one year out?
http://peter.a16z.com/2012/01/17/what-now-hiring/
Are you using a search firm if you are looking for an executive hire?
During this phase, the hiring manager also should identify the interviewing team and start the selection of a search firm. In most cases, the company’s internal network will not be sufficient to identify the absolute best candidate and a search firm is recommended. There are exceptions to this, but in most cases, thinking that the company has enough contacts often results in a substantial delay.
http://peter.a16z.com/2012/01/17/what-now-hiring/
Do you know what the motivations of the person joining will be?
Finally, be clear in your own mind on your expectations for this person upon joining your company. What will this person do in the first 30 days? What do you expect their motivation to be for joining? Will they instantly have 10 reqs to hire or will they have 1?
http://www.bhorowitz.com/hiring_executives_if_you_ve_never_done_the_job_how_do_you_hire_somebody_good
Are you aiming high enough? Have you met a top 10 person/expert to work out what a great candidate looks like?
Aim high — much higher than you think you should. Work with your entire network (mentors, investors, customers, partners and friends) to help you identify the top 10 people in the world for the role. Try to meet every single one of them, even if they may not be looking for a new role. It helps to know what to aim for. I was surprised at how many superstars were actually very humble, approachable and culturally compatible with my team.
http://scott.a16z.com/2014/01/29/building-your-recruiting-muscle-2/ In addition to acting in the role, it helps greatly to bring in domain experts. If you know a great head of sales, interview them first and learn what they think made them great. Figure out which of those strengths most directly match the needs of your company. If possible, include the domain expert in the interview process.
http://www.bhorowitz.com/hiring_executives_if_you_ve_never_done_the_job_how_do_you_hire_somebody_good
Are you working with the best recruiters? Are you willing to pay up?
Don’t be cheap. If you have the money and the business is scaling, don’t shy away from using the best (and sometimes most expensive) recruiters. These recruiters will know — or unearth — the crazy-great candidates who are often stuck vesting-out at large companies. And don’t be afraid to pay market salary and equity for top talent — they are always worth it. I see many founders waste too much time trying to work their networks and/or ultimately settle for mediocre, but available candidates. You will definitely have to interview hard for cultural fit, but the best talent isn’t cheap.
http://scott.a16z.com/2014/01/29/building-your-recruiting-muscle-2/
If you’re looking for a VP of Sales, are you ‘hiring different?’
http://john.a16z.com/2012/10/23/hire-different/
Are you planning on hiring the best, or just the best of those that you interviewed?
“Hire the best” is a well-known Silicon Valley maxim, but many companies fail to diffrentiate between “hiring the best” and “hiring the best candidate you interviewed.”
http://algeri-wong.com/yishan/engineering-management-hiring.html
Are you waiting too long?
Interviewing too many folks. You will always hear stories about the best hire ever after seeing 100 people. Those stories are legendary. On the other hand, you rarely hear the stories that start with “we could not find the perfect QA leader so we waited and waited until we had a quality crisis.” Yet these latter stories happen far too often.
http://blog.learningbyshipping.com/2014/04/03/hiring-for-a-job-you-never-did-or-cant-do/
If you’re looking for a sales guy, have you read:
http://blog.learningbyshipping.com/2015/02/06/that-first-sales-or-marketing-hire/
http://www.bhorowitz.com/through_the_looking_glass_hiring_sales_people
If you’re hiring a PM, have you read:
http://blog.learningbyshipping.com/2015/04/07/hiring-your-first-product-manager/
If you’re hiring a data scientist, have you read:
http://firstround.com/review/how-to-consistently-hire-remarkable-data-scientists/
If you’re hiring a designer, GV has a bunch of articles:
https://www.gv.com/library/hiring
In fact, if you’re hiring anyone, you should read the above. They are very thorough and give a sense for the entire process for a specific candidate type.
Do you have any existing players who you think might not be able to ‘scale up’? Are you beginning the process now?
Once you have a sense that you need to make a change, start the process immediately. It almost always takes longer than you want it to (think 6–9 months, not 2–3 months)
http://scott.a16z.com/2011/12/21/hiring-rockstars/
Are you running a good process? Are you handling reference checks, making sure the requirements are rock solid, and that there is a defined interview team?
With respect to the SpiderNet situation, there were several mistakes made with the current process. First, there was no input from either the board or the other executives on the job specifications. It is particularly important to gain agreement on the position and have the interviewing team help develop the requirements. Second, there wasn’t a defined interview team and the results of the interviews felt a bit ad hoc. Having a defined interview team should be part of the process. Finally, the CEO left reference checking to the search firm, which was a huge error in judgment and probably the biggest mistake of the entire process.
http://peter.a16z.com/2012/01/17/what-now-hiring/
Are you engaged and talking with all employees regularly to identify what is missing?
I engaged myself in the cadence of the business: product, sales, strategy, finance. I met with all our employees, asked questions, and tried to identify areas of weakness. But instead of stopping after I met with all our employees for the first time, I kept going, every day and every month afterwards, such that I “felt” what was happening in the organization. I understood our “DNA” and as a result I could make changes that were credible and respected.
http://peter.a16z.com/2011/11/07/founder-re-org-possible-outcomes/
Are you aligning your recruiting pushes with press pushes?
Often founders forget that press is a great tool to drive not only customer adoption, but also recruiting. For example, in preparation for launch, Stoe built up an outbound list of star candidates Rockmelt wanted to recruit the first week they launched, right as the press hit. Rockmelt then had an instant pipeline of technical talent, which converted into a few hires and carried the company over to their next milestone six months later, their Series B. Stoe then turned to building a recruiting team for the company to reach the following milestone and the process continued.
http://firstround.com/review/Asana-Head-of-Talent-on-the-secrets-to-finding-a-great-startup-recruiter/
Are you aware that when you begin recruiting it will take 4–8 weeks to build a pipeline?
Once, you as a founder, start spending 30–50% of your time on recruiting, it will still take 4–8 weeks to build up an initial pipeline of people for your company. Plan on this ramp when thinking through your hiring timeline and plan. Building a pipeline and closing the first candidates takes time.
http://blog.eladgil.com/2014/07/recruiting-is-grind.html
Are you aware of how much of a ‘grind’ recruiting is?
