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Hiring resource: "How to Hire Your First Engineer" (Y Combinator) If you're about to make your first engineering hire, Harj Taggar's YC post is a short, opinionated guide that ranks where to find candidates, from most to least effective. Free to read, no login. It's from 2018, so a few of the job boards it names have changed, but the playbook still applies. He also discloses that he ran a hiring marketplace (Triplebyte), which he ranks second. Who it helps: founders hiring engineers #1 to #3, and early engineers curious how founders recruit. Problem it solves: spending months on low-yield channels (agencies, generic job boards) instead of the ones that tend to produce early hires. Two practical takeaways
Work your network systematically. He calls hiring someone you've already worked with "your best option" and lays out a loop: list the best engineers you know, take them to lunch, make the ask, ask who else they'd hire, get intros, repeat. He says to expect it to take at least a third of your time.
Write the job post as the founder. He suggests writing in the first person, avoiding blandness, and leading with your most interesting product challenges, since candidates care about those more than market size. And before hiring a recruiter, ask them to pitch your company back to you.
Read it: ycombinator.com/blog/how-to-hire-your-first-engineer If you've made that first hire, which channel actually landed them? Reply with the channel and one thing you'd do differently.
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Hi everyone, This is the Jobs & Recruiting board. This group is for founders, VCs, and software executives to post open roles they’re hiring for within their companies. It’s also a great place to recommend top-tier talent in your network, discuss hiring trends, and share anything else related to jobs and recruiting.
