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03/28/14 | Uncategorized

Parlez-vous Tech?

The co-founders of theSkimm share lessons learned from their struggles to hire a developer.

By Carly Zakin and Danielle Weisberg (Co-founders, theSkimm)

So we’ve been trying to hire a developer. Apparently developers are the cronuts of the tech industry—very expensive, very hard to find, and no one wants to share them.

We have come to understand that there is an art to tech recruiting and that we might not be the best artists. Per the advice of other co-founders, we have a few tech friends at the ready to conduct in-depth tech interviews for us —  an invaluable resource, as some days our biggest accomplishment is being able to describe our system.

Things we’ve learned about hiring for tech:

So Is Everyone Else

Turns out all of your mentors and friends are also hiring for tech, as is everyone in the Northeast and West coast, and so we are often told “I’d share your job description but if I find anyone I’m keeping them for myself.” Thanks. We get it.

Evangelists Are Not Evangelicals

A lot of engineers like to use the signature ‘evangelist.’ At first, we thought everyone had joined the 700 Club. We were wrong.

Developers Are ‘Different’ and Everyone Is OK With That

Apparently all company rules do not apply to developers, according to some of our startup friends. Meaning: developer doesn’t want to work in an office? DON’T DISTURB HIM. Developer prefers working from midnight-8am? She’s a genius. Developer applicant forgot to respond to your interview questions via email? Totally fine.

NEW ENTREPRENEUR LESSON OF THE DAY: This is called survival of the fittest. And in our next life, we will be developers.

This post originally appeared on theSkimm blog

Photo by Corinne Warnshuis / flickr.

Do you have any advice on hiring tech talent for theSkimm?

1ed6299 About the bloggers: Carly Zakin and Danielle Weisberg are both co-founders of theskimm – a daily e-mail newsletter that gives you everything you need to start your day. Prior to this they were both producers at NBC news. Follow them @theskimm.

 

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