Recruiting Engineers Who Aren’t Scared to Talk to People

Original Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/buildinternet/~3/3FNzNoNKMb0/

We believe to be a good citizen of the developer and open source community is to hire good engineers for One Mighty Roar. This means engineers that can build utility apps like Lantern, connected device platforms like Robin, and hardware projects like Tableduino.

Rules for hiring

When we started, we made the decision to only hire engineers who were fully capable of interacting well with fellow engineers, but can also confidently talk to clients and present at events. Here’s how we we hire tech people with a personality:

Research before setting up an interview

We look at what you have built, who knows you, how you are to work with, what reputation you have, and if folks think you are curious and engaging. We prefer doing it the hard way – talking to people, expanding out networks, looking for talent where many don’t, and ignoring resumes. There are no shortcuts to recruiting exceptional people.

Interviews are free flowing conversations.

We don’t believe in traditional interviews and industry techniques. We want you to do extensive research on us (including diving deep into our GitHub and Dribbble), play with our apps and sites, look at individual Twitter accounts.

Hire makers

It doesn’t matter whether you’re a junior apprentice or an experienced engineer, even non-technical team members should be able to describe you as a “maker”. It shows in your open-source contributions, blogging, and many examples of applications and/or other things you have built and released.

Hire adults

Being an adult doesn’t have much to do with your age, but rather your attitude toward other people, sense of responsibility, and respect for the company. Also, if you are above pitching in to stock the fridge, cleanup, load the dishwasher, or keeping your work areas in respectable shape, these are warning signs to us.

Add people who can add another point of view

Since we are a product development company, monolithic thinking is simply not compatible with our business model. Caveat: you have to be just as comfortable sharing your insights as diving deep into how other members of the team and our clients think.

Look for people with a personal goal

Look for people who are clear on how they want to grow professionally, and who care deeply about personal “brand”. You’re the one that creates the roadmap. The company is just a tool for your growth.

Hire those who grew up aspiring to be an engineer

As we interview, we try to dig deep into when your passion for the craft started, who were your role models, and who inspires you. Those who became engineers because there is money to be made, are not for us.

Find people who can manage your own time, distractions, and workload

You need to find time to work out, eat a proper meal, and take the time-off. You also don’t require monastic environment, because we are not the kind of place.

Hire for the “after 5 o’clock” personality

We pride ourselves on a professional and respectful work environment where you don’t have to put on “corporate face”. That is an unnecessary overhead for a company comprised of genuinely nice, fun, and respectful people.

Strong team, strong company

We fully understand our methodology is not for everyone, but we strongly believe this is something that is allowing us to scale sustainably while handling a large number of projects. This hiring approach is part of what’s allowed us to remain self-funded four years in. The right team makes a company resilient.