We hired a designer at my first startup by grinding through candidates. Our first attempt was to go through our direct personal networks, but that did not yield anyone. As a next step, we made a list of companies that had the following characteristics for their design teams: (a) technical designers (e.g. could write HTML/CSS), (b) had good UI design in general, © designers not overly specialized (e.g. designers who could do a bit of user experience, visual design, etc.). Based on this we ended up with 5 companies. I went through LinkedIn and combed through literally every designer who worked at those companies. I reviewed >100 available portfolios, prioritized the people, and then reached out to every single person who made the cut. After 6 weeks we closed our designer, who was pretty spectacular. It took a lot of repetitive, detailed work to make this happen.
http://blog.eladgil.com/2014/07/recruiting-is-grind.html
Are you including tests for the ability to ‘get shit done’ in your process?
Read: http://blog.eladgil.com/2011/09/hire-for-ability-to-get-shit-done.html
Are you baking in culture fit into your recruiting process?
Read: http://blog.eladgil.com/2012/04/never-ever-compromise-hiring-for.html
Founders
Take a look at your calendar. Did you spend 30%+ of your time in the last 7 days on recruiting? Do you have 30%+ of your time over the next 7 days scheduled for recruiting related activities?
Throughout the early stages of a company’s life, the founding team should continue to spend at least 30% to 40% of their time recruiting. If you’re not, then it’s not a priority and you can’t expect to build a great team.
http://firstround.com/review/Asana-Head-of-Talent-on-the-secrets-to-finding-a-great-startup-recruiter/
Who should be doing the recruiting / build a recruiting org
See: http://blog.eladgil.com/2014/08/building-recruiting-org.html
Have you thought about contracting a recruiting firm? (The right time for this can be once the company “surpasses 15 employees and wants to hire eight to ten more in the next few months”)
Recruiting agencies are also still an important way to supplement efforts at the top of your hiring funnel. “As long as you leverage them for what they do best, agencies can serve a really valuable purpose in terms of helping you surface an array of candidates to pull from. I find agencies are really great for senior hires,” Feng says.
http://firstround.com/review/the-simple-numbers-that-could-change-how-you-hire/ Changes in the recruiting process occur once a company surpasses 15 employees and wants to hire eight to ten more in the next few months. At this point, it’s time for the founders to step back from taking full responsibility fro the entire recruiting process and consider a dedicated recruiter to manager the funnel.
http://firstround.com/review/Asana-Head-of-Talent-on-the-secrets-to-finding-a-great-startup-recruiter/
If you’re hiring recruiting help, do you know whether you want a full-time in house recruiter, a contract recruiter, a contingency recruiter, or on-demand recruiting help?
You should definitely read this whole post if you’re thinking of paying for help.
http://firstround.com/review/Ive-Worked-with-Hundreds-of-Recruiters-Heres-What-I-Learned/
Step 1: The environment
Do you know what enviroment software developers thrive in?
Software development is a creative activity and needs to be treated as such. Sometimes a programmer can have an idea on, say, the subway that can save weeks of work or add some great new functionality. Business people who don’t understand this make the mistake of emphasizing mechanistic metrics like the number of hours in the office and the number of bugs fixed per week. This is demoralizing and counterproductive. Of course if you are running a company you need to have deadlines, but you can do so while also being very flexible about how people reach them.
http://cdixon.org/2011/12/29/recruiting-programmers-to-your-startup/ See also — Peopleware, http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/FieldGuidetoDevelopers.html
Do you understand what the customer wants?
The most important thing to understand is what motivates programmers. This is where having been a programmer yourself can be very helpful. In my experience programmers care about 1) working on interesting technical problems, 2) working with other talented people, 3) working in a friendly, creative environment, 4) working on software that ends up getting used by lots of people. Like everyone, compensation matters, but for programmers it is often a “threshold variable”. They want enough to not have to spend time worrying about money, but once an offer passes their minimum compensation threshold they’ll decide based on other factors.
http://cdixon.org/2011/12/29/recruiting-programmers-to-your-startup/
Do people work on developing the team?
But, in the same way that every VC investment doesn’t become a 100x return, every person you hire won’t turn out to be an A player. After a few months, you start to really understand the strengths and weaknesses of the person. And you see how the person interacts with the rest of your team. This is normal — there’s no way you could know any of this during the interview process.
http://feld.com/archives/2013/05/its-your-job-to-improve-your-team.html
Step 2: Compensation
Have you determined the title and comp?
Compensation and Reporting Framework. Determine the title, reporting structure and the compensation of the position. Not doing this upfront can often lead to misalignment late in the recruiting process.
http://peter.a16z.com/2012/01/17/what-now-hiring/
Do you realize you that if you are early you won’t beat Google on salary?
A few things not to do: you will never beat, say, Google on perks or job security so don’t even bother to pitch those. You’ll never beat Wall Street banks or rich big companies on cash salary so don’t pitch that either. You’ll never beat cofounding a company on the equity grant, but you can make a good case that, with the right equity grant, the risk/reward trade off of less equity with you is worth it.
http://cdixon.org/2011/12/29/recruiting-programmers-to-your-startup/
Are you pre-traction? Slack and Zenefits are post traction. Are you awarding fair equity grants, if so?
Throw out the old cap tables. A founder doesn’t get 30% and an early engineer shouldn’t get 0.25%. Those are old numbers from when you had to raise VC capital before you could build a product. Before everyone could and did start a company.
http://startupboy.com/2011/12/13/why-you-cant-hire/
For candidates that require slightly more money, have you considered using a signing bonus instead of breaking your salary structure?
Imagine the case of an engineer with a decade of experience who wants to work at a startup. If she has personal commitments to support, say a mortgage or healthcare expenses, a few thousand dollars might mean the difference between accepting the job at your company or a less-rewarding but higher-paying job somewhere else. Believing in a company isn’t always enough to overlook the practical sides of life. The most common solutions are: 1) hold firm on your offer, because you believe that a person should really want to work at your company and accepting a lower offer is proof of the candidate’s commitment; or 2) attempt to close the gap more directly by countering with a higher salary or more equity. Choose option one and you might lose the candidate. Option two dilutes your company or breaks your salary structure and still rarely closes the gap fully.
https://www.sequoiacap.com/grove/posts/avxw/why-startups-should-use-signing-bonuses
Step 3: Sourcing
Are you engaging and going where the talent is, rather than waiting for it to come to you?
“If you want to recruit great software developers, show up at the computer science lab with a bunch of pizza the night before a major project is due.”
http://feld.com/archives/2012/05/recruiting-software-developers-by-showing-up-with-pizza.html Think about where the people you want to hire are hanging out. What conferences do they go to? Where do they live? What organizations do they belong to? What websites do they read?
