You don't want to hire "the best engineers"
8 days ago
- #recruiting
- #startup-hiring
- #engineering-talent
- Companies often claim they want to hire 'the best engineers,' but in reality, they are not competitive enough to attract top talent.
- Top engineers have high salary expectations, strong opinions, and better work-life balance options, making them unlikely to join average startups.
- Many startups set unrealistic hiring criteria (e.g., Bay Area in-office, long hours) and waste months waiting for perfect candidates instead of hiring great-but-imperfect ones sooner.
- Hiring is a negotiation—startups must recognize their limitations and compromise on certain traits to secure talent quickly.
- Delaying hiring decisions costs startups valuable time, which is often more critical than finding a 'perfect' candidate.
- Startups should prioritize speed and adaptability in hiring, just as they do in product development, rather than insisting on unrealistic standards.
- The author, a recruiter, highlights that startups’ irrational hiring practices benefit recruiters but hurt the companies themselves.