4 ms·

Startup Hiring Advice

21 points by rubinelli 17y ago

tptacek 17y ago
On the other hand, if during the interview she asks how often you do performance reviews, that means she doesn't understand the startup culture Or she doesn't want to work at "employee #1" wages forever, and is being up front about the fact that she expects her compensation reviewed down the road. I agree with everything Peopleware (and Spolsky) say about performance-based compensation, but even tiny startups need some kind of plan for promoting and improving compensation. "Always be hiring" is a principle we've had hammered into us over the past 4 years, and people don't say it enough.
- mmt 17y ago
  even tiny startups need some kind of plan for promoting and improving compensation I would think that a plan for something like this at the "tiny" stage is premature optimization. Even at a dozen employees, that this plan would include some kind of formal review process at a defined interval is, I agree (with the OP), contrary to startup culture. Edit: I've only ever been an employee, never a hiring manager or founder. From this perspective, I can't imagine asking such a question if interviewing at a startup.
  - tptacek 17y ago
    It feels premature to you, because you aren't seeing things from an employee's perspective. But whether you're 2 people or 100, people who aren't founders are employees, and what they're thinking about is "how will I be compensated for my work". And I don't care, I'm just saying, asking how performance reviews work is not a hiring red flag. Just be honest with them, and if they flip out, make that your red flag.
    - smartbear 17y ago
      I can certainly see your point here, and I agree that it's only a true problem if they're hung up on it. It's really an attitude determination. If they're focussed on reviews instead of making the business work best, that's the problem. Of course in the context of the blog it would be too wordy to get into all this there, so thanks for bringing it up here!
- slapshot 17y ago
  You might not need to have a _formal_ process at that size, but it would be good to have some kind of plan to recognize and reward the employees (she's an employee, not a founder) who excel. There are lots of startups that don't get this and lose early employees who realize that they've been working at the same pay and position forever, even as the company has grown around them. Again -- maybe not a formal program, but she's not crazy for wondering if pay/promotion are something on the founders' minds.
Scott_MacGregor 17y ago
Nice article, and some good advice. Hiring the right people is a very important function for any business. One area in the article that makes a lot of sense is to find a way to screen candidates with e-mail mini-essay questions. Although I believe Jason Cohen’s example screening questions could be improved by focusing more on the job functions needed for the position. For instance: Jason’s question 1. "Why do you want to work at [company]?" This will get a BS answer, for everyone it boils down to having to work for money to live on. I would not screen or hire (or not hire) someone based on his or her ability (or inability) to come up with a clever or cunning response to this type of question. I believe in hiring the type of people "that I can motivate to be their best", and who have the skills that the company needs to get the job done. I also believe in giving someone a chance to prove himself or herself as far as job performance goes, and question 1 will tend to favor a clever or cunning writer and possibly screen out a superior candidate who I might want to hire. So I would never ask this type of question. A better-quality first screening e-mail question might include a statement related to the job and be more mission critical and function specific such as: "This job requires long hours coding in PHP in the Zend Studio coding environment. In one paragraph please describe your experience using Zend Studio to code PHP, including how long you have been coding PHP and how long you have been using Zend." This type of question will let me sort candidates quickly based on the required skill set. Jason’s question 2. "Describe a situation in your work-life where you failed." I don’t know about you, but I certainly don’t want to spend my day reading through 100 e-mails about peoples failures in life. This type of question gives the reader absolutely nothing to sort candidates on. Johnny A. failed at getting his MCSE certification 3 times because his laptop kept breaking. Sally Q. failed to get promoted to Engineer Level II because her boss secretly hated her, ect, etc, etc... I don’t hire failures! Sure everyone has setbacks but having someone highlight their setbacks in an e-mail won’t tell me what I want to know to sort candidates on. It would be much more useful to have the candidate explain their fit regarding another mission critical job function such as: "This position is in a small start-up company that we intend to grow quickly. To help the company reach its goals will require long hours and a lot of dedication on your part. One thing we look for when hiring is a little something extra in the candidates skill set because multi-tasking will probably be required of whomever we hire. In addition to your PHP skills please describe in one paragraph any knowledge or experience you may have regarding administrating in an MS Server 2003 (or 2008) domain environment and/or experience with server or client backups and restores." With this type of question I can tell at a glance if I’m going to get more for my hiring dollars. More efficient use of the company’s human recourses. Jason’s question 3. "Describe a time when you accomplished something you thought was impossible. (Can be work-related or personal)" Again no information to sort potential candidates on. Simply another who has the more cunning writing skills question. I would not even bother with a third question because I don’t want to read 100 extra e-mail paragraphs. I would simply state, "We will reply to those we think are the top 10 candidates via e-mail by next Monday to schedule an in person meeting. Please attach your resume in Word or pdf format for consideration. Thank You.". This is a much more simple and useful approach to screening candidates, and it will not favor those who have more clever writing skills or exclude those who really should be given a chance to perform highly at your company. Working for a good startup is a great opportunity to grow rich from your efforts. You don’t want to exclude "the best people" just because they failed to come up with witty answers to unimportant questions.
dnaquin 17y ago
I already do not want to work for the OP.
mmt 17y ago
Instead, prepare an email template that asks the applicant to write a few paragraphs on a few topics I've routinely filtered this sort of thing out as arrogance on the part of the employer and a waste of my time. To whit, the respect in the hiring process must always be a two-way street. If you want me to engage my brain and write something customized to your posting, say so up front. I'll gladly write a few sentences, but requiring a few paragraphs filters out candidates who don't want their time wasted. These are very likely the very ones you'd want in a startup.
- smartbear 17y ago
  Like another commenter in the blog itself, I think you're confusing "filtering out 100 resumes from Craig's List" with "How you should hire everyone." If you're sending generic copies of your resume and cover letter to a company, you cannot expect them to treat you specially. On the other hand, I did say in the post that if the cover letter shows this is a real person, additional questions are not necessary. Presumably if you're that qualified you wouldn't send a generic cover letter, right?
  - mmt 17y ago
    Like another commenter in the blog itself, I think you're confusing "filtering out 100 resumes from Craig's List" with "How you should hire everyone." I'm not confusing them: I'm suggesting they should be the same. On the other hand, I did say in the post that if the cover letter shows this is a real person, additional questions are not necessary. If the proposed additional questions are anything like what it takes in a cover letter to show one is a real person, my point stands. If not, then what's the point of the double standard? If anyone worthwhile would have send a good enough cover letter or would otherwise be turned off by such essay questions, isn't it easier to send out a rejection letter?

