tag:blog.hirelite.com,2013:/posts Hirelite Blog 2024-03-12T16:58:14Z Nathan Hurst tag:blog.hirelite.com,2013:Post/335640 2012-09-07T17:17:00Z 2021-10-26T19:01:06Z Don't hire just self-described awesome developers

tl;dr: Confidence and programming ability are not correlated. If your job post requires a developer to evaluate their own skill, you're doing it wrong.

We've written before about What developers think when you say "Rock Star", and we'd like to expand on the broader problem: companies often feel they need to state they only want the best. Here are a few job post titles I've found in the wild recently (in the order they offended me):

  • Talented web developer
  • Stellar Developer
  • Elite Engineer
  • Amazing Software Engineer
  • Incredible engineer
  • Awesome developers
  • A-player hackers
  • Ace Developer
  • Top Hackers apply here
  • Kick ass programmers
  • Superstar engineer
  • Rockstar developer
  • Best hackers only

First, sorry to break it to you, but a little over 49% of developers are below average. It's a given that everyone wants the best, but not everyone can have the best. That's not how best works. [A few above average developers over at Hacker News noted that we should have said median not average. They're right.]

Second, and more seriously, silly titles discourage developers who evaluate themselves honestly from applying. According to the well-established Dunning Kruger effect, the best developers question their abilities. They know what they don't know often due to their T-shapedness:

Valve Handbook for New Employees: people who are both generalists (highly skilled at a broad set of valuable things—the top of the T) and also experts (among the best in their field within a narrow discipline—the vertical leg of the T)

Their breadth of development knowledge exposes them to topics they realize they could know more about. And their depth of knowledge in a specific area helps them understand how deep expertise can go in areas they don't understand as well.

These types of people gererally apply a healthy dose of self-questioning when they see a job post. Don't make them feel like they're wasting time talking to you if they don't think of themselves as stellar developers.

How to do better

 Job titles do matter. However inadequate, they're essential in the UI of most job platforms. There's a good chance the title will be the only thing a job seeker reads.

Try to convey only what you're looking for and avoid synonyms for "good". When you're thinking of the title, picture an employee saying it to someone else. Hearing someone say, "I'm a stellar developer," or "I work as an ace developer," is ridiculous.

Instead, try expressing a piece of your culture or mission: dog-loving hacker, activist developer, foodie web developer

 Or something about your development process: generalist software engineer, creator of performant & maintainable code, quick-and-dirty hacker

Or how your team communicates: team-oriented developer, remote engineer, self-directed coder

Pay attention to the body of your job post too. Watch out for phrases like, "we're looking for awesome developers to help us..." or "think you've got what it takes to...". Good software development is multidimensional, and what is good at your company may not be good at another. A few questions to consider:

  • Do you need a specialist or a generalist?
  • What specific areas do you need an expert in? Can you afford a specialist?
  • Do you want a technical person who cares more about the business/market challenges you face or do you want someone who cares more about the technical challenges?
  • Do you want someone who prefers quick, practical, "good enough" solutions or do you want someone who prefers to take their time and do things more maintainably or scalably?
  • How should developers at your company differ from developers at other companies? (hint: the answer is not just "be better")

About Hirelite

Hirelite runs "speed interviewing" events over video chat to connect software engineers and companies hiring. If you're looking to evaluate the software job market or looking to hire, check out Hirelite.com. We have upcoming events focused on NYC, SF, and purely remote positions.

]]> Nathan Hurst tag:blog.hirelite.com,2013:Post/335641 2011-10-13T01:43:00Z 2013-10-08T16:33:26Z Warning signs in a non-technical cofounder (can you spot them?)

As a software engineer, if you've been to a tech event, you've probably been asked to cofound a company with a non-technical founder. We've collected a number of warning signs that come up in these types of conversations here.

We've included 11 notable signs in this video. Can you spot them? Anything we didn't include?

[Text of the video is at the bottom of the post if you aren't able to watch it]

Multiple startups in the works
"I'm in the process of launching a couple of startups"

Many first-time entrepreneurs ping-pong between startup ideas without market-based justification until they burn themselves, their money, their cofounders, or all three out. Be extremely careful about getting involved with someone like this. Make sure that the non-technical cofounder is serious and committed enough to a concept that they're willing to test it in the market. Writing a bunch of code and finding out your cofounder doesn't care about the concept anymore is not fun.

No experience in your startup's domain/market
"leave my finance job to build a social networking site that will revolutionize the marketing space"

Ideally, the non-technical cofounder's skills will complement your own. Someone on your team needs to have experience or reliable contacts in your target market, and if that's not you, it needs to be them.

On a more time-sensitive note: technical people are in huge demand right now! If you're very interested in a certain space, why not partner up with someone who does have experience in that area? Right now you're the tougher person to find, and whoever you approach will probably be thrilled that a technical person wants to start a company with them.

They don't have a web presence for their web startup
"need someone to buy the domain"

A non-technical founder who registers a domain and has a basic web presence communicates, "I'm willing to do things outside of my comfort range for my company". Buying a domain and putting a simple page there requires commitment to an idea and some technical persistence (especially if they choose GoDaddy). It's well within their capabilities to have a basic web presence for their web startup. 

If they don't, it often translates into a lack of respect for technology and a lack of willingness to understand how things get built or work.

"Just need someone to build it now" mentality
"... and build it for me now"

A non-technical founder needs to know that websites don't "just get built". They get crafted. They get tested. They get maintained.

A technical cofounder is not a code monkey. You are a cofounder, and you're taking an idea and making it viable by building something. You understand how the business works just as well as the non-technical founder; however, you have chosen to focus on the technical implementation of your product instead of business development and fundraising, for example.

Poor interactions with other technical people
"Actually, it's the third one that has bailed. They've all been idiots."

Sometimes things don't end up working out between cofounders. Nothing to see there. The technical cofounder could have been completely wrong for the project, could have lacked technical skills, or could have embezzled money from the company. 

At some point though, it's more likely the non-technical founders' fault. That point is probably somewhere between two and three cofounders who have bailed. If there's any way you can get in touch with the previous technical cofounders to get their perspective, do that. Hint: the commit logs usually have their email address.

Rock Star Language
"This time, I'm really looking for a rockstar though. A real ninja guru."

"Rock star" may have communicated a trendy vibe at one point, but those times have passed. Now it communicates a desperate attempt to seem cooler than they really are, a sign that they're too full of themselves, that they're a slave driver, or that they're just naive. For more detail, see What developers think when you say "Rock Star".

