I’ve recently started another company, and here are a few things I’ve been reminded of while recruiting people to join the team:

  1. You can’t be boring. I know that sounds obvious, but it took a dozen iterations to get a product engineer job post to a point where it sounded really compelling. Initially, I tried to be as concise by providing a few background sentences on the company and the problems we’re solving. I spent time talking through the technology stack and what types of projects this engineering unicorn would be working on. I sent the post to a friend and he replied “Some overall feedback on the post: it’s boring :) There’s nothing separating it from the rest of the RoR posts for engineers.” I give him points for softening the blow with that emoticon. I revised the post add more about my background, further elaborating on the pain point and market size, and adding a list of people I’ve worked with in the past (to serve as references).

  2. LinkedIn messages will go unnoticed. A candidate told me this morning over coffee that he had not seen my message on LinkedIn (a mutual friend made the connection). “I get hit up by recruiters all the time. I just don’t check that inbox any more.” Others have confirmed this. As an early adopter of LinkedIn, this shocks me (people forget what professional social networking was like before LinkedIn) but it makes sense.