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/FindingGreatDevelopers.html 3) Companies that have been recently purchased. When a company is sold, the team is in play. Buyers know this and structure the deals to lock up key employees. But the combination of having had a decent payday on the purchase, having to wait a bit for the stay package to pay off, and the dread of working for a big, slow, bureacratic company is often enough to cut them loose. When a company sells, find out who the stars are on that team and go after them. It might take a bit of time to get them, but keep trying. They will free up in time.
http://avc.com/2012/05/mba-mondays-where-to-find-strong-talent/
Of the last 7 people who emailed to jobs@companyname or applied online, did you properly assess them and reply within 24 hours?
How many engineer-rich environments have you shown up to in the past 2 weeks?
Finding means making contact with good candidates. There are no shortcuts here. You need to show up to schools, hackathons, meetups — wherever great programmers hang out. If your existing employees love their jobs they will refer friends. Try to generate inbound contacts by creating buzz around your company. If you have trouble doing that (it’s hard), try simple things like blogging about topics that are interesting to programmers.
http://cdixon.org/2011/12/29/recruiting-programmers-to-your-startup/
Do you know if you can expend the extra effort to hire H1-B candidates? Some companies can, some cannot.
Are you familiar with the O-1 visa rules?
The O-1 can be a better alternative to an H1-B for candidates who have done substantial research.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O_visa
Have you really thought about where you should be sourcing from?
“Don’t just say, ‘Oh, Google has great engineers, I’m going to hire from Google.’ Be more thoughtful about the role you’re looking to fill. What skills does it require? What are the companies that exemplify those skills. Who’s the best there? You’ll probably end up with a very different list than you think.”
http://firstround.com/review/this-is-how-coursera-competes-against-google-and-facebook-for-the-best-talent/
If you’re hiring employee #1 have you thought extra hard about where you should be looking?
Two tips on this one (a) stick with it. You will find that first hire eventually. (b) look for people from startups that are not doing so great, as long as the candidate has not been there for many years. If they have been at a failing/not good startup too long, it often means they either have bad judgement or that they will be burnt out when they show up on their first day. However, if they are at a startup, it shows their willingness to take risk. Alternatively, look for people who used to work at a startup who are now at a larger company (e.g. one that bought their startup). This is not a hard and fast rule, but rather another criteria you may use when asking who in your network may be most willing to take the plunge.
http://blog.eladgil.com/2010/02/ninja-hiring-techniques-for-early-stage.html
Are you writing emails that you would want to respond to?
Maybe you also worked at Facebook before. Say that. Maybe you know some people on their current team. The key is to emphasize that you’re a real person who is interested in them specifically, out of all the other people you could be speaking to.
http://firstround.com/review/this-is-how-coursera-competes-against-google-and-facebook-for-the-best-talent/
Referrals
Have you worked with all employees to source candidates?
Work as a [company] to create a candidate pool: Engage all your [employees] in this as they are likely to be the best source of potential candidates. In addition, by getting everyone involved at this point, you’ll be able to confirm the capabilities you are looking for in your new [employee]. Tweaked from http://feld.com/archives/2006/12/recruiting-a-new-director.html
Have you asked everyone who has provided candidates for the best people that they are sure you would never be able to hire? Do you strongly emphasize that people should not just be listing people looking for jobs, or thinking of moving on on the next year — that they should be listing everyone who meets the bar of your company? Do you go through both LinkedIn and Facebook?
Levchin learned early on not to make this mistake. When PayPal was founded, he sat down and created a list of potential engineering hires. When he was done he had a single name written down. Levchin recounts demoralizing exercise, “Peter [Thiel] sat me down and he made me write down every smart person I knew in college personally. Turned out to be a list of about 30 people and we ended up hiring about 24 of those.”
http://firstround.com/review/the-trick-max-levchin-used-to-hire-the-best-engineers-at-PayPal/ When you do this lead-gen exercise, emphasize that you’re not only asking for people who are actively looking for work, or people who might change jobs soon. That’s too limiting. The only piece of data you should care about extracting is this: “Does this person meet our hiring standards?”
http://firstround.com/review/Mine-Your-Network-for-Early-Stage-Hiring-Gold/
Do you have a referral bonus ($1–2k for non engineers, higher than that for engineers)?
You should definitely offer a referral recruiting bonus. It varies, but generally speaking, $1,000 to $2,000 for non-engineering staff and up from there for good engineers is market rate.
http://firstround.com/review/Mine-Your-Network-for-Early-Stage-Hiring-Gold/
Do you reward team members publicly for helping with recruiting?
During a referral’s first week on the job, during our all-hands, we will not only welcome the new person, we will recognize how that person came in. We give the referrer their bonus on the spot.
http://firstround.com/review/the-simple-numbers-that-could-change-how-you-hire/
Do your employees understand the referral program, and why they would want to do it?
Make it very clearly quid pro quo. Your employees surface their best contacts for you (or your designated referral recruiter) to reach out to, and they assist in selling the role if the candidate makes it that far down the hiring funnel. If the person gets hired, your staffer gets the bonus, gets to work with a talented person, and accelerates the value of the company through the acquisition of high-quality human capital. And they hardly have to do any of the work themselves. Sounds like a sweet deal, right? Make sure they know that too.
http://firstround.com/review/Mine-Your-Network-for-Early-Stage-Hiring-Gold/
Are you looking to referrals of referrals?
Look to referrals of referrals. Look for the best person according to the best person according to the best person you know (yes, that’s two levels). If there is consensus among several of your best people, this is a fairly reliable indicator. It is difficult to go more than 3x per “link” though — people are typically unable to discern the difference between someone 9x as good as they are from someone who is 3x as good as they are; this is why you have to do the “best person you know” referral twice. First, you hire all the best people you know, work with them for awhile to find the best amongst them, and then find all the best people they know. It is a multiple-stage approach; many people don’t know this, and just assume that “refer the best people you know” is the end of it.
http://www.quora.com/How-do-you-distinguish-10X-software-engineers-from-the-rest/answer/Yishan-Wong
Do you ensure that referrals are still subjected to a thorough process?
The trouble is that suddenly you can see the little gears turning, and employees start dragging in everyone they can think of for interviews, and they have a real strong incentive to get these people hired, so they coach them for the interview, and Quiet Conversations are held in conference rooms with the interviewers, and suddenly your entire workforce is trying to get you to hire someone’s useless college roommate.
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/FindingGreatDevelopers.html
Outbound
Have you tried all of the recruiting marketplaces, especially for junior hires?
