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134 sats \ 2 replies \ @jeff 31 Mar \ on: SN's Hiring Trial and Energetic Solutions to Problems Created by My Shortcomings meta
I've hired dozens of engineers, and manged probably >100, as an EM at large and small companies.
I would be skeptical of any process that assumes candidates have a tactical month to spare, even if paid.
Top talent, in general, is already employed and needs to be poached away, and/or is very intenional about what they allocate time to.
A paid month trial says "we aren't committed to you, you are on thin ice".
I bet, had you just offered based on your gut at the start, and then fired faat if it was wrong... might have gone differently.
Great comment!
Top talent, in general, is already employed and needs to be poached away, and/or is very intentional about what they allocate time to.
Do you have any tips for poaching people? How have you seen the process work?
I would be skeptical of any process that assumes candidates have a tactical month to spare, even if paid.
Heck, I was skeptical of the process too, but nearly everyone we talked to was up for trying to do it using a few spare hours per week.
A paid month trial says "we aren't committed to you, you are on thin ice".
I know it's silly, but this was part of what I was interested exploring. I sense we have more use for people who are comfortable on thin ice at this stage, the Wim Hofs of the world.
Maybe this group's overlap with top talent is small, but we aren't looking for 100 of these people, just a few to explore the ice with us before winter freezes the ice proper (if it ever does).
I bet, had you just offered based on your gut at the start, and then fired faat if it was wrong... might have gone differently.
I'd take that bet too. But, the way I am, I don't want to tell people the ice is thick when I know it's thin.
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Do you have any tips for poaching people?
Yah. Different companies, have different half-lives, for eng talent attrition. So, good recruiters will get to know the companies that tend to have turn over around say, the 18 month mark. Then do cold outreach based on that, around that time according to their LN profiles.
There is also seasonality to successful poaching by industry. Eg. Finance in North America, best month of the year to poach is around April/May, because annual bonuses have paid out, and they haven't started accruing for next year yet. For instance.
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