21 points by rubinelli 17y ago

On the other hand, if during the interview she asks how often you do performance reviews, that means she doesn't understand the startup culture Or she doesn't want to work at "employee #1" wages forever, and is being up front about the fact that she expects her compensation reviewed down the road. I agree with everything Peopleware (and Spolsky) say about performance-based compensation, but even tiny startups need some kind of plan for promoting and improving compensation. "Always be hiring" is a principle we've had hammered into us over the past 4 years, and people don't say it enough.

mmt 17y ago
even tiny startups need some kind of plan for promoting and improving compensation I would think that a plan for something like this at the "tiny" stage is premature optimization. Even at a dozen employees, that this plan would include some kind of formal review process at a defined interval is, I agree (with the OP), contrary to startup culture. Edit: I've only ever been an employee, never a hiring manager or founder. From this perspective, I can't imagine asking such a question if interviewing at a startup.
- tptacek 17y ago
  It feels premature to you, because you aren't seeing things from an employee's perspective. But whether you're 2 people or 100, people who aren't founders are employees, and what they're thinking about is "how will I be compensated for my work". And I don't care, I'm just saying, asking how performance reviews work is not a hiring red flag. Just be honest with them, and if they flip out, make that your red flag.
  - smartbear 17y ago
    I can certainly see your point here, and I agree that it's only a true problem if they're hung up on it. It's really an attitude determination. If they're focussed on reviews instead of making the business work best, that's the problem. Of course in the context of the blog it would be too wordy to get into all this there, so thanks for bringing it up here!
slapshot 17y ago
You might not need to have a _formal_ process at that size, but it would be good to have some kind of plan to recognize and reward the employees (she's an employee, not a founder) who excel. There are lots of startups that don't get this and lose early employees who realize that they've been working at the same pay and position forever, even as the company has grown around them. Again -- maybe not a formal program, but she's not crazy for wondering if pay/promotion are something on the founders' minds.