First there are the tried and true: Facebook, GitHub, Stack Overflow. Feng also advises startups to look at the latest new marketplaces — places like Whitetruffle, Hired.com, Geeklist, and HackerRankX — which can be particularly valuable for finding more junior hires.
http://firstround.com/review/the-simple-numbers-that-could-change-how-you-hire/
Are you using LinkedIn correctly?
(i) See who everyone you know on LinkedIn is connected to. (ii) Ask each person you know who is connected to someone who looks like a good engineer for an email intro. (iii) Do not use LinkedIn messaging to make this request. Send the email directly to the person’s personal email address. They will then forward it to the candidate’s email. (iv) The candidate will see the email in their inbox and think “Wow, my friend Sameer passed this on personally — I should really talk to this startup founder”. Anything passed directly on LinkedIn via their messaging system will largely be ignored. (v) Make sure to personalize the email to the candidiate and use social proof that your startup is badass (e.g. mention investors if they are well known, link to a TechCrunch/GigaOm/Venturebeat article etc.)
http://blog.eladgil.com/2010/02/ninja-hiring-techniques-for-early-stage.html
Have you identified specific areas where you will focus your efforts? Dominate a community. Pick a company/school/niche community, and really get to know all the people in that space. Then, start working out who the best people are. And then, go after them — ideally, somewhat simultaneously. The advantage: you get compounding effort over time if you recruit the best of a community — then more want to follow. It becomes far easier to build a brand within a niche community, and expand it.
Have a few of your engineers vetted your recruiting emails?
Are you following up once or twice?
You’d be AMAZED by how much a short follow up helps. It gives you the chance to prove all kinds of things:
http://firstround.com/review/Mine-Your-Network-for-Early-Stage-Hiring-Gold/
Are you talking to people of a higher seniority of your goal candidate to get referred to candidates?
Talk With Manager/Director Level People Even if You Wont Hire Them. Some people avoid reaching out to manager or director level hires as they may be “too senior” for the role you are hiring for. This may be true, but they have managed a large number of people in the past. Ask them to refer the top 2 people who no longer work for them to you.
http://blog.eladgil.com/2010/02/ninja-hiring-techniques-for-early-stage.html
Are you being persistent?
Don’t Take No For An Answer. Often the first reply to an email introduction by your friend to a candidate will have the candidiate reply “Sorry, I am not looking now”. At this point you should not say thank you and move on. Instead, ask for 5 minutes of their time e.g. “I understand you are not looking. Nonetheless, I have heard great things about you. Can we talk for 5 minutes just in case you are interested in the future or know someone else who might be interested in the role”. Many of the best people are not looking. You need to convince people why even though they are not looking, yours is an opportunity they can not miss. Furthermore, even if they are not looking now, they may suddenly have a new boss they hate 3 months from now and they will follow up with you then (this has happened to me over and over — people follow up a few months later and want to talk again).
http://blog.eladgil.com/2010/02/ninja-hiring-techniques-for-early-stage.html
Step 4: Screening/Talking to candidates
For advice on screening resumes, read: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/SortingResumes.html
Have you explained the process to candidates who have confirmed interest?
Explain your process to each prospective [team] member: Be candid and upfront with each potential [employee] that you talk to. Explain what you are looking for, why you are looking, and what your time frame and process is. Explain that the ultimate decision whether to invite the candidate onto the [team] is a shared decision of a company and that a number of interviews need to be undertaken in order to actually extend an offer to join the [team]. Emphasize that the diligence process is a two-way street and that the candidate should feel comfortable performing their own diligence on the opportunity. Finally, explain that other candidates are being considered so there are no surprises.
Adapted from http://feld.com/archives/2006/12/recruiting-a-new-director.html
Would a candidate have a question at any point about what the next step is? Eliminate confusion from their side.
Do you know what answers you want to get while screening?
When you end a screening call, you should have answers to these questions: What is the person currently working on and why are they excited about it? What impact is it making for and within the company? Why did they choose to work on that project?
http://firstround.com/review/this-is-how-coursera-competes-against-google-and-facebook-for-the-best-talent/
Are you appropriately aggressive about preventing bad candidates from coming in and taking the teams time?
There are two possible mistakes you can make — you can either hire the wrong person or fail to hire the right one. None of us like to say no, but you should bias toward the latter. And doing so early in the process, even with limited data, saves time for everyone, including the candidate. “We tested this. We had some ambiguous phone screens and let the candidates through to onsites. None of them made it through to offers. Hard as it is, we’ve learned to be more disciplined.”
http://firstround.com/review/Mechanize-Your-Hiring-Process-to-Make-Better-Decisions/
Are you meeting the candidates that are happily employed but really promising in person for screening to sell them on the opportunity?
Are you avoiding meeting all other candidates in person as a first screen?
If you do not have a lot of experience hiring, you will be tempted to meet every candidate in person for “coffee”. This is a big waste of time and usually can cost you anywhere from 1 to 2 hours including travel time, waiting in line together for drinks, small talk, etc. I have not found meeting people for coffee in any way increase the likelihood of them interviewing versus a quick phone call.
http://blog.eladgil.com/2014/07/recruiting-is-grind.html
Are you screening (in person or on the phone) at least 15–20 people for one position?
Example screening questions:
http://blog.eladgil.com/2011/06/our-10-step-engineering-hiring-process.html
Coding tests
Do you want to do a coding test before the second phone screen?
To fairly and evenly weed out candidates — and protect your employees’ time — Gupta also recommends assigning a take-home coding test between phone screen one and phone screen two. “This assignment should be a trivial coding problem,” he says. In the past, he’s assigned something that would take a moderately skilled coder 10 minutes to finish. “What’s crazy is that even if you assign a problem like this, one that’s trivial, around 30% of people will fail — I couldn’t believe it at first.
http://firstround.com/review/Mechanize-Your-Hiring-Process-to-Make-Better-Decisions/
Coffee/In Person
Will they leave the coffee and want to work with you?
“You want answers to all these questions, but your other major goal should be stoking their excitement,” says Ciancutti. “Let’s say you have coffee with someone and they choose not to move to the onsite interview — that’s a really bad sign. There’s something you did during that coffee that wasn’t great. Maybe you didn’t have good chemistry with the candidate, or the conversation went in the wrong direction. Do your best to pinpoint it. Moving from a coffee to an interview should be very easy.”
http://firstround.com/review/this-is-how-coursera-competes-against-google-and-facebook-for-the-best-talent/
Do they commit to coming in at the end of the coffee?
