Ask HN: How do you hire?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9543764

by tuyguntn • 11 years ago

5 4 11 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

we(me and cousin) just started our own small company, cousin manages everything related to customer, finding projects, administrative stuff and etc. I am the only programmer in company, we don't have lots of projects yet, but we need to hire another programmer. turns out finding new hire is not so easy, most of the experienced devs have job, in order to find junior developer I am teaching at local programming course, but I don't feel like they are doing well (maybe I was also like them back in college). So how do you hire if you have trade-off for salary, at this moment sure we cannot pay big salary, but we also do not want to hire someone who doesn't know anything and spend time to teach them and when they are ready to work they may leave.

mrcold• 11 years ago

Pay a huge salary. If you can't afford it, share the profit. Three guys means 33% for each one. So offer 33% of all profits for the next two years, paid monthly or when the company gets money. It's expensive, but you keep your equity. Offer less, and nobody will be interested. The offer must be compelling. Nobody likes cheap nitpickers.

After a year or so you can also figure out if this new developer should be an equity owner. Or if paying him for work is enough.

lessthunk• 11 years ago

Very difficult; I would look at open source projects somehow related to what you need. There are developers that are 10-times as productive as others, or 100-times. These you need to get motivated; Sharing part of your company is tough if they do not hang around for the long term, so if you give them options, have it mature over a few years.

Go for cheap, newbies hardly ever pays off. Imho domain knowledge matters, too.

tuyguntn• 11 years ago

I need someone who has programming mindset even he doesnt know programming, because I am ready to teach him if he is going to be with us for at least 1-2 years

loumf• 11 years ago

How do you hire?

If that's the question -- the answer is simple. I have worked at places that want the best developers we can find. So we paid market salary+benefits. We wanted entry-level and experts, and so paid them according to their value.

You want top 10%, then pay top 10%. If you can't afford it -- that's ok -- find someone who is not as good and train them. If they become top 10%, pay them more. Oh -- and charge enough for the work they do so that you don't worry about it.

It's a trade-off -- make the trade-off.

Ask HN: How do you hire?

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