Scott_MacGregor 17y ago

Nice article, and some good advice. Hiring the right people is a very important function for any business. One area in the article that makes a lot of sense is to find a way to screen candidates with e-mail mini-essay questions. Although I believe Jason Cohen’s example screening questions could be improved by focusing more on the job functions needed for the position. For instance: Jason’s question 1. "Why do you want to work at [company]?" This will get a BS answer, for everyone it boils down to having to work for money to live on. I would not screen or hire (or not hire) someone based on his or her ability (or inability) to come up with a clever or cunning response to this type of question. I believe in hiring the type of people "that I can motivate to be their best", and who have the skills that the company needs to get the job done. I also believe in giving someone a chance to prove himself or herself as far as job performance goes, and question 1 will tend to favor a clever or cunning writer and possibly screen out a superior candidate who I might want to hire. So I would never ask this type of question. A better-quality first screening e-mail question might include a statement related to the job and be more mission critical and function specific such as: "This job requires long hours coding in PHP in the Zend Studio coding environment. In one paragraph please describe your experience using Zend Studio to code PHP, including how long you have been coding PHP and how long you have been using Zend." This type of question will let me sort candidates quickly based on the required skill set. Jason’s question 2. "Describe a situation in your work-life where you failed." I don’t know about you, but I certainly don’t want to spend my day reading through 100 e-mails about peoples failures in life. This type of question gives the reader absolutely nothing to sort candidates on. Johnny A. failed at getting his MCSE certification 3 times because his laptop kept breaking. Sally Q. failed to get promoted to Engineer Level II because her boss secretly hated her, ect, etc, etc... I don’t hire failures! Sure everyone has setbacks but having someone highlight their setbacks in an e-mail won’t tell me what I want to know to sort candidates on. It would be much more useful to have the candidate explain their fit regarding another mission critical job function such as: "This position is in a small start-up company that we intend to grow quickly. To help the company reach its goals will require long hours and a lot of dedication on your part. One thing we look for when hiring is a little something extra in the candidates skill set because multi-tasking will probably be required of whomever we hire. In addition to your PHP skills please describe in one paragraph any knowledge or experience you may have regarding administrating in an MS Server 2003 (or 2008) domain environment and/or experience with server or client backups and restores." With this type of question I can tell at a glance if I’m going to get more for my hiring dollars. More efficient use of the company’s human recourses. Jason’s question 3. "Describe a time when you accomplished something you thought was impossible. (Can be work-related or personal)" Again no information to sort potential candidates on. Simply another who has the more cunning writing skills question. I would not even bother with a third question because I don’t want to read 100 extra e-mail paragraphs. I would simply state, "We will reply to those we think are the top 10 candidates via e-mail by next Monday to schedule an in person meeting. Please attach your resume in Word or pdf format for consideration. Thank You.". This is a much more simple and useful approach to screening candidates, and it will not favor those who have more clever writing skills or exclude those who really should be given a chance to perform highly at your company. Working for a good startup is a great opportunity to grow rich from your efforts. You don’t want to exclude "the best people" just because they failed to come up with witty answers to unimportant questions.

dnaquin 17y ago

I already do not want to work for the OP.

mmt 17y ago

Instead, prepare an email template that asks the applicant to write a few paragraphs on a few topics I've routinely filtered this sort of thing out as arrogance on the part of the employer and a waste of my time. To whit, the respect in the hiring process must always be a two-way street. If you want me to engage my brain and write something customized to your posting, say so up front. I'll gladly write a few sentences, but requiring a few paragraphs filters out candidates who don't want their time wasted. These are very likely the very ones you'd want in a startup.

smartbear 17y ago
Like another commenter in the blog itself, I think you're confusing "filtering out 100 resumes from Craig's List" with "How you should hire everyone." If you're sending generic copies of your resume and cover letter to a company, you cannot expect them to treat you specially. On the other hand, I did say in the post that if the cover letter shows this is a real person, additional questions are not necessary. Presumably if you're that qualified you wouldn't send a generic cover letter, right?
- mmt 17y ago
  Like another commenter in the blog itself, I think you're confusing "filtering out 100 resumes from Craig's List" with "How you should hire everyone." I'm not confusing them: I'm suggesting they should be the same. On the other hand, I did say in the post that if the cover letter shows this is a real person, additional questions are not necessary. If the proposed additional questions are anything like what it takes in a cover letter to show one is a real person, my point stands. If not, then what's the point of the double standard? If anyone worthwhile would have send a good enough cover letter or would otherwise be turned off by such essay questions, isn't it easier to send out a rejection letter?