If you’re still interested, just say it: “You know what, I’ve really enjoyed this conversation. Is there any chance you have a couple hours in the next few days to come in and meet a few people on the team?” Phrase it in a way that still keeps the stakes and risk low. People are much more likely to say yes to an interview when it isn’t intimidating, and this will maintain your momentum.
http://firstround.com/review/this-is-how-coursera-competes-against-google-and-facebook-for-the-best-talent/
Step 5: Interviews
Do you start the process with concrete skills, and move on to the more bias prone areas such as fit later?
Great data scientists must have very strong quantitative and programming skills. That’s non-negotiable. So we designed our process to test these skills first, then move on to more subjective (yet still measurable) skills like problem solving and communication. Only at the end do we get to the most subjective of all — how the candidate works on a team and fits into the culture.
http://firstround.com/review/how-to-consistently-hire-remarkable-data-scientists/
Are you using a standard interview process across candidates so that you can accurately compare?
Have you considered doing a trial-week?
People are often surprised when they hear about trial week, but to us it makes a lot of sense. It’s hard to tell from a few hours of conversation what someone is really like or how good she is at her job. And it’s hard for a candidate to tell what it’s really like to work with us. Everyone preaches culture, but few really have a great one. We’re looking for people who intend to stick around for several years — and that’s a big commitment — so why not take the time to make a well-researched decision?
https://www.sequoiacap.com/grove/posts/akzj/trial-week-our-hiring-secret
Have you considered doing a paid take home project?
In regards to what works the best, I found that these 2 ideas work the best when combined.
PAID Sample project assignment (err on the side of paying fairly — say $100+/hour for estimated completion time — if the problem should require 2 hours to complete, offer $200)
Bring the candidate in and discuss the solution. Let the candidate talk about their design decisions, challenge them as you would any team member and let them provide their reasoning.
https://medium.com/swlh/the-one-method-to-eliminate-bad-tech-hires-630d539b2e1d, HN discussion https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12915809
Do you avoid interviewers sharing their opinions with the next interviewers? This prevents bias.
We asked the interviewers not to let each other know what they thought of the candidate as they came out of the interview, so the next interviewer would not go in biased. Studies have shown that sharing your opinion of person A with person B (if B has not met A) biases the interactions B will then have with A.
http://blog.eladgil.com/2011/06/our-10-step-engineering-hiring-process.html
Do you know who should be interviewing the candidates?
Who will best help you figure out whether or not the candidate meets the criteria? These may be internal or external people. They can be board members, other executives or just experts.
http://www.bhorowitz.com/hiring_executives_if_you_ve_never_done_the_job_how_do_you_hire_somebody_good
Have you developed a set of questions to test the strengths you are looking for?
This step is important even if you never ask the candidate any of the pre-prepared questions. By writing down questions that test for what you want, you will get to a level of specificity that will be extremely difficult to achieve otherwise. As examples, below I include questions that I wrote for running the enterprise sales function and operational excellence.
http://www.bhorowitz.com/hiring_executives_if_you_ve_never_done_the_job_how_do_you_hire_somebody_good
Are your questions as comprehensive as Ben’s?
http://www.bhorowitz.com/hiring_executives_if_you_ve_never_done_the_job_how_do_you_hire_somebody_good
Has everyone who will interview the candidate gone through interview training?
I believe that everyone who comes into contact with a candidate should go through interview training. Even if the person doing the interviewing is a senior person, they should hear from the HR department what the company’s interviewing philosophy is. Just because they understand the Microsoft interviewing philosophy and conducted interviews there for 10 years doesn’t mean they know how to interview at a small startup, or what that start up is looking for.
http://feld.com/archives/2011/07/rings-philosophy-on-interviewing.html
Are you avoiding interviewing only one person simultaneously?
Approach at least three candidates simultaneously: Not everyone will be interested in the opportunity you’re offering. In addition, after the first meeting, you might not be interested in the candidate. By approaching a few candidates at the same time, you’ll benefit from being able to compare the candidates while hedging your bets in case a few of them aren’t interested (or interesting.)
http://feld.com/archives/2006/12/recruiting-a-new-director.html
Are you spending enough time with a candidate? A side benefit of this — high quality people generally aren’t interested in someone who seems too easy to impress…
Have more than one meetings: Make sure you spend enough time with each candidate that you are seriously considering. Get to know the person — just like you would with anyone that you would add to your team.
Adapted from http://feld.com/archives/2006/12/recruiting-a-new-director.html
Is your process rock-solid with no hitches? Could you have a friend come in and test it, even?
Have an awesome engineering process that you are pros at and can showcase in the interview. We lost a great candidate because our process was in flux and he sussed out our eng management wasn’t committed to the new way
http://feld.com/archives/2011/12/more-on-recruiting-programmers-to-your-startup.html
Do you look at real code they have written?
The only reliable gauge I’ve found for future programmer success is looking at real code they’ve written, talking through bigger picture issues, and, if all that is swell, trying them out for size.
https://signalvnoise.com/posts/3071-why-we-dont-hire-programmers-based-on-puzzles-api-quizzes-math-riddles-or-other-parlor-tricks
Do you do a work-sample test?
Scheduling can be tough for this sort of thing but even if it’s for just 20 or 40 hours, it’s better than nothing. If it’s a good or bad fit, it will be obvious. And if not, both sides save themselves a lot of trouble and risk by testing out the situation first.
http://gettingreal.37signals.com/ch08_Kick_the_Tires.php
Give your candidate something to do. This creates a bit of productive stress and shows you what they’re made of. For example, ask a sales person to do a presentation. We’ve axed many sales people because they fell apart during the presentation.
http://feld.com/archives/2011/07/angela-baldoneros-philosophy-on-interviewing.html
Do you start the interview with an introduction, offer of beverage, and intro to the process?
Interviews hopefully consist of the following: Introduction from the person doing the interview including name, role, and tenure, and what they like about working with the company. Offer of a beverage and the opportunity to use the restroom. Explanation of what will happen during the interview. (We have some questions for you, I’d like to be able to answer any questions you have at the end, HR will tell you what your next steps are)
http://feld.com/archives/2011/07/rings-philosophy-on-interviewing.html
For positions that you don’t know how to do, are you avoiding having the candidate teach you how they do it?
