Engineering Recruitment: A Proactive and Streamlined Strategy

The ability to hire top-tier talent quickly and effectively is crucial for a startup's growth and survival. However, it's a fine balance between hiring fast and ensuring you're making the right choice for your organization. Based on years of hiring for diverse roles - engineers, product managers, QA team members, and more - this article presents an efficient and effective strategy for recruitment.

The Common Approach: Hire Slow, Fire Slow

The mantra "hire slow, fire slow" is pervasive in the tech industry. Although it holds some truth - getting the right fit for your team is a big deal. If you aren't confident, you shouldn't hire. But you should try to instrument a strategy to get to confidence quickly. your recruiting strategy must also vary based on the market, the role, and your methods¹.

The Proposed Strategy: Aggressively Fast Communication

A recruitment strategy that sets you apart involves rapid communication with candidates. This pace is atypical, thereby introducing a positive selection bias. In most instances, candidates who endure a slow and protracted process aren't the most sought-after. So, engage your candidates swiftly, and here's how:

Step 1: Quick Resume Screening

Begin with a quick glance at the candidates' resumes. Look for broad indicators such as "top half or bottom half" of the skill range and allow a significant number through this screen. This way, you expose yourself to a larger pool of candidates.

Step 2: Email-Based Initial Interview

Next, replace the first traditional "interview" with an emailed question. This simple and accessible method often provides a better gauge of the candidate's aptitude than their resume. Look for a sensible response, and this alone can cut your candidate pool by half.

Step 3: A Brief First Interview

Schedule a 15-minute initial interview. Start with a brief introduction of your company, spend the bulk of the time listening to the candidate's story, and reserve a few minutes for their questions and next steps. This usually further filters down your candidate pool.

Step 4: Peer Interview

Subsequently, a team member conducts a half-hour interview, allowing them to select the top candidates for the next stage.

Step 5: Group Interview

The selected candidates then participate in a group interview with all stakeholders. This step not only saves time for the candidate but also reduces the load on your team, as they don't need to individually come up with questions.

Step 6: Live Coding/Task-Based Evaluation

For technical or product roles, a live task-based evaluation is the next step. Ask candidates to perform a job-related task using the same tools they'll have on the job, talking through their thinking process. It is basically impossible to fake things in a live session. For example when coding, people basically have to code or at least be able to explain themselves on a live session.

Step 7: Final Selection

Typically, only a few candidates will remain at this point. The choice comes down to who the team prefers.

This recruitment strategy holds several key advantages. It's time-efficient for both the candidate and your team, and it allows for multiple touchpoints over time with different team members. Perhaps most importantly, it includes a "hard to fake" deep-dive into a real-world task. This process has served me well in hiring hundreds of people across roles, and I trust it will add value to your organization too.