Lesson 18: Building an Engineering Team

Building an Engineering Team

Hiring your first engineer is tough. There is no getting around it, especially if you do not have a technical background yourself. Hopefully, you have a technical cofounder or a technical person on your team you can lean on for advice about making technical hiring decisions. If you don’t though, all is not lost. There are still ways of getting through it and finding your ideal technical contributor. 

As a CEO, hiring is always a challenge. It pulls you in several directions and taking time out of your hectic schedule to interview a seemingly endless string of undesirable candidates does not give you the sense of accomplishment that solving a business problem will. It’s necessary though, so set yourself up for success by learning how to build an engineering team.

Figure out what your ideal hire would look like. What are their qualifications, their skills, and their experience? Put it all down on paper. That is what you will use score your candidates. Measuring them against your ideal hire will bring uniformity to the process that will allow you to gauge how they will fit within your organization. Will they work well with you? Will they work well with your team? Do they have the skills you need? Do they have enough strengths in one area to outweigh their shortcomings in another? These are the kinds of things that should be on your scorecard.

As a CEO, decide on which trade-offs you’re willing to make.  Do you wait for your dream candidate, or do you hire the best person you’ve seen so far, even though they only scored a B+ on your scorecard?  Do you make a good candidate for a fair offer and see if they take your job or a different one, or do you pay them more than the market rate to insure they accept? Decide where your needs are, where you can give, and where you won’t. Ideally, decide this before you search and stick to it.

Whether you are hiring your first engineer or someone to build out your team, looking for a good candidate is always an arduous task, but your network can be a great help. As a CEO, you are already building a big network, and this is one way in which it can be useful. Reach out to the people you know. See if they know any talented people are in the market. A personal reference is precious, both for you as an employer and for the candidate.

Don’t overlook people you have worked with before. You already know their style and skill set, and whether they work well with you. You have a lifetime of personal experience and relationships and use them to your advantage if you can. People will often overlook options in their immediate circle, and it’s a big mistake. Just because you think no one you know would come work with you doesn’t mean they won’t. Ask to find out.

If you can’t find anyone in your network, then portals are the next option. There are many job boards on which you can list your position. The upside is that you will be spoiled for choice. The downside is that it will take up your time to assess them all, and most applicants will not be a good fit for your role. Take your time and be diligent. Create a process and stick to it, but don’t take too much time. Any candidates you find this way will also apply for other positions, so if you find someone you think is a good fit then get them into the interview process as fast as you can and work through it quickly. If you make them an offer then do it, if not then move on, but don’t waste time. In this process, he who hesitates is lost. It’s easy to lose a perfect candidate because you took a day too long to decide you wanted them. Candidates that apply through a portal are motivated for new work, so keep that in mind.

Another approach for building your engineering team is through marketing. If you’re an early-stage start-up, then getting good candidates can be challenging. There are few engineers that are attracted to the high risk and hair-on-fire environment synonymous with early-stage start-ups. To get them through your door, tempt them in.

When you’re doing PR and outreach talk about your technology. Mention all the cool things you’re doing and how you will impact the world. Share how your company and idea are innovative. Make yourself seem attractive to get high quality candidates to apply.

Also, talk about your technology in your company blog. Keep everyone up to date with the advances you’re making. When you’re ready to get engineering talent onboard, mention in your outbound messaging that you’re growing your team. For early-stage companies, this can be a winning tactic.

Maybe the most difficult way to get engineering talent is cold outreach. Sites like LinkedIn and GitHub have a wealth of engineers, but just like an attractive person on Tinder they get messages about opportunities all the time. It’s difficult to set yourself apart from the crowd, so you must have a good hook and an even better value proposition to get them interested. That’s not to say it’s impossible; just do the work. This kind of approach is a numbers game. The more you reach, the better the odds. So, identify the talent you want and go after them.

Make sure you’re using their direct emails where possible instead of messaging.  Also, don’t forget to link some of your compelling corporate copy in the email. They don’t know you, so put your best foot forward so they have a reason to be interested.

Last, there are recruiters and agencies. These are listed last because they have very limited efficacy. Recruiters are likely to employ the tactics listed above, mostly cold outreach. The benefit of using them is that they are spending their time doing it instead of you spending yours. They are also usually cheaper on a per hour basis than one of your internal people.

You could hire a technical recruiter, but they will probably adhere to the same method as a contract one, and they are almost never technical. What you usually get with a technical recruiter is a person who asks questions about your ideal person and their skill set, then goes out and tries to find someone that matches it. While that sounds ideal, they lack the technical knowledge to vet the people they find, so they are likely to bring you someone that sounds like they are a fit when they really aren’t.

Agencies are typically less effective than recruiters. Most of them only have a dearth of engineers, and the ones they have are being sent to every company with an opening that the agency can find. Also, most good engineers avoid agencies because they have people approaching them with offers, so they don’t have to go to an agency. As a result, the engineers that an agency has to offer are likely mid-tier.

A few things to remember when interviewing an engineer for your team:

·       Ask them technical questions to make sure they have the proficiencies you need.

·       Let your team interview them to ensure that there is a good culture and work process fit.

·       Do a coding challenge with them and your team so they can try each other out to confirm good culture and workplace fit.

Check previous projects they have worked on but remember to ask for specific details about what the candidate worked on. If the candidate didn’t do the things, you find most relevant in the previous projects, then the portfolio is worthless.

Make them the best offer you can for your company, stage, and needs. A good engineer has a lot of opportunities, and you don’t want to miss out on hiring them over a difference in salary that isn’t significant to you.

If you’re leveraging your network, here’s an established approach for success:

·       Create your company pitch and polish it until it shines.

·       List all the best engineers you know.

·       Take them to drinks or dinner and talk with them about your company and/or team.

·       Ask if they’d consider joining your motley crew of adventurers.

·       No matter what they answer ask them who they’d want on their team if they were to join you.

·       Ask for an introduction to those people.

·       Repeat this process with each introduction until you have your hire/team.

Once you have your engineering team, make sure you are using them to their full potential. Hire a good product manager to interface with them. Develop scalable processes to help the team grow and succeed. Always keep your eyes open for new talent. Technology moves fast and you never know when you will need someone with a specific skill set or proficiency you don’t have on your team. Don’t wait until you need someone to start looking.