Asking candidates to teach you. A good candidate will of course know more than you. Their interview is not a time for them to teach you what they do for a living. The interview is for you to learn the specifics of a given candidate, not the job function. The best bet is to do your homework. If you’re hiring your first sales leader then use your network and talk to some subject matter experts and learn the steps of the role ahead of time.
http://blog.learningbyshipping.com/2014/04/03/hiring-for-a-job-you-never-did-or-cant-do/
If you don’t have multiple engineers, are you having additional extremely competent people interview candidates?
Before we had multiple engineers on the team, we would ask out strongest technical friends to come by and interview people to help us. This allowed us to ensure we always had ~4 engineers interview every candidate, even if we were just 2 founders to start with. As we scaled to past 4 people, we still had every engineer on the team met every hire.
http://blog.eladgil.com/2011/06/our-10-step-engineering-hiring-process.html
Are you stopping the interviews if it is clear the candidate is not a fit?
Also a must: You need to track progress throughout the day. If it becomes clear the candidate is not right for the role — maybe they flunk that first coding exercise — cut things off. Don’t think you have to finish out the schedule. “This is really awkward the first three times you do it, but you get comfortable with it,” he says. “Believe it or not, I’ve cut people off and maintained the relationship. People respect that you won’t waste their time.”
http://firstround.com/review/this-is-how-coursera-competes-against-google-and-facebook-for-the-best-talent/ I asked each interviewer what they thought of the candidate over IM immediately after each interview (basic thumbs up or down). If enough people gave a thumbs down, I would cut off the rest of the interviews to save engineering time. I.e. the time of our engineering team was too precious to waste on candidates that had people think they were not strong enough for the team.
http://blog.eladgil.com/2011/06/our-10-step-engineering-hiring-process.html
Are you verifying assumptions about their skills? (i.e. that a Googler might know about building distributed systems)
Don’t assume that just because someone worked at Google they’re going to have extensive knowledge of distributed systems. Google-sized companies often have pre-built infrastructure and engineers don’t need to know how to build it in order to use it. Every time Stripe has made assumptions about someone’s ability they’ve turned out to be wrong. Seek personal references from people who have worked with them.
http://firstround.com/review/How-Stripe-built-one-of-Silicon-Valleys-best-engineering-teams/
Selling while interviewing
Do you realize that you also need to sell your company while interviewing?
You want the candidate feeling like your company is a great place to work and remembering the experience as one of the best, especially if they made it through a few rounds. You want them telling their friends and family about your company, your openings, your products and especially your team.
http://feld.com/archives/2011/07/rings-philosophy-on-interviewing.html Levchin realized the best engineers wanted to be challenged both in their jobs and in the interview process. “We cultivated a very public culture of being incredibly hard to get in. Even though it was actually very hard to get good people to even interview, we made a point of broadcasting that it’s incredibly hard to even so much as get into the door at PayPal. You have to be IQ of 190 to begin with, and then you have to be an amazing coder, and then five other requirements. The really, really smart people looked at it and said, ‘That’s a challenge. I’m going to go interview there just to prove to these suckers that I’m better.’ Of course, by end of the conversation, I’m like, ‘Maybe you want to come get a job here because you’re pretty amazing.’”
http://firstround.com/review/the-trick-max-levchin-used-to-hire-the-best-engineers-at-PayPal/
Few people see it this way, but the hiring process should really be about relationship building. “Know that candidates are evaluating every interaction they have with you, with your team and with your company,” he says. “When you decide you want to hire someone, you want to have that feeling of, ‘We definitely got him.’”
http://firstround.com/review/this-is-how-coursera-competes-against-google-and-facebook-for-the-best-talent/
Do you press hard enough that the candidate will feel that you have a high bar for talent?
Are your most impressive employees/engineers involved in the interviewing? Will candidates realize how impressive these engineers are? (This is important as a sell)
End of interview meeting
Does the hiring manager sit down with the candidate at the end of the day?
If the person does make it to the end of the day, the hiring manager should meet with them again — not for an interview, but a friendly conversation. They’re probably depleted. They may be nervous about how one of the interactions went. They’re vulnerable. Use this time to relieve them and get them more comfortable with you. “Answer any questions they have and take your time. Don’t have a hard stop. Make them feel like this is the only thing in the world you need to do,” Ciancutti says.
http://firstround.com/review/this-is-how-coursera-competes-against-google-and-facebook-for-the-best-talent/
During this meeting do you ask them about which company they would pick with identical comp offers from all, and why?
This time should also serve another purpose — to see where the candidate is in their thinking. Don’t be shy about asking them who else they’re interviewing with. If they say something like, “Another startup in San Francisco,” ask them who. It pays to be specific here. Ask them what interests them about their other opportunities. Ask them how they feel about your company. What are they most excited about? Most concerned about? Which interview that day was their favorite?
http://firstround.com/review/this-is-how-coursera-competes-against-google-and-facebook-for-the-best-talent/
Do you ask ‘What are the chances you’re going to be at your current employer a year from today?’
This question is so open-ended, you tend to get a really authentic perspective on how they see their job right now that’s different from what they said before.
http://firstround.com/review/this-is-how-coursera-competes-against-google-and-facebook-for-the-best-talent/
Do you ask what comp packages they are looking at?
The other critical point to hit is their current compensation and whether they’re at the offer stage with anyone else. If so, what kind of packages are they looking at? “It may seem like most people wouldn’t volunteer that information, but over 85% of the candidates we interview at Coursera wind up giving us those specifics,” says Ciancutti. “Young people in particular will have the natural reaction not to tell you, but you can talk them through it. Make it clear that this data helps you and the company better understand your market. People are naturally inclined to be helpful.”
http://firstround.com/review/this-is-how-coursera-competes-against-google-and-facebook-for-the-best-talent/
Do you let them know the next step?
At the end of this wrap-up talk, let the candidate know what the next step is. Something like: “I’m going to talk to everyone you met with today, so let’s circle back sometime tomorrow.” At this point you’ve probably already met with several of the interviewers and have a pretty good sense of what you’re going to do.
http://firstround.com/review/this-is-how-coursera-competes-against-google-and-facebook-for-the-best-talent/
Step 6: References
Have you conducted thorough front-door and back-door references?
