6 ms·

Ask HN: I think I'm good at quickly identifying dev talent. How to prove it?

• DelaneyM 10y ago
  You become a recruiter. Identifying dev talent is one (very important!) part of the job for dev managers, but not enough on its own to be successful. The only pure application of that skill would be as a recruiter. That said, you're almost certainly wrong. I can't find the quote/citation right now, but distinctly remember that over a decade of data at Google showed that only one person at the company was really individually exceptional at predicting performance as an interviewer (and he was a special niche case).
  • mattm 10y ago
    Ok, how do I become a recruiter? Yes, I'm fully aware that I could be misguided but would be interested in dipping my toe in the water to at least try. Is it something that's possible to do part-time on the side?
    • DelaneyM 10y ago
      Best bet is to start at a big name, then when you have a little experience go to a specialty firm.
    • lscore720 10y ago
      Recruiting is probably not an appropriate career to leverage this skill - identifying talent is mainly the job of the hiring manager/team to determine. A recruiter's primary job is to find the talent and convince he/she to consider the opportunity. Sure, your ability to screen upfront is helpful in saving your employer time, but the job is far more sales-based. to play the numbers game & bounce back every morning in the face of constant rejection and indifference. That, above all, will ensure your success as a recruiter. To learn recruiting, like any new job, it's smartest to make a full-time committment. Once you've mastered it, you can definitely work any schedule you'd like!
• j45 10y ago
  You could become a headhunter for recruiters and get paid for successful finds.
• JoachimSchipper 10y ago
  As to proving it to yourself - start tracking who you (don't) hire, and the outcomes. You can do this as an employee.
• miguelrochefort 10y ago
  This is trivial and any person can do it.
  • devmgr12345 10y ago
    Actually, I'd say that identifying GREAT talent and NO talent is trivial. When a person is "ok, not great but not terrible, never going to be a rockstar but maybe good enough"... that's the tricky one. I know everyone wants to only hire the best, but sometimes you don't have that luxury and you just need a hack to write some CSS.
    • brianwawok 10y ago
      Except how great a person is may very well have to do with the team you are putting them on. So say you work on a team for 3 years and know everyone well. You should help the team hire new people with your "skill". You know how the team acts, and you can tell how the person will fit. But say as a recruiter with 50 clients.. you won't know all 50 teams as well, so your accuracy has to go down, right?
• malux85 10y ago
  Ah hour?!! That is NOT quick. Even Junior developers could identify strong talent if they sat with them for an hour and just talked. Get it down to 10 minutes, and that would be quick!
• id122015 10y ago
  You can try it on me, I'd volunteer. Never been employed as a programmer but I'm curious to know if anyone would hire me, and if so what kind of employer would that be.
  • mattm 10y ago
    Sure if you want we could have a call. Just email me to setup.
• JSeymourATL 10y ago
  > How could I go about proving it to myself... Much the same way Devs store projects on GitHub-- start building up your portfolio of talent profiles and notes on individuals that you interview & assess. It's a practiced art-- you become exponentially better the more people you evaluate. Also, understand that people do change and grow as they progress throughout their careers. Take the long view and be sure to follow up periodically. The best executive leaders create a talent pipeline, typically meet & informally interview 2-3 people a month. Incidentally, this builds-up an amazing network of true contacts, which is to say NOT Linkedin contacts. The best primer on this process is Bradford Smart's Topgrading > http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/915182.Topgrading http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/915182.Topgrading > then selling this service if I am capable? Connecting with buyers, in this case Hiring Executives falls into the specialty function of Sales & Business Development. Professional Services firms are always chomping at the bit for rainmakers. If you're serious about this path, take a development course like Miller Heiman > https://www.mhiglobal.com/ https://www.mhiglobal.com/
• projectramo 10y ago
  Prove it to whom? If you want to exploit the talent, I don't think becoming a recruiter is the best way to go (contra the other advice). I am not a recruiter, but I don't think their challenge is (necessarily) identifying dev talent. They have to 1. Convince dev talent to sign up for the company 2. Convince the company that they can find dev talent 3. Look through a lot of dev talent It's more like a broker. They have to find a particular talent/price mix that keeps bother parties happy.
• hkarthik 10y ago
  Identifying talent is not enough. You also need to know how to sell and close this talent. I say this as an engineering manager at a top tech company who got into hiring largely due to feeling like I could identify talent. Selling and closing is a whole different ball game. You have to be a good story teller, a good listener, and you have to be geniune. You have to be relentless and unwilling to take no for an answer. Whether you go into recruiting full time, move to management, or just be the engineer everyone uses to sell candidates, practice and hone your selling skills.
• slidese 10y ago
  Most of the comments I've read here assumes these two things are equal: 1. A good programmer 2. A good team member They are not. How to spot someone that fits in your team is much harder than to spot someone with talent. Also, as someone pointed out you need to keep track of both hits and misses to assess your skill. I would guess it's easier to track someone if they're successful as opposed to someone who either is not successful or not successful publicly.
• deleted 10y ago
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