"Build it and they will come" mentality
"They're going to come flocking to us."

Your non-technical founder should express a strong desire to get market validation of their concept. If you're making medicine, you can build it and they will come. The need is so undeniably visible. Websites are different. 
If your non-technical cofounder can't see any possible way that their concept might not catch on, they are dillusional or naive. They'll probably compromise your ability to ship without things being perfect, further delaying your ability to test your product's viability.

Ethics that don't jibe with yours
"we'll just buy a bunch of followers on twitter"

It's unlikely the non-technical founder will suggest something outlandishly unethical (like "let's use our users' credit cards to make company purchases"). But at some point, they may suggest something that doesn't quite click with your ethics (like "we can trick the user in to signing up by suggesting the product is free but after they try it out, they actually have to pay for most things!"). Pay attention to these feelings you have. You need to be able to trust your cofounder, and these types of ethical issues tend to get magnified in times of trouble (which most startups run in to frequently).

Reluctance to tell you terms of your equity allocation
"It's 100,000 shares!"

This is typically a later stage conversation, but when it comes up, they should be willing to tell you how much of the company you're getting. For more on this topic, see these posts from Chris Dixon and Venture Hacks.

How much should you expect? It's a function of how much risk they've eliminated from the business (having just wireframes eliminates ~0 risk). Think of it from this perspective: Is it worth giving up [100 - (your equity share)]% of a company to have them join you?

Some other good resources on equity allocation:

Premature NDA
"This idea is so good though, I'd really appreciate it if you'd sign this non-disclosure agreement."

In the early stages of a company, non-technical founders need to validate their concept. If they're not telling everyone they talk to about the idea, they're probably not getting enough feedback. Asking you to sign an NDA very early in your conversations indicates a naivety about startups, recruiting, and development. At some point you may need to sign one, but it will be well after you know what the company's product does and how the business model works.

No questions for you

If the non-technical founder doesn't ask you anything about yourself, your interests, your tech skills, etc, they're probably either desperate or lack empathy. Both are problems. Desperation can lead the non-technical founder to hire people who aren't a good fit for the team. A lack of empathy can make it hard for the non-technical founder to understand future users, clients, partners, and employees.

This post has been a follow up to our previous post - How to evaluate a non-technical cofounder

About Hirelite

Hirelite is on a mission to put headhunters out of business. We host speed interviewing events using video chat where 20 job seekers talk to 20 companies for 5 minutes each. If you're looking to evaluate the software job market or looking to hire, check out our upcoming events focused on San Francisco/Silicon Valley and New York City.

Text from the video
[T = technical founder, N = nontechnical founder]

T: Hi, I'm a software engineer at Initech. What do you do?
N: I'm an investment banker, but I'm in the process of launching a couple of startups!
T: Interesting. Tell me about them.
N: I am going to leave my finance job to build a social networking site that will revolutionize the marketing space. I've got all the wireframes and planning done, and just need someone to buy the domain and build it for me now. I'm actually looking for a technical cofounder now because mine just left.
T: I'm sorry to hear that. How did that happen?
N: Actually, it's the third one that has bailed. They've all been idiots. This time, I'm really looking for a rockstar though. A real ninja guru.
T: How are you going to get people to use your service?
N: We have all the features. Every single feature our users want, we have. They're going to come flocking to us. If that doesn't work, we'll just buy a bunch of followers on twitter!
T: You have every feature? How far along are you?
N: 90 percent of the site is built. It's been TONS of work, but we've got to make sure it's absolutely perfect before we release it.
T: Hmmm. Tell me again... what does your site do?
N: I'd love to tell you! This idea is so good though, I'd really appreciate it if you'd sign this non-disclosure agreement. Then I'd love to dive in deeper. This is such a great idea, we know someone will copy it the instant they hear it.
T: Just curious. How much are you going to pay your technical cofounder?
N: I'm offering 100,000 shares of a company that is going to be huge.
T: How much of the company is that?
N: It's 100,000 shares!
T: But how much of the company with the technical cofounder own?
N: Listen, this thing is going to be huge. And we're offering so many shares! Come on. Sign this non-disclosure agreement. I'd love to tell you more!

Note: These conversations are typically spread over weeks or months, so you will have to watch more closely on your own.

]]> Nathan Hurst tag:blog.hirelite.com,2013:Post/335642 2011-08-09T16:35:28Z 2014-06-01T01:26:32Z Face-to-face relationships through Hirelite and Ohours

We're thrilled to announce that Hirelite has acquired Ohours to foster face-to-face relationships both in person and by video chat. Along with the acquisition, we've released an enhanced user interface on Ohours and will release more exciting improvements soon.

Our vision at Hirelite has always been to connect people for one-on-one, face-to-face conversations - no middlemen required. Until now, Hirelite has helped companies and software engineers connect directly for interviews via speed interviewing events, primarily over video chat (often facilitating hundreds of interviews per event).

Ohours gives us the chance to push beyond hiring and create a broader community of people connecting directly. We'll help people share their expertise and interests without the awkwardness of wandering around "networking" events. 

What's happening to the Hirelite and Ohours services?

You will be able to use both Hirelite and Ohours as you have in the past. Over time, you'll see some of Hirelite's screening and hiring related features in Ohours, and some of Ohours's flexible, less event-focused features in Hirelite.
]]> Nathan Hurst tag:blog.hirelite.com,2013:Post/335643 2011-07-07T06:01:00Z 2024-03-12T16:58:14Z Hacker News Who's Hiring Trends

Inspired by a previous post on the locations of the July "Who is hiring" thread on Hacker News, I wrote a script to pull down all the who's hiring threads and display trends of requested languages, frameworks, data management, and mobile operations [1,2,3].

Let me know if you see any languages, frameworks, data, etc missing, and I'll try to post an update soon. 

Language Requests Over Time - larger graph

 

Framework Requests Over Time - larger graph

 

Data Management Requests Over Time - larger graph

 

Mobile Requests Over Time - larger graph

 

About Hirelite

If you’re thinking about switching jobs, but don’t want to do a time consuming job search, you can interview 20 companies for 5 minutes each over video chat on Tuesday and Wednesday through Hirelite.com (many of the companies are mentioned in the Who's Hiring thread).

Notes

[1] You can find the code used to download and parse the data on GitHub (the raw data is also here too). To embed the graphs I'm using Google Fusion Tables.