Backdoor reference checks (checks from people who know the candidate, but were not referred by the candidate) can be an extremely useful way to get an unbiased view. However, do not discount the front door references. While they clearly have committed to giving a positive reference (or they wouldn’t be on the list), you are not looking for positive or negative with them. You are looking for fit with your criteria. Often, the front door references will know the candidate best and will be quite helpful in this respect.
http://www.bhorowitz.com/hiring_executives_if_you_ve_never_done_the_job_how_do_you_hire_somebody_good
In general, you should do between 10 to 15 reference checks and they should have a 360-degree approach (i.e., 1/3 bosses, 1/3 peers, 1/3 subordinates). At least one-third of these queries should be backchannel references.
http://peter.a16z.com/2012/01/17/what-now-hiring/
Read Mark Suster’s guide.
http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/2014/04/06/how-to-make-better-reference-calls/
Read Elad Gil’s guide.
http://blog.eladgil.com/2013/03/reference-check-candidates.html
Step 7: The sell/pre-closing
Have you enabled the candidate to thoroughly understand the company?
Assist your candidates in their diligence process: Share information with the candidates to assist them in getting comfortable with your company and the opportunity to be a team member.
http://feld.com/archives/2006/12/recruiting-a-new-director.html
Have you allowed employees to contact potential candidates and give their honest opinion? (We are assuming you are a great company and that their opinion will correctly be a good one)
Convincing them to join you. This is the hardest part. Great programmers have tons of options, including cofounding their own company. The top thing you need to do is convince them what you hopefully already believe (and have been pitching investors, press etc): that your company is doing something important and impactful. The next thing you need to do is convince them that your company is one that values and takes care of employees. The best way to do this is to have a track record of treating people well and offer those past employees as references.
http://cdixon.org/2011/12/29/recruiting-programmers-to-your-startup/
Step 8: Deciding Hire/No-Hire
Is the candidate a cultural fit? “If this person were alone in the office on a Sunday, would that make you more likely to come in and want to work with them?”
While you always want to shoot for high competence, high cultural fit people when you are hiring early in your company’s life, it’s always better to chose cultural fit over competence when you have to make a choice.
http://feld.com/archives/2012/12/hire-for-cultural-fit-over-competence.html Stripe turns down candidates with outstanding engineering talent if they don’t fit with the team’s culture. Each candidate must pass the “Sunday test.” If this person were alone in the office on a Sunday, would that make you more likely to come in and want to work with them? If the answer is not a clear yes, then don’t make the hire. Hiring a few bad eggs might impact your ability to attract top talent in the future. In the short term, you might miss out on really great people, but like recruiting, you have to play the long game.
http://firstround.com/review/How-Stripe-built-one-of-Silicon-Valleys-best-engineering-teams/
Are you weighting the candidates performance on their experience level?
This also suggests that if you do not correct interview feedback for years of experience, you may hire more experienced people who are actually more “average” relative to their work experience level then you might expect (since you would normally compare them to all candidates in the overall hiring pool, which consists of people with less experience).
http://blog.eladgil.com/2011/01/hiring-tip-graph-interview-performance.html
If you’re seeking the first hire for a new role or department, are you setting your standards extremely high?
Whenever you’re hiring the first person for a particular role or division, always hold out for the person who’s mastered all the sub pieces. This person defines the trajectory for their department and will likely be responsible for building that team. They need to inspire other talented people to want to work with them.
http://firstround.com/review/How-Stripe-built-one-of-Silicon-Valleys-best-engineering-teams/
For executives, are you making the decision yourself?
Consensus decisions about executives almost always sway the process away from strength and towards lack of weakness. It’s a lonely job, but somebody has got to do it.
http://www.bhorowitz.com/hiring_executives_if_you_ve_never_done_the_job_how_do_you_hire_somebody_good
For non-executives, do you know who is making the decision? (Some argue consensus, some argue hiring manager)
Once you’ve synced up with everyone who met with the candidate, it’s time to pull the trigger. There are a lot of different theories about how to do this, but Ciancutti is a big believer in hiring managers making the final decision. This is not an area where consensus should rule. Let the hiring manager make the call, and hold them accountable for being right almost all the time.
http://firstround.com/review/this-is-how-coursera-competes-against-google-and-facebook-for-the-best-talent/ The first few hires at a company are the most important decisions a founder will ever make. These hires will shape company culture and vision for years to come and can’t easily be undone. At PayPal, Levchin was religious about not making the wrong hire and believed strongly in a unanimous hiring process. If one person on the team didn’t like a candidate, they wouldn’t make the hire.
http://firstround.com/review/the-trick-max-levchin-used-to-hire-the-best-engineers-at-PayPal/
Are you getting all the required information from interviewers on the same day?
You can get their feedback in a few ways. Either hold one-on-one meetings with each of them at the end of the day (you don’t want them to influence each other too much); or institute a system where people write down and submit what they think. What matters most is that everyone provides feedback the same day when it’s still fresh in their minds. “This can be a big ask, but rightfully so,” Ciancutti says. “You have to set the expectation for your people that reinforces how important hiring is.”
http://firstround.com/review/this-is-how-coursera-competes-against-google-and-facebook-for-the-best-talent/
Are you getting information from interviewers before it is discussed? This helps prevent groupthink.
We had each person write down their thoughts of the candidate before we discussed them and then asked each person for their opinion. We also asked people how they would rank the candidate against all the other candidates we had interviewed. I.e. below a certain bar they were not worth considering further.
http://blog.eladgil.com/2011/06/our-10-step-engineering-hiring-process.html
Do you have your requirements written, and do you know which requirements are must-haves and which are not?
At Good Eggs, we consider it a disqualifier if a candidate does not value our mission to grow and sustain local food systems. So we are sure to get an understanding of a candidate’s relation to food and their desire to work on a social cause. If you’re solely interested in Good Eggs because you’re stoked to work with Node.js, it’s not going to work out.
https://www.sequoiacap.com/grove/posts/eaqj/what-are-your-hiring-criteria
Do you have someone to decide if the candidate is better than 50% of your existing team?
Gupta recommends assigning people already within your company to act as bar raisers. Include them in every hiring conversation and on every interview loop. Empower them to determine if someone is an improvement over existing talent or not. “Look for people with high standards and good judgment,” says Gupta. “Tell them their job is to ensure that somebody is going to be above the 50% bar of the folks already at your company for that role at that level.” It’s critical that the “bar raiser” does not feel the same pressing need to fill a role that the hiring manager does. They should come from outside the hiring team but know enough about the role to judge talent. You don’t want them to be influenced by timing; you want them to focus on performance.
http://firstround.com/review/Mechanize-Your-Hiring-Process-to-Make-Better-Decisions/
If you’re a small company, are you doing a ‘beer test?’
