3 ms·

The trick to writing a great job description is not to write it at all. I've seen HR depts with spreadsheets and lists of acronyms and frameworks and really no

The trick to writing a great job description is not to write it at all. I've seen HR depts with spreadsheets and lists of acronyms and frameworks and really none of that matters. and "very competitive salaries" but absolutely no numbers anywhere. You want to find the person you're going to hire, then write the job description. You're looking for fast learners and innovators, they can learn a framework in a few days at most. For college hires, just sponsor a prize at your local school's hackathon. Anyone you meet there with an interesting project just bring onsite for an interview. For more experienced devs, better go with internal recommendations. Your top performers all have friends, and some of them might be bored right now. And be upfront with the numbers; You'll waste less time. I knew someone who wasted 5 rounds of interview with someone (this was outside the Valley) before revealing compensation. The candidate just flat out said he needed 3x or it just wasn't worth his time.

edmundsauto 5y ago
This probably works well for smaller scale hiring. At a medium org, you want to make sure to source diverse candidates and hire without bias. (We all have biases!)
- 908B64B197 5y ago
  Medium org just means you can fly in-out folks/reach other target schools. Diversity and biases are great, but ultimately what matters is finding out candidates that can scale the business and help it grow.
  - edmundsauto 5y ago
    That comes off similar to "what matters in the stock market is to buy low and sell high". Sure, it's true enough, but not really valuable insight. The trick in hiring is how do you identify and hire those individuals. Diversity is one way to reach those outcomes - it's not a side quest, it's how to increase your odds on the main quest.
mint2 5y ago
To many HRs “competitive salary” means nearly the median. And now HR is perplexed why the customer reps are leaving because HR claims to believe the comp is competitive.

edmundsauto 5y ago

This probably works well for smaller scale hiring. At a medium org, you want to make sure to source diverse candidates and hire without bias. (We all have biases!)

908B64B197 5y ago
Medium org just means you can fly in-out folks/reach other target schools. Diversity and biases are great, but ultimately what matters is finding out candidates that can scale the business and help it grow.
- edmundsauto 5y ago
  That comes off similar to "what matters in the stock market is to buy low and sell high". Sure, it's true enough, but not really valuable insight. The trick in hiring is how do you identify and hire those individuals. Diversity is one way to reach those outcomes - it's not a side quest, it's how to increase your odds on the main quest.

mint2 5y ago

To many HRs “competitive salary” means nearly the median. And now HR is perplexed why the customer reps are leaving because HR claims to believe the comp is competitive.