[2] I only used the highest voted thread per month and excluded the remote, language, career, intern/student, or otherwise more specific threads. Additionally, there are a few months I wasn't able to track down. If you happen to run across them, I'll include them here. The threads were a bit of trouble to track down, so I'm going to list them here for future reference:

[3] The request frequency on the y-axis was calculated by finding the number of occurences within all the comments on a Who's Hiring page (ex: some comments many mention Ruby twice and that is counted two times). Additionally, Some terms were merged to correspond to common usage:

  • javascript & js
  • node & node.js
  • mongo & mongodb
  • objective-c & obj-c
  • postgres & postgresql

Please let me know if you see any I missed.

]]> Nathan Hurst tag:blog.hirelite.com,2013:Post/335644 2011-03-28T13:52:00Z 2014-04-07T23:11:48Z How to evaluate a non-technical co-founder

You're a developer, and you've just been pitched a startup idea by a non-technical founder wanting you to join them in building a company. It's the 10th time this month this has happened, and you're getting more and more skeptical.

"Why shouldn't I just start something on my own? After I have a basic product, I can bring a non-technical partner on."

That is a completely legitimate line of thought, and one you should consider thoroughly. It's not the topic I'm focusing on here, but it is certainly relevant:

If you're joining someone else's company, the team has to be good enough for you to give up [100 - (your equity share)]% of the company. Let's consider the situation where there is a sole non-technical founder approaching you to be the other member of the founding team. How should you evaluate that person/startup?

First: As a developer you are worth a lot intrinsically and due to market forces: You're going to make the thing that your company is selling. Aside from that, there are relatively few of you. Do not sell yourself short.

As a developer myself, I'm always concerned that there are much better developers than me and that there's so much I don't know. You've found the right non-technical co-founder if you feel like a bit of a sham for not being good enough to work with them. This is not just speculation: from our position (Hirelite connects developers with companies looking to hire them via speed interviewing over video chat), startups value a developer about 50% more than a non-technical person with a similar level of experience/skill/etc [1].

With this much value, what qualities should you be looking for in a non-techincal co-founder to make sure you're getting your time and effort's worth? Few have all of these qualities, but your non-technical founder should have at least a few of these. Start off by requiring at least two of the qualities below, and for every two years of experience you have, add one more of these requirements.

Traction

Traction refers to the key metrics for a startup both in absolute size and growth rate (metrics around the number of users, user engagement, user acquisition, etc). It's kind of a fuzzy concept, but a startup with "traction" has limited the risk of a significant part of the business, specifically the will-anybody-care-about-what-we're-doing part.

Here are a few examples of what very early-stage traction might look like (remember the non-technical founder may not have much of a product built already):
  • B2C startup where engagement is a key metric: 30 people using a basic version of the product every day
  • B2C startup where user growth is a key metric: 200 people who have given the startup an email address in a month or 50 people who have given them an email address and (on average) recruited one friend to give an email address too. You want to establish that the concept has legs of its own and not just the non-technical person getting their immediate friends and family to use the service.
  • B2B startup that charges <$1,000 per month per company: 10 companies that have said they'd pay you money when you have a product (half the number of companies if the startup has letters of intent)
  • B2B startup that charges >$1000 per month per company: 2 companies that have said they'd pay you money when you have a product (half the number of companies if the startup has letters of intent)
Traction is the great equalizer. If the non-technical person has no other qualities in this list, but the startup has traction, just make sure you work well together (the subject of another post), and you're all set. 

Warning sign: The non-technical founder tells you they need you to build something before they get any kind of adoption.

Domain experience

A non-technical founder has domain experience if they've worked in the industry where the startup is addressing a problem. Three years of experience in that industry is good rule of thumb.

Warning sign: As someone with little market experience, you instantly see holes in the business model that the non-technical founder has not already thought about.

Marketing ability

Ask the non-technical founder how they'd market the startup with a minimal advertising budget. Make them dig deep and give specifics. Here are a few things that are not specific enough and how to approach them: 
  • "We're going to go viral." Why is the product fundamentally viral in nature? Why is the product more valuable to users who get their friends to join?
  • "We're going to get blogs to cover us." Which blogs? Do you have a relationship with them? Have you ever been written about on a blog before?
  • "We're going to SEO the hell out of it." Why can't other companies do this? How reliant will the startup be on content? Who will write it? Why can't other companies beat us at this?
  • "We're going to A/B test until we find a message that resonates." Do you see A/B testing as a mechanism for finding the vision of the company?
This post on Startup Marketing Ideas will make you impervious to the most suspicious startup marketing claims. The best way to evaluate someone's marketing ability though is to have done it on a small scale yourself. Try to get people you don't know using at a site you've built. It's tough work, but you'll learn a lot about what it takes to market something and you won't be fooled as easily by people who don't know what they're talking about.

Fundraising ability

Has the person raised a non-friends-and-family round before? 
Have they ever worked in venture capital? 
Do they have anyone committed to funding this company?
Are they rich?

If the answer to all these questions is no, the non-technical founder's ability raise capital is speculative.

Warning sign: The non-technical founder answers no to those questions, but thinks it will be easy to raise capital.

Product skill

Most non-technical founders think they're great product people because it's so easy to be an ok product person. You're going to have to decide whether you're dealing with a great product person or not. A great product person:
  • Is relentlessly focused on making sure you're making the right product for the right market.
  • Has a clear vision of what success for your product looks like and is probably addicted to metrics.
  • Knows when to cut features and can prevent you from wasting time on developing irrelevant features early on.
  • You can point to any piece of a product and ask "Why?" and they have an answer.
Warning sign: None. Everyone can make decent wire-frames. Be careful, and consider having a product person you respect help you evaluate the non-technical person.

Respect for development 

For any site with a strong software component, the non-technical founder needs to have a respect for software development. They need to understand that as the technical co-founder, you're going to be a key collaborator in the business not a code monkey. They get extra points if they've coded in the past or are eager to learn the basics from you.

Warning sign: The non-technical founder says at any point, "Now I just need someone to build it for me."

Startup experience

There not much that can replace having worked at a startup before: the constant ups and downs, the constraints of limited resources, the agility, the constant struggle to keep the business alive. Any role counts: sales, business development, marketing, product, software engineering, community management, customer service. Extra points for being on the founding team.

Warning sign: The non-technical founder tries to get you to sign an NDA before telling you about the startup or gives you the feeling that they don't know much about startups at all.

Relevant connections or following

Everyone has connections; make sure the non-technical founder's connections are relevant. The connections should contribute to market intelligence, fundraising, and user growth. Ideally, the person has some kind of blog or social media following in the market the startup targets.

Warning sign: Following 2,893. Followed by: 35.