We would take candidates out for dinner or beers to see if they were a good culture fit. I.e. would our team enjoy having the person around, drinking beer with them etc. In a small organization culture fit is paramount.
http://blog.eladgil.com/2011/06/our-10-step-engineering-hiring-process.html
Step 9: Making the offer and closing the sale
Do you have an offer letter written?
Here’s a template: http://venturehacks.com/articles/offer-letter. Make sure you get legal advice before using it.
Do you have a hiring manager who is responsible for running the offer process?
After each round, the hiring manager would lead a discussion and decide if the candidate ought to go to the next phase. We were prompt, organized and responsive, while making sure we over-communicated with the candidate. When it came time to make an offer, the hiring manager took the wheel completely. People leave and join companies primarily on the connection they have with their boss and negotiating the offer is the crucial start of building this relationship. I’d always want to get a handshake and eye contact with the candidate when they accepted the offer.
http://scott.a16z.com/2014/01/29/building-your-recruiting-muscle-2/
Do you give them a final sell/close the day after the interviews? Is it really thorough?
If you have conviction about a candidate at the end of interview day, you spend the next day closing. You do it — not the recruiter, not your boss. “If you can, do it the day after the interview,” Ciancutti advises. “Be detailed about why you want them and why you think it’s a great fit. Explain the relationship between the role and the mission of the company. Speak to their motivations. You know why they want to make a move.”
http://firstround.com/review/this-is-how-coursera-competes-against-google-and-facebook-for-the-best-talent/
We would use a number of tools to close the candidate, including e.g. having them meet with our investors to get our investors view of why we were a good company, or we would invite the candidate to events we had at the company, such as our speaker series (even when tiny, we invited CEOs and other industry execs or entrepreneurs in to our company to give talks on their experiences. This was a really cool company perk everyone enjoyed).
http://blog.eladgil.com/2011/06/our-10-step-engineering-hiring-process.html
With executives, do you wait to give an offer until you are sure the candidate will accept?
The principle behind making a successful executive offer is simple: Never make an offer until you are 100 percent sure that the person is going to accept.
http://techcrunch.com/2015/02/06/how-to-make-an-executive-offer-and-succeed/
Even with non-executives, are you aware of all the reasons why a candidate might not accept? Understand their concerns and proactively address them. Everyone has concerns, or reasons pushing them away from your company. Make sure you are aware of them.
It may seem counterintuitive, but when you get to the end of the process, don’t just jump to make the offer. Instead ask them: “Are you ready to join the company, assuming the offer is the right one?” If the person can’t look you in the eyes and say “Yes,” you have more work to do. It’s important to make sure that your executive candidate has a chance to visit and resolve each of their concerns. This process will unfold over several weeks in a series of face-to-face conversations. For example, most people thinking about joining a startup will have concerns about the market performance of the new company. A skillful recruiter will surface these concerns as soon as possible. Having frank discussions with the candidate about the historical and future market performance of the company will enable the candidate to make a decision from a point of strength. People are often more willing to take a risk when they understand precisely what the risk is.
http://techcrunch.com/2015/02/06/how-to-make-an-executive-offer-and-succeed/
Do you explain why your company is better than the rest, for them?
No matter what, you’re going to have competitors. Don’t dismiss them. Instead, candidly lay out the differences between your company and theirs. You want to highlight what it is about your startup and this role that is distinct and special. You want to be a resource for the candidate. They will be eager to have more data points, and it helps you to be forthcoming with them.
http://firstround.com/review/this-is-how-coursera-competes-against-google-and-facebook-for-the-best-talent/
Do you walk them through concrete compensation/expected upside?
One of these factors is certain to be compensation. The tendency here is to be vague. Don’t. Before you speak with the person, get them a spreadsheet breaking down your offer, and be accurate. Show what percentage equity they can expect to get in the company. Show them your current valuation. Lay out the case for whatever your expected multiple is. If you think the company will 20x from $50 million in the next four years, don’t just leave it at that, say why. On the same spreadsheet, include information you have on the other companies they are considering. If they’re looking at Dropbox or Snapchat or whatever it is, put the expected upside right next to yours. Build formulas into the spreadsheet so the candidate can play around with them and calculate for themselves what they think will happen at each place.
http://firstround.com/review/this-is-how-coursera-competes-against-google-and-facebook-for-the-best-talent/
Do you interview candidates who said no and ask them why? Do you ask candidates who said yes why they said yes?
http://www.slideshare.net/DanielPortillo1/debugging-recruiting
Step 10: Accepted
Have you done a post-accept follow up?
Enlist the interview team. Once I knew when the candidate had given notice to his or her current employer, I would schedule a team dinner or drinks within 24 hours to help diffuse the pressure and to reinforce their decision. It’s also important for you and the team to keep in constant contact with the candidate during the notice period. It’s a bit weird for the hiring manager to be calling every day, but I found that a coordinated effort among the eight to 12 interviewers was not only appreciated but a pleasant surprise.
http://scott.a16z.com/2014/01/29/building-your-recruiting-muscle-2/
Have you sent a welcome basket?
The Welcome Basket. We would put together an awesome basket of swag: t-shirts, coffee mugs, hats, Nerf guns, fruit, wine, chocolate and a handwritten note to let them know how excited we were to have them join. We’d deliver it to their home a few days after acceptance, and we’d always get an enthusiastic email or phone response. I always thought it was much harder to consider a counteroffer when our swag was strewn all over the house and their daughter was walking around in our hat and logo T-shirt.
http://scott.a16z.com/2014/01/29/building-your-recruiting-muscle-2/
Are you aware that until the candidate shows up on the first day they can still be lost?
If the candidate announces they are leaving to their existing employer and team it is a good sign. Once the word is out, they are more likely to join. I have seen multiple people back out of a job once they have accepted. You can not count on anyone joining until they show up on their first day.
http://blog.eladgil.com/2014/07/recruiting-is-grind.html
Step 11: Onboarding
Will the candidate feel expected?
Don’t screw up the onboarding. The first day, week and month of an employee’s experience carries a lasting impression. Everything needs to scream: “We’ve been expecting you!” You need to have business cards printed, the desk stocked with supplies, a lunch buddy schedule, basic orientation meeting and a thoughtful plan for training and beginning real, useful work. As CEO, I had a standing 30-minute meeting every Monday to greet and connect with new hires. We also had a daylong new hire orientation scheduled every quarter where I would go over the founding history, values, goals and the most recent board presentation. The product managers would go through every product and a VP would go through the organizational structure.
http://scott.a16z.com/2014/01/29/building-your-recruiting-muscle-2/
