Amen, a good portion of my team are recent college grads/unemployed/self taught etc. I realized early on that I'm not Google & I wouldn't be able to realize th

Amen, a good portion of my team are recent college grads/unemployed/self taught etc. I realized early on that I'm not Google & I wouldn't be able to realize the value of "top of the line" engineers who everyone else if competing for. So, I try to get the best of whatever's left & try to get best out of them. I'm not worried my "rockstars" are going to jump ship at the next best offer. Like I said in my earlier post, it's like a "dating" realitionship initially. I've found people often are looking for work that they enjoy (including the feeling of community, comfort & being valuable) while covering their basic needs more than a very high paying job that makes them feel like crap. I've even had a couple of defectors from larger companies, just because I'd let them do what they liked and not just what they went to school for. Bottom line, I end up getting way more value from my team vs. my previous hiring model, which was more traditional & in line larger corporations.