Things that don't get any credit
  • An MBA: they don't hurt, but don't favor them over anyone else because of it for startups.
  • A career in finance or management consulting: unless your startup is in those industries, their big company tendencies could clash with a startup environment. They might not; just use your own judgement.
  • Someone who calls themselves a serial entrepreneur. People throw this term around only slightly less than "pivot". Look at their track record for successful exits or otherwise successful companies if they call themselves this; otherwise, disregard it.
Notes

[1] We're not trying to trash non-technical people here. This is largely based on market demand for developers and our experience seeing early stage startups (bootstrapped and funded up to Series B) and developers interact. We often see developers able to partner with non-technical co-founders who are far more experienced. Additionally, you can see this trend at later stage companies. Example: a developer with 3 years of experience in NYC can make $110k at a big company while a business analyst with 3 years of experience could make somewhere around $80k.

Comments on Hacker News too.
]]> Nathan Hurst tag:blog.hirelite.com,2013:Post/335645 2011-03-19T12:54:00Z 2015-12-01T05:10:54Z My Worst Interview

A few years ago, I was interviewing for a software position at a large web startup and had the following conversation with a someone in HR during a phone screen:

Recruiter: We have a few preliminary questions we always ask to determine if a candidate will proceed.

Me: Sure.

Recruiter: Do you have J2SE?

Me: Yes, I've worked extensively with Java, Spring, and Hibernate making web applications for...

Recruiter: Yes, yes, but do you have J2SE?

Me: (realizing we were playing poor-grammar-buzzword-bingo) Yes.

Recruiter: Great. Next question.

Me: Ok.

Recruiter: We're looking for real rock stars here. How good are you at programming on a scale from 1 to 10? Just give me a number.

Me: If you just want a number, probably about a 6 or 7. (I had recently seen this Programmer Competency Matrix and fell squarely in "Level 2")

Recruiter: Well, we were really only looking for only 9's and 10's.

Me: Oh (stunned... waiting for the recruiter to make the next move)

Recruiter: Do you have any friends that are 10's that I could reach out to?

Me: You're asking me if I have friends who would rate themselves a 10 as a developer?

Recruiter: Yes, we're really looking for a star-hero developer. (You read right. A star-hero... like Mario)

Me: I wouldn't be comfortable doing that. Sorry. Good bye.

Needless to say, I was not asked back for an in-person interview. This is pretty much as classic as the Dunning Kruger effect gets in an interview. 

Both experiened hiring managers and experienced job seekers have worked with people who think they are much better than they are. Effective hiring managers don't expect candidates to evaluate their own skills on an arbitrary scale. They rely on the interview process, references, code samples, etc. Experienced job seekers are wary of interview processes asking you to self-evaluate your skills because they assume the current team has been evaluated similarly.

There's little (if not an inverse) corellation between people who think of themselves as the absolute best and those who actually are talented. The most effective people know that there's always plenty of room to grow.

]]> Nathan Hurst tag:blog.hirelite.com,2013:Post/335646 2011-02-22T04:48:00Z 2013-10-08T16:33:26Z Developer salary growth is an inverted hockey stick

Developer salaries almost double with 5 years of experience and then begin to flatten out. The graph below shows how compensation changes per X years of experience. A graph of individual compensation over time won't look exactly like this because individuals typically only see large salary bumps when switching jobs. This graph shows what salaries at different experience levels look like at this instant [1, 2].

To try to make this graphic as useful as possible, here are a few baseline data points for two very different locations:
  • New York City: 0 years of experience has a salary range of $70k-80k, 5 years of experience has a salary range of $115k-$130k
  • Suburban Virginia: 0 years of experience has a salary range of $55k-65k, 5 years of experience has a salary range of $90k-105k
Why is this the case? Experienced engineers are not coming on to the market at the same rate companies are demanding their services. Sure, engineers graduate from college every year, but they're inexperienced and companies are willing to pay a premium for someone who can get up to speed more quickly.

How developers can take advantage of this trend
  • If you got a job straight out of college, have kept it for a few years, and haven't received major raises each year, you can probably command a higher salary than you think on your next job change. 
  • If you're a more experienced developer, think about joining a startup. You'll get paid toward the high end of the inexperienced range in terms of salary, but you can likely negotiate a much higher equity stake.
How companies can take advantage of this trend
  • Hire inexperienced or minimally experienced developers, train them, and retain them.
  • Continue to give raises to more experienced employees. These will easily out-pace the market.
    Notes

    [1] These figures assume no equity compensation. This can vary significantly if you join a startup.
    [2] These figures and the graph are based on self-reported figures from job seekers and companies (not formally collected data). It's not precise, but there is a clear trend.

    About Hirelite

    Hirelite is on a mission to put headhunters out of business. We host speed interviewing events using video chat where 20 job seekers talk to 20 companies for 5 minutes each. If you're looking to evaluate the software job market or looking to hire, check out Hirelite.com. We currently host web events focused on New York City, San Francisco/Silicon Valley, Boston, and Los Angeles.

    ]]>     Nathan Hurst     tag:blog.hirelite.com,2013:Post/335647 2011-02-03T18:22:00Z 2013-10-08T16:33:26Z Developers, talk to a VC before a recruitment agency

    The demand for software engineers in startups is higher than ever. If you're a developer thinking about switching jobs, you have the freedom to aim high with what you expect from your job:

    • Do you want to have more of a product focused role or a more tech focused role?
    • Do you want to be more of a specialist or generalist developer?
    • Do you want to deal with big data?
    • Do you hope no one expects you to call yourself a rock star, ninja, or guru? 
    • Do you favor equity or salary compensation? 
    • Do you want a job that lets you work on open source software on the clock?
    • Do you want to work at a company that allows some remote work?
    • Do you want a job that allocates an education/conference budget for each developer?
    • Do you want to get as far away from the finance industry as possible?
    You might think that it's so hard to find startups that meet your criteria that it may be worth it to talk to a recruitment agency, spell out your requirements, and let them do the work for you. Unfortunately, recruitment agencies don't work for you, the job seeker. They work for companies that pay them 20-30% of what your first year compensation will be.

    What happens when you tell a recruitment agency what you want? They simply don't care. Even if they care, it doesn't serve them directly enough to understand your needs, so they focus only on how you fit into the molds set by their clients (the companies). They see you as a pay check, as "talent that can't go to waste," I've been told before. They will do whatever it takes to push you into a company desperate for engineers. Their incentives are never going to be in your favor and are often against the companies' interests too.

