7 ms·
Why can't your startup find developers? 1. You want to be stingy on salary and benefits, and avoid paying above market rates. You quibble over meeting trivial
by wyclif 13y ago
Why can't your startup find developers?
1. You want to be stingy on salary and benefits, and avoid paying above market rates. You quibble over meeting trivial salary requests. Your company doesn't have proper review processes and doesn't give raises frequently enough. You don't provide equity in your company to your most valued employees
2. Your interview process sucks. You hand off the candidate to 5 different people, the interview lasts all day, you require too many interviews before making an offer, you have puzzle questions, your interviewer is non-technical and has never used the technologies you're hiring for, you rely on agency recruiters, you and your co-founders aren't involved in hiring, you don't spend enough time on hiring, it takes weeks for you to get back to candidates, it takes days for you to make an offer, you forget about scheduled interviews, your people doing the interviews aren't at work the day candidates have scheduled to come in, you ask inappropriate questions during interviews, you lie to candidates during interviews, interviewing is combat and not collaborative
3. You hire for "culture fit" which means you only hire people that fit whatever your version of the status quo is. You signal that older people or non-hipsters need not apply. You discriminate against people old enough to have spouses and children. Your office has a culture offensive to women and/or minorities. You have the words "rock star" or "ninja" in your description. You prefer "yes men" over free thinkers. You hire only people who are like you
4. You demand that every employee commute to your offices because you have an antiquated "asses in seats" busywork mentality or a "no remote work" policy. You treat remote employees as if they are second-class employees. You demand relocation to the Bay area or it's a 'no hire'. You don't provide relocation assistance. You don't help with visas
5. You require educational credentials for jobs that don't and shouldn't require them. You set up qualification barriers for great candidates. You don't respect candidates who have experience outside of your specific technology stack
6. You have a toxic office environment. Your offices are shabby and "Class B." You make people work in grey cubicles, Office Space-style. You don't provide catered lunch. You pay no attention to, and invest nothing in, office equipment. You don't provide up-to-date equipment and developer hardware
7. You require ridiculous hours that make work/life balance out of the question. You don't offer generous holiday time. You tell people they cannot take holiday time because it's "crunch time." You resent employees who take holiday time they are entitled to
- kamaal 13y agoTwo years back I interviewed for a start up. After the technical rounds the founder came around to talk to me. The offer was so ridiculously low ball, I even had a tough time believing in what was given to me. The salary was way way below market standards, and equity was next to nothing, no health insurance, and the office was so far away there was no transport allowance, no food.. I mean this was nearly him asking me to work for him for free. After negotiating a bit and listening to what he had to say.He seem to consider his high lofty goals as ambition. And my high lofty goals as greed. He was almost saying, people were not sacrificing their lives to make him rich and how selfish and greedy they were in doing that.
- eli_gottlieb 13y agoI kind of object to #6. Not every company can afford to rent or purchase the nicest wonderfulest offices ever. Plenty can only get offices out in some godawful office park where everyone has to, GASP, bring their own lunches or buy one off a local shop or food truck. That doesn't mean your company is bad, it means you've got fewer hipster pretensions -- though I would ask companies to please locate nearer to downtown centers rather than out in the exurbs.
- wyclif 13y agoI think that's reasonable, but note I didn't say expensive real estate. I've seen some pretty nice office space in converted warehouses and repurposed industrial areas. What I'm talking about is putting devs in a cube farm and stuff like that. I also don't think it's absolutely essential that you cater lunch (if you're in a city with lots of dining options and off-site opportunities for employees to eat together), but if you're in the exurbs it probably is at this point. Top devs expect these things, even if they might be willing to work without them for a certain startup.
- eli_gottlieb 13y agoWell I dunno. I just noticed it because I've never worked anywhere with catered lunches and have simply never come to expect them. Right now, I go out to a food truck or a local place every day and get my own damn lunch. It doesn't feel deprived or bad at all, and in fact I'd feel a little spoiled if the company started buying Thai food or health salads every day for us. Mind, the company does have snacks, tea and coffee, so I basically eat breakfast from those on a lot of days, but still.