How to attract and hire the “artists” of technology

One of the most effective ways for a technology company to attract top professionals is to build a reputation for being an environment centered on learning and innovating on a daily basis. When this happens, everybody wants to be a part of that experience. 

The challenge of joining such an exciting organization can appeal to a certain kind of professional, regardless of compensation. That is because some people are driven by the opportunity to help shape the company or fulfill a mission of developing solutions that will transform small and medium-sized businesses. 

From a manager’s perspective, it’s not always easy to identify the right people in the market. Some attributes are easier to measure, such as technical background, which is clear from a resume and past achievements. On the other hand, it’s essential to look for personality traits that can make teamwork difficult. Specific projects sometimes can benefit from hires with a non-collaborative profile, but, in those cases, the leader must be aware that they will not be an inspiration to the rest of the team.

A balanced staff needs to have a combination of qualities and characteristics, not just in individuals but in teams. 

The networking risk

When hiring for a senior position, it’s natural for leaders to resort to their networking. The risk with this approach is ending up hiring professionals who are very similar to those already with the company: individuals with the same educational background, who worked in the same companies, have the same skin color, and think in the same way. 

This kind of practice removes the element of diversity, which fosters new ways of interacting, producing, and creating competitive advantages. The chance of fresh insights drops in non-diverse environments, and the reality is that nowadays companies where everyone looks the same are becoming less and less appealing to professionals.

The United States’ particular history of immigration, for example, has contributed to a highly qualified and diverse workforce in technology companies, which have had the luxury of hiring people from anywhere in the world to join their ranks.      

The value of interviews

One good way to avoid falling into the trap of hiring the same type of people over and over is to interview as many candidates as possible and refrain from rushing to fill an open spot. Filling a senior position is an investment not only in money but also in time and dedication from the most influential people in the company and it should be done with patience and care.

Some of the questions that can be asked during the interview process are:

• “What’s your relationship with your current team like?”
• “Do you think people will want to follow you when you come here?”
• “Who do you consider your greatest inspiration?”

Filling a senior position is an investment not only in money but also in time and dedication from the most influential people in the company and it should be done with patience and care.

Interviewers should remember that the person they are talking to may not have succeeded in their previous job because of a mismatch between the kind of professional they are, their particular role, and the company’s culture. Even so, depending on the candidate’s personality, skills, and even personal tastes, it can become clear that perhaps that professional will become someone who inspires younger employees in a new company.

It’s also essential in the hiring process not to get carried away by an impression based on social media profiles. Some people seem inspiring because of their large number of followers or their ability to explain technical subjects online. That doesn’t mean, though, that this skill will translate well within a company. There’s always a risk that they struggle with direct teamwork or they’ll prioritize making a name in the digital sphere over committing to the routine tasks of a company.

For senior positions, the interview process should be longer because more people will end up talking to the candidate. Google and Yahoo were famous for focusing on reasoning questions and determining if the candidate was an independent thinker. It’s as if they were trying to assess the person’s CPUs and processing capacity. Understanding other aspects of someone’s personality is, however, more complex than that.

A candidate needs to be smart, insightful, interesting, and interested. He or she needs to be aligned, or at least seems to want to align, with the team’s collaborative spirit of a technology organization. It is essential to assess whether the professional can commit in the long term to the company’s philosophy and work ethic. This is the most challenging aspect to evaluate in an interview setting, as the limited time makes it less conducive to identifying warning signs or slip-ups.