    How can you get around this and find a great opportunity? Ask a VC about their portfolio companies. VCs work toward the success of their portfolio companies, not a paycheck based on a single hire. They care much more about quality of fit than recruitment agencies do, and they aren't going to make you jump through hoops just to find out the name of a company that is hiring.

    The are two strategies to mix when talking to a VC about jobs:
    1. "I love this specific company in your portfolio. I have a background in ___, and I'm interested in doing ___ for them."
    2. "I have a background in ___, and I'm looking for an opportunity where I can ___ (or that allows me to ___). Do you have any portfolio companies like that?"
    Basically, you need to quickly convey your skills and what specifically you're looking for. VCs don't have much time to spare, but they will make time for developers who know what they want. 

    Here are a few VCs with portfolio companies that are hiring developers and how to contact them (If you're a VC and would like your email listed here, just shoot an email to nathan@hirelite.com):

    When you contact them, include the word "developer" in the subject line.

    About Hirelite

    Hirelite is on a mission to put headhunters out of business. We host speed interviewing events using video chat where 20 job seekers talk to 20 companies for 5 minutes each. If you're looking to evaluate the software job market or looking to hire, check out Hirelite.com. We currently host web events focused on NYC, San Francisco/Silicon Valley, and Boston.

    ]]>     Nathan Hurst     tag:blog.hirelite.com,2013:Post/335648 2011-01-05T15:18:00Z 2013-10-08T16:33:26Z Technical job post tips for the desperate

    For software engineering jobs, most companies, especially startups, just can't find qualified candidates, even after tapping their networks. If you're one of these companies who has more trouble sourcing (finding candidates) than screening (filtering out candidates that aren't a good match), here are a few tips to get your job post more attention. Some of these tips may require fundamental cultural shifts for your company.

    List a salary - if good developers are on a job board at all, you need to let them know quickly whether or not your company is worth their time. Posting any salary information other than "comensurate with experience" or similar is a step in the right direction. For example, you could say, "Compensation is completely open, but here's what we have in mind: $90k + meaningful equity stake."

    Say that you're comfortable with remote work - there is a huge pool of developers who don't live (or don't want to live) in your city. For companies in cities with a high cost of living, you can pay someone 10-20% less and fly them in once a month/quarter for an in-person meeting.

    Drop the degree requirement - plenty of good developers didn't go to college, didn't finish college, or went to a community college. You're going to have to look more at experience and focus more on evaluating technical skills during interviews.

    Guarantee the job only requires 40 hours per week - developers with families, startup aspirations, or other priorities have a tough time finding work in an industry where long hours are the norm. In your job post, underscore that your company works at a sustainable pace, rarely requires fire-fighting, and respects other priorities.

    Guarantee a response - even great developers suffer from resume black holes. In your job post, state your timetable for making a hire and say that you'll respond to each response you get (even if it's a "no").

    Don't     look like a recruitment agency - big job boards, especially Craigslist, Dice, and Monster, are overrun with headhunters who make job seekers jump through hoops to find out which company is hiring (so they can protect their massive fees). In your job title, call attention to your company by stating its name and optionally who posted the job description. A post from a tech lead or a CTO will help give developers confidence that their application will be understood. Example: instead of a job title, "Software Engineer", consider, "Software Engineer at MyCompany.com (responses go to CTO)".

    Offer to train people in a new language - there are times Java or .Net are the right tools for the job, but there are also a lot of developers who would prefer to be coding in Ruby, Python, Scala, etc. In your job post, say that you are willing to consider all good programmers and help them get up to speed on your tech stack.

    Avoid Rock Star, Ninja, Guru, etc - Using these terms in your job post may have communicated a trendy vibe at one point, but those times have passed. Now it communicates a desperate attempt to seem cooler than you really are, a sign that you're too full of yourself, or that you're just naive. For more detail, see What developers think when you say "Rock Star". (Thanks for reminding us of this one drivingmenuts)

    Keep in mind, these tips are only for companies that have severe sourcing problems. These tips may produce orders of magnitude more resumes for you to look at (not all of which will be good), but there will definitely be a few good ones in the batch if you're willing to look for them.

    About Hirelite

    Hirelite is on a mission to put headhunters out of business. We host speed interviewing events using video chat where 20 job seekers talk to 20 companies for 5 minutes each. We have two upcoming events: one focused on SF Bay/Silicon Valley software jobs and one focused on NYC software jobs. If you're interested, check out Hirelite.com.]]>     Nathan Hurst     tag:blog.hirelite.com,2013:Post/335649 2011-01-03T15:00:00Z 2013-10-08T16:33:26Z Thanks HN: Developers and YC companies video speed interview for free 1/11

    From advice to traffic to introductions, Hacker News has been immensely helpful for Hirelite this past year in our mission to put headhunters out of business. Now, Hirelite has reached a point where it can give back.

    On Tuesday 1/11 at 7pm PST, Hirelite is hosting its first web event focused on SF Bay/Silicon Valley jobs for back-end and generalist developers. You'll speak with either 20 job seekers or 20 companies for 5 minutes each over video chat. At the end of each conversation, if both sides wish to follow up, Hirelite will send you each other's contact information (this generally happens in about 1/3 of all conversations).

    The event is always free for job seekers (job seekers can sign up here), and to show our gratitude to Hacker News, we're offering Y Combinator companies free admission also (just sign up here, fill in a job description, and shoot nathan@hirelite.com an email).

    If you can't make it, feel free to reach out directly to any of the companies participating in our SF event, our NYC event, or our previous events. ]]>     Nathan Hurst     tag:blog.hirelite.com,2013:Post/335650 2010-11-09T18:48:00Z 2013-10-08T16:33:26Z 5 Practical Tips for Not Looking Like a Resume Black Hole

    If you're hiring job seekers who have a hard-to-find skill set (e.g. most software engineers), you may be discouraging the best from applying because you look like a resume black hole, a company that never responds to resumes from job seekers. Additionally, if you actually are a resume black hole, you're probably getting a bad reputation among job seekers. They talk, and once they've spent time updating their resume, crafting a cover letter, and possibly answering a puzzle you asked only to never hear from you, the talk won't be good.

    Most job seekers are very familiar with calls for resume submissions. Be it on a job board or on your company's jobs page, they know it's unlikely they'll ever hear anything back. Worse yet, you'll miss both the best passive and active job seekers. You'll miss passive/casual job seekers because they'll be reluctant to exert effort to update their resume and write a cover letter on such an uncertain prospect. You'll miss great active job seekers because they probably have multiple options and they need to be able to count on hearing from you in a timely fashion to compete with their other options.

