I feel the economic situation didn't make the hiring process easier, but actually much more difficult. We thought it would be easy since there are tons of talents being laid off from top-notch tech companies, and what happened was the exact opposite -- there are THAT many more resumes out on the market, and it takes THAT much more time to find the perfect fit. Keep in mind because we were still a small team, every hire must has the right balance of cultural fit, technical abilities, and entrepreneurial spirits. Finding good guys who can get the job done is easy, but finding the great guy who can take our product to the next level is much more difficult.
After going through thousands of resumes, and conducted probably 100 interviews, we finally brought on-board our first couple of team members. Some tips to share from my experience:
1. Don't bother with job boards, such as Craig's list, Dice, etc. In this economy, there are too many resumes floating around, and reviewing them is an incredibly time consuming process when you can spend the time building the product. Negotiate a low rate with a recruiter and outsoruce that process. We wasted over a month using job boards, and got tons and tons of junk resumes. Probably only 1% of the candidates we got from job boards were interview-able. We got fed up, so we engaged about 5 recruiters simultaneously, and within the first week we got the perfect guy. If you really want to use job boards to try your luck, I had the best experience with Startuply though it still didn't result in a hire.
2. Be extremely selective, if there's something that doesn't seem right, it's probably your gut telling you he/she isn't the right person. For hackers -- my favorite question to ask is "when did you first started hacking?". I have found most great hackers started hacking when they were very young (middle school to high school time frame). I found most people who started hacking in college is because they were forced to, not because they are interested in it. Of course this doesn't apply to every case.
3. Do reference checks. In fact, ask the references for additional references. A candidate can master the art of interview, but reference check may tell a totally different story.
Also, I don't recommend technical puzzles. I recommend you to just ask a technical challenge you are facing right now. e.g. How would you architect JamLegend? How do you solve so-and-so problem? etc. While puzzles can test brain power, I think it's much more practical to have them solve a real problem that you face on a daily basis specific to your product.
Hope that helps, by the way, if you get referrals from personal network you can probably skip a tons of things I mentioned above, and they are usually the best early hires. Good luck with your hiring process!
Just want to add another quick note -- this is actually something I learned from Mike Cassidy.
We like to do all of our interviews in 1 day, and when the candidate is in his/her last interview, we will all gather and make a decision right on the spot. If we like the candidate, we will make an offer when the candidate is on the way out. You can say this offer stands pending all reference checks went through. But this serves two purposes:
1. You show you have strong interest and is willing to make decisions quickly.
2. You lower the risk of the candidate going to another interview and receive another on-the-spot offer, and take that offer on the spot.
Great candidates are very hard to come by, and they are in very high demand. So realize your offer won't be the only one they receive. If you are unable to make a decision on the spot, he/she is probably not the right person.
Nothing, I just think it's more practical to ask the candidate to solve a problem you are currently facing, rather than trying to solve an arbitrary puzzle. You can also gauge how well the candidate would work in your team when you are bouncing solutions/ideas off each other on a real problem you are facing. It's just a personal preference.
I generally agree with you. You're right that the economic environment can make hiring harder. There are more people looking for work, but the average quality of applicants is probably lower on the whole. The "extra" people are those laid off, who will be weaker on average than the general pool, and a lot of the talented people (who have a choice) are staying put until the hiring environment improves.
This: In fact, ask the references for additional references.
... is actually pretty damn scummy. The candidate has no way of knowing who his shadow references are, and could get unfairly burned and left with no idea why. It'd only be morally acceptable if you asked the candidate for permission to call these second-degree references, but that would defeat the purpose of snooping.
You are absolutely right, and I apologize I didn't clarify. When you ask for second degree references -- always ask your candidate for permission before you contact them. In fact, when you ask the first degree references for additional references, you should make it clear you will get permission from the candidates.
First degree references usually have nothing but good things to say about the candidate, but you will get a much much more accurate picture from talking to someone who isn't on your candidate's top list.
After going through thousands of resumes, and conducted probably 100 interviews, we finally brought on-board our first couple of team members. Some tips to share from my experience:
1. Don't bother with job boards, such as Craig's list, Dice, etc. In this economy, there are too many resumes floating around, and reviewing them is an incredibly time consuming process when you can spend the time building the product. Negotiate a low rate with a recruiter and outsoruce that process. We wasted over a month using job boards, and got tons and tons of junk resumes. Probably only 1% of the candidates we got from job boards were interview-able. We got fed up, so we engaged about 5 recruiters simultaneously, and within the first week we got the perfect guy. If you really want to use job boards to try your luck, I had the best experience with Startuply though it still didn't result in a hire.
2. Be extremely selective, if there's something that doesn't seem right, it's probably your gut telling you he/she isn't the right person. For hackers -- my favorite question to ask is "when did you first started hacking?". I have found most great hackers started hacking when they were very young (middle school to high school time frame). I found most people who started hacking in college is because they were forced to, not because they are interested in it. Of course this doesn't apply to every case.
3. Do reference checks. In fact, ask the references for additional references. A candidate can master the art of interview, but reference check may tell a totally different story.
Also, I don't recommend technical puzzles. I recommend you to just ask a technical challenge you are facing right now. e.g. How would you architect JamLegend? How do you solve so-and-so problem? etc. While puzzles can test brain power, I think it's much more practical to have them solve a real problem that you face on a daily basis specific to your product.
Hope that helps, by the way, if you get referrals from personal network you can probably skip a tons of things I mentioned above, and they are usually the best early hires. Good luck with your hiring process!