    Here are a few tips to let job seekers know you take them and your hiring process seriously. Some of these tips require fundamental shifts with respect to your hiring and screening process, so they may work better for smaller companies.

    1) Explicitly state that you will respond to all candidates within X hours. To decrease the amount of time you spend replying to non-qualified applicants, just say, "We promise we'll let you know whether you'll move further in our process within 48 hours. Otherwise we'll just reply with 'Thank you, but we won't be moving forward with you'." Alternatively, you can offer to send feedback for less than qualified candidates. Either way, you need to give the job seeker some explicit assurance that a person will read their application; otherwise, the job seeker will assume they're at the mercy of some buzzword search tool.

    2) Lay out your hiring process and timeline. Example: "After receiving your resume, if you progress through each stage, we'll do a phone screen within 3 days, bring you in for an interview within 10 days, and give you an offer within 15 days. We want to have you working here in just over a month."

    3) Request a bit.ly link to their LinkedIn profile. Let them know that you'll click the link when you start reviewing their application. The job seeker will be able to monitor one of the earliest interactions you have with their application. It will keep you honest about #1 above and will give the job seeker an assurance that they'll be able to see your progress with their application. You need to explicitly ask for a shortened track-able link though. It's often considered rude to include these links in an email to a single party otherwise.

    4) Don't just say "we're always looking for..." on your jobs page. When you say this, you convey that your request may not be fresh. If, for example, you really are always open to hiring any great developer who sends you a resume, consider posting a specific job or two and put a field next to the link that says "current as of X," where X might auto update every week.

    5) If you stop hiring, take down your job posts. If you don't, you'll lose credibility for future hires. Job seekers will have invested time in sending you a resume, cover letter, and possibly an answer to a puzzle you requested. The word will get around. Make sure you take down posts on job boards and on your own jobs page. If you can't take them down, updated them with a note that the position is filled or no longer available.

    At this point, you may be thinking "well, if they don't want to go through the trouble of applying, we don't want them." Think again. The best job seekers have plenty of competition for their skills. If you want a chance at getting them, you have to give a little.

    About Hirelite

    Hirelite runs web-based "speed interviewing" events to connect software engineers and companies hiring. If you're looking to evaluate the software job market or looking to hire, check out Hirelite.com. Our next event is on Tuesday, Nov 16 and focused on jobs around NYC.

    ]]>     Nathan Hurst     tag:blog.hirelite.com,2013:Post/335651 2010-10-28T19:00:00Z 2013-10-08T16:33:26Z Dear Developers, a "Free" Headhunter Will Cost You >$10k

    Have you ever felt like a headhunter was stealing from you? Not literally taking money out of your wallet, but something just rubbed you the wrong way?

    Well, it could be that your headhunter is doing sleazy things or it could be that they actually are costing you money. Here's how.

    Headhunters who recruit software engineers get paid when they place a candidate that gets hired. Companies pay recruiters 20-30% of what the candidate will make in their first year at the company. For an experienced software engineer making $100k per year, a recruiter's fee would be $20k-$30k depending on their agreement with the hiring company.

    What does this mean for you, the software developer who just received an offer?

    As businesses grow, recruiting costs become a fact of life whether they come in the form of job posts, headhunters, or time spent networking. Over the past few months, I've talked to a lot of companies that are hiring developers (with and without headhunters). Of the companies that use headhunters that I've spoken to, about half of them are willing to pass along a portion of the anticipated recruiting budget to a new hire if that person comes to them without a recruiter. This willingness likely stems from the huge demand for software engineers right now, so your mileage may vary in different market conditions.

    Next time you're doing a job search, approach companies directly through your network, through a job post, or through a company's website. When you receive an offer, you'll be in a position to ask for a larger salary or sign-on bonus if you know the company has a habit of using headhunters.

    Example

    You receive an offer at a job where you will be specializing in Hadoop. (Almost every company I know of that uses Hadoop uses recruitment agencies). If you know that the company has a habit of using recruiters, try to determine who has the most visibility into the recruiting budget. This person will be your best bet for negotiating more money for approaching the company directly. At larger companies, this will be the HR representative who gave you the offer. At smaller companies, this is more likely a hiring manager or CTO.

    Go to this person and tell them you approached their company directly because of how much you like the culture, people, technical challenges, etc (this part has to come from you). Then tell them that you understand how much recruiting costs can be for developers, and that you're happy to be saving them money. Then ask, "Would you be willing to take recruiting costs into account with my offer?"

    Using this strategy, I've heard of one developer getting a $15k sign-on bonus, and another developer getting a 5% salary bump. With software engineers in such high demand, there's no reason why companies shouldn't pass along some of the money they save recruiting you if you go directly to them.

    About Hirelite

    Hirelite helps software engineers talk directly to companies by facilitating web-based "speed interviewing" events where developers video-chat with a series of companies for 5 minutes each. Our next event is this Monday, November 1st at 7pm EST. The companies attending are all NYC based, but we're accepting job seekers from around the US who would be willing to relocate.

    ]]>     Nathan Hurst     tag:blog.hirelite.com,2013:Post/335652 2010-10-25T13:17:00Z 2014-06-01T01:28:33Z Come develop software in NYC!

    If you're a software engineer and you've ever wanted to live in New York City, the time is now. Nearly every company in NYC needs software developers. For non-technical people, it is becoming a crisis. For software engineers, it's great news. Local developers are getting poached left and right, but we'd much rather fuel the NYC tech growth with more engineers instead of playing musical developer chairs. 

    Due to high demand and the growing accessibility of funding in NYC, salaries and equity arrangements for developers have never been better. It's routine to see developers just a few years out of school making >$100k or receiving generous equity grants, often over 15% as the first employee after founders. If you've ever felt undervalued as a software engineer, now is your time. Hiring managers and non-technical executives have realized the value of great technical talent and are working furiously to attract developers.

    The technical community in NYC has really come together as well. You could go to technical and startup events every night of the week if you wanted (Ex: NYC Ruby, NYC Python, New York Scala Enthusiasts, Lean Startup, NYC Tech Talks, and Hack & Tell). There are burgeoning hacker spaces, cafes, and coworking spaces (Ex: New Work City, Hive, Ace Hotel, and General Assembly). There's even an awesome way for out of town developers to meet other techies or find a place to crash: Adopt A Hacker.

    Here are a few examples of cool NYC tech companies: Gilt Groupe runs luxury fashion sales and built and open sourced Hummingbird to monitor them. SeatGeek helps you get the best ticket prices for sporting events using data. Etsy is a marketplace for handmade goods and treats code as craft. Yipit aggregates a multitude of daily deal sites and encourages hackers to become founders.

    So, what's the best way get into one of these companies if you live somewhere else but want to join the party in New York?

    Video Speed Interviewing with New York City Companies

    For the past few months, Hirelite has hosted in-person and web-based speed interviewing events to unite software engineers and companies. Developers can quickly evaluate multiple companies through a series of 5-minute interviews over the course of 2 hours without having to take off work (the events are at 7pm). So far, we've only accepted developers and companies already in NYC, but for this event, we're opening up registration to all back-end and generalist software engineers who can work in the US.

    Our next events will be on Monday, November 1st at 7pm EST and Tuesday, November 16th at 7pm EST. Both events will be web-based, using live video chat so that you can interview a series of companies without leaving home. It's a great way to sample the job market quickly. To register for either of these events, visit Hirelite.com. We've got a great group of companies lined up with more on the way.

    ]]>     Nathan Hurst     tag:blog.hirelite.com,2013:Post/335653 2010-10-04T20:21:00Z 2014-08-23T14:56:42Z What developers think when you say "Rock Star"

    When you say "rock star" in your job post, you're discouraging the best software developers from contacting you.

    When you write, "We're looking for a rock star developer."
    A developer sees, "We want to treat a developer like the RIAA treats rock stars."

    Using "rock star" in your job post may have communicated a trendy vibe at one point, but those times have passed. Now it communicates a desperate attempt to seem cooler than you really are, a sign that you're too full of yourself, or that you're just naive. 

    Naivety worries developers the most. To developers, "rock star" communicates that you're not sure what you want. Or rather, you do know what you want, and what you want is a miracle worker. "Rock star" signals that you haven't thought enough about the role this developer will fill, leaving developers with a feeling that they'll be receiving ill-defined requirements, not enough time, or not enough resources to do their job (in addition to being overworked and underpaid).

    Speaking of overworked and underpaid... there's really only one time "rock star" is appropriate: "We want a rock star developer. We know you're rare, and we'll pay you like a rock star." Sadly, this isn't usually the case. Here's how software engineers are paid in relation to rock star software engineers [1, 2].

    Now here's how musicians are paid in relation to real rock stars [3, 4].

     

    So next time you're thinking about saying rock star, ninja, guru, etc in your job post, consider it a sign that you have more thinking to do about your hiring requirements. Here are a few questions and trade-offs you should consider answering with your job post:

    • Do you want a specialist or a generalist?
    • If you want extraordinary people, can you compensate them extraordinarily or provide an extraordinary environment? 
    • Do you want a technical person who cares more about the business/market challenges or do you want someone who cares more about the technical challenges? 
    • Do you want someone who prefers quick, practical, "good enough" solutions or do you want someone who prefers to take their time and do things more maintainably or scalably?
    • Do you want a feature developer or a maintainer? 
    • Do you want a risk taker?

    Let us know in the comments If you have any more high-level questions you like to have answered before you post a job description.

       

      About Hirelite

      Hirelite runs "speed interviewing" events over video chat to connect software engineers and companies hiring. If you're looking to evaluate the software job market or looking to hire, check out Hirelite.com.

       

      Notes

      [1] Simply Hired salary estimates for software engineer
      [2] Simply Hired salary estimates for rock star software engineer
      [3] Simply Hired salary estimates for musician
      [4] Average salary for the top 10 best paid music stars. But wait, those are only the top 10 musicians! Yes, exactly. Rockstars are stars because they're scarce, and because they're the best.

      Also, an associated queston on Hacker News a few months back was very helpful. Thanks for all the comments there today also.


      ]]>       Nathan Hurst       tag:blog.hirelite.com,2013:Post/335654 2010-07-13T18:00:00Z 2014-06-01T01:29:27Z Speed Dating for Software Jobs, a web event

      Our in-person "speed interviewing" events have worked so well that we're expanding to web-based events. On Tuesday, July 27th, Hirelite will host its first web-based event for software jobs and software engineers in New York City.

      Get your webcams and microphones ready for efficient, face-to-face interviews, just like our in-person event but even more convenient. This web-based event will last 2 hours and feature a series of 5-minute interviews with either software engineers or companies. Since you can only get through so many interviews in 2 hours, we're capping attendance at 20 companies and 20 software engineers.

      Over the next few months, Hirelite will expand to other cities. If you're interested in Hirelite coming to your city, let us know!

      Related Posts:

      Results of a Speed Dating Event for Hiring Software Engineers

      ]]>       Nathan Hurst       tag:blog.hirelite.com,2013:Post/335655 2010-04-20T16:37:00Z 2013-10-08T16:33:26Z More Efficient Screening Interviews - Part 1

      At our first "speed interviewing" event, we received feedback on over 200 five-minute software engineering interviews. We asked companies and job seekers about what worked for them and what they liked to see. There were a few themes that should make your screening interviews more efficient and help you quickly eliminate possible mismatches. This piece covers more general screening tips. Later, we'll cover more technical screening tips. Remember, there are plenty of things you should be doing that aren't covered here.

      Tips for Job Seekers

      Before the interview, you should know what you offer in general and what you offer specifically to the company you're interviewing with. In general, you need to communicate your technical skills, growth, and experience. Most people don't have a problem with this. After all, it's probably on your resume. To to stand out, you should have tangible examples. Blog posts, code examples, design diagrams, and screen shots of past projects make a world of difference in an interview because so few software engineers have concrete examples to show. Additionally, be ready to state what you personally did on a project. You don't want to fumble through an explanation with vague answers about what "we" did.

      Discussing your experiences is pretty standard though. To really give a good impression, determine the company's needs and how you can address those needs with your skills. Check out the job description; most have responsibilities and requirements sections. From there, it's just an exercise in reverse engineering to market yourself to a company. For a great example of targeting an employer's needs, see Leonardo da Vinci's resume.

      At some point, the company you're interviewing with will ask you what you are looking for. Having a clear answer to this question benefits both you and the company. It can help you avoid working in a situation you would hate, and it can help the company determine if there is a deeper fit than just your experience coinciding with a job post.

      Additionally, knowing what you want relates to skill and enthusiasm. When you don't know what you want in a job, companies may see you as desperate or lazy. When you know what you want, you have two strategies to combine when speaking with a company: 1) express passion for technical problems and say exactly what you want to do or 2) express passion for the company's mission and suggest what you can do for the company (or say that you're open to doing anything). You'll need to mix both of these themes together, but from what we've seen, larger companies prefer more of 1 and smaller companies prefer more of 2.

      Tips for Companies

      Quickly state your company's mission, interesting technical problems, company size/trajectory, job responsibilities, and job requirements so you can start focusing on the candidate. Practice before the interview if you have to. The better you do here, the fewer questions the job seeker will have to ask and the more you can focus on evaluating them.

      Once you've introduced your company, you need to quickly determine if you're dealing with an active or passive job seeker. Active job seekers are ready and willing to switch jobs for a variety of reasons. They may resent some part of their current job situation, they may have personal reasons for looking for a change, or they may be unemployed. Passive job seekers enjoy their current job but casually consider a change as opportunities present themselves. Your strategy will vary based on what type of job seeker you're dealing with.

      If the job seeker approached you, they're likely an active job seeker. By definition, active job seekers are more desperate than passive job seekers, so you'll have to balance enticing active job seekers with keeping them from parroting exactly what you want to hear. If you say, "We're really only considering someone who enjoys dealing with dozens of last minute design changes," an active job seeker can easily say, "I love last minute design changes!" A month after hiring them, you realize that maybe they weren't completely honest. To combat this, consider leading off by asking the job seeker what they're looking for after you introduce your company.

      If you approached the job seeker or you met fortuitously, they're likely a passive job seeker. They have the high ground. With passive job seekers, you must devote most of your efforts to enticing them while determining if they're a fit as time permits (you may need to find/make time later). Tell them about your company and focus on what you can offer this person: freedom, responsibility, interesting technical problems, influence over the business, great people, etc. Once you've got them hooked you can start validating that they're the right person for the job.

      Some time after you've determined that the person is a possible fit, be prepared to have a preliminary conversation about compensation if you're at a startup. Startups are strange animals, and you want to weed out people that aren't ready to handle them. Tell the candidate what the compensation structure is like: all equity until funding, mostly equity with subsistence salary, mostly salary with some options, or primarily salary.

      A word of caution: Be careful with the active/passive distinction. Unskilled people may appear as passive job seekers too. They may have carved out a comfortable hole where they have made themselves essential by writing unmaintainable code or by doing brainless work that nobody else wants to do. Also, remember that just because someone is an active job seeker doesn't mean they're not skilled. They may just really like your company.

      What to do when there's not a match

      From what we've seen, for one reason or another, companies and job seekers often determine very quickly that they are not a match for each other. What should you do if you're in such a situation? First, both sides should realize that there are likely no hard feelings involved. Figure out how you can help each other. Job seekers can tell their friends that a great company is hiring or evangelize the company's product. Companies can give job seekers career guidance or suggestions on how to approach interviews. Keep a good attitude about the situation, and don't appear to lose interest in a person or company the moment you decide there's not a match. You never know when you may need someone's help in the future.

      Our next event will be next Tuesday in New York City (we hope to expand soon). If you're a software engineer or a company that needs software engineers, check out Hirelite.com      .]]>       Nathan Hurst       tag:blog.hirelite.com,2013:Post/335656 2010-03-22T15:37:00Z 2013-10-08T16:33:26Z Results of a Speed Dating Event for Hiring Software Engineers

      On Tuesday, Hirelite hosted its first event, Speed Dating for the Hiring Process, to connect software engineers with companies looking for technical talent. In short, we learned that companies and job seekers like the speed interviewing format because they can quickly evaluate many possible matches on what's most important to them - cultural fit. Also, speed dating for hiring is way less awkward than speed dating for romance.

      How did the event work? Each job seeker interviewed with each company for 5 minutes then rotated to the next company. At the end of each interview, both the job seeker and the company indicated if they would like to contact each other on a form they received at the event. After the event, Hirelite sent job seekers and companies their matches' contact information.

      Screening and Attendees

      Hirelite requires job seekers to pass a brief programming test in the language of their choice to register for the event. Most applicants had no trouble with the programming test, but we did get some responses from job seekers who clearly could not code. One response completely ignored the question, "I don't program but I have a lot of technical experience and would really like to come." Simple, to the point, and not suited to this event.

      Job seekers in attendance were primarily Hacker News readers or their friends. They showed substantial technical ability, especially with web and mobile development. The developers that came generally had a broad base of skills spanning multiple programming languages for both back-end and front-end development.

      Companies including single founders looking for technical cofounders; angel-funded startups; VC-funded startups; and larger, established companies attended. Most companies were very comfortable with just finding great developers and letting those developers learn (or create) their company's tech stack.

      From feedback on the event, both job seekers and companies primarily made decisions based on cultural fit because the overall quality of the attendees was so high. The event's language-agnostic approach provided optimum value to both job seekers and companies: many developers didn't want to work for a company that would pigeonhole them, and many companies believed that the best developers would be able to pick up whatever technology they used. However, some larger companies sought separate events for different languages (ex: one Java event, one Ruby event, etc). We'd love to hear what you think about both scenarios: specific language-focused events vs. language-agnostic events.

      Matching

      When both a company and a job seeker wanted to contact each other, Hirelite alerted both parties of the match after the event. Companies and job seekers were free to share business cards and resumes at the event. This matching step ensured that companies and job seekers didn't waste time with parties that were not interested (in addition to ensuring that job seekers and companies had each other's contact information).

      Though the quality of both the job seekers and the companies was very high, not everyone got matched with everyone else due to the importance of cultural fit we mentioned above. Now for the data:
      • Companies wanted to connect with 46% of the job seekers they interviewed.
      • Job seekers wanted to connect with 57% of the companies they interviewed with.

      However, this difference in selectivity was not statistically significant. Additionally, it's important to note that the job seekers approached the companies (companies stayed and job seekers rotated), and speed dating research has shown the party being approached to be more selective.

      These wishes to connect translated into the following matching profile:
      • Companies received a match for 73% of the job seekers they wanted to connect with.
      • Job seekers received a match for 59% of the companies they wanted to connect with.
      • Of all the interviews, 34% resulted in a match.

      After attendees receive their matches, it's their responsibility to follow up with each other as Hirelite is not meant to replace the entire hiring process. Hirelite is a quick way to get people with technical talent directly in contact with companies that have a strong interest in hiring them.

      Next Up

      In our next post, we'll feature tips for both "speed interviewing" and traditional interviewing based on what we've seen. Follow us or sign up for email updates to be alerted when we post.

      Our next event is on Tuesday, April 27. As with our previous event, we're capping attendance to 20 companies and 20 job seekers, so register to reserve your spot.]]>       Nathan Hurst