AZA STEEL: My name's Aza, I'm the CEO of GoGuardian.
We're an educational security startup,
and I'm going to be talking about how to find the best
engineers, and how to attract them
to join your awesome company.
I'm going to think of the talent acquisition process
as you might think of deal stages in a CRM.
And so our deal stages are going to be lead, to contact,
to process, to close.
So before you even start thinking about
that it's really important to clarify in your head
who you're looking for, and what you're
looking for in an engineer.
So chances are you probably want someone
that's smarter than you.
You might want someone that has particular language experience,
or experience building particular types
of applications, whether that be mobile or web.
So clarify that for yourself because that's
going to be really helpful in making sure
that you find the right person.
There's basically two types of ways
that you can go after a lead.
You're going to either find a passive way,
or it's going to be an active way.
So in terms of passive ways, you're basically
putting something out there.
You're saying, hey I'm looking for this type of talent.
And then you may get some bites.
What I've found, those bites are usually less talented, hard
to find candidates, than the ones
that you can find if you find more active methods
and you're really going after them.
You're being proactive and you're saying,
hey I see this person, I see this is their qualifications,
and I'm going to get them for my startup.
Some of the more passive ways that
have worked for us in the past are
things like posting to Hacker News which is a website.
Something that's worked for me is posting on Facebook saying,
hey, this is what I'm looking for in a candidate.
Does anyone know anyone?
Because then you're using your social networking
and you're using your friends' social network to find someone.
The more active ways that I'm really a fan of,
there's a website called AngelList-- it's angel.co--
and there's a whole recruiting section where
you can go through all these people's profiles
and do keyword searches for particular skills
that you're looking for.
So let's say you're looking for a Node.js engineer.
You can do a search for Node.js and a search for people
that are looking in your area for jobs,
or people that have jobs and Node.js in your area
and go about it that way.
Then you need to think about-- so you figured out
how to get in touch with this person.
You need to think about what your message is going to be
and how it's going to be compelling to them,
so it's helpful to think about it from their perspective.
They're an engineer, they're making a great salary,
they have these great benefits, but what don't they have?
And what they don't have is probably a potential for really
tangible positive impact.
They might not have a lot of autonomy in their job setting.
They might not have an opportunity
for a significant financial upside, i.e., equity
if there's an exit, or an IPO or something.
So you want to play to your strengths and their more
traditional current businesses' weaknesses.
To me, the most important thing here
is that you actually think about them as people.
And you need to-- so when I start writing an email to them,
I won't say hi name, I'll say hi John,
so I can start thinking about this actual person in my head
that I'm trying to convince to join my company.
And so I like to go for the most personable methods possible.
So if you can find their phone number,
and you can just pick up the phone and call them,
I've had tremendous success with doing that.
Because you're usually both so confused
that you're on the phone with each other,
that it just kind of works and you establish a connection,
and then you talk about why they would be great
added benefit to your team and then it goes from there.
If you can't get their phone or they aren't answering
their phone, then I would say a personal email
is the next best.
So an email I've sent in the past
is like, hey, we need an awesome Node.js engineer.
So I find some people on AngelList
that have great Node.js experience,
I mention some of that experience in the email
and say, hey, it looks like you did some really cool stuff
building these web apps.
And say what we're looking for is someone
to build these highly scalable node applications,
and this is why you fit the bill,
and this is the company that you'll be joining in,
why it's an awesome company and the amazing traction
that we've had and why this is something
that they're going to want to really get on board with.
A lot of times people go wrong because they don't actually
have an action item at the end of the email.
There's no call to action, and so it's really important
that you have a call to action.
And it can either be an email reply,
or I really like suggesting a time
to touch base on the phone.
So that makes sure that you ask them a question,
there's kind of an expectation that they're going to reply--
or you hope that they're going to reply--
and then you can touch base on the phone.
And that's really the goal, because that's going
to bring it to the next level.
So now that you've verified them on paper,
and you've talk to them and verified that there's
at least some level of interest, you
need to make sure that they can actually do the job.
And chances are you're going to be looking for someone
that has a certain level of experience
and you need to verify that.
And you need to probably either have them do a coding
challenge, or have them do a take-home coding
challenge, where they can dive into a project
and you can see some of their work.
And if you're not really someone that
should be reviewing their code, make sure
that you have a friend look at it
or have a friend hop on a phone call with them,
and talk about some of the technical areas
that you want to make sure that they have expertise in.
Because people can be fairly good at convincing you on paper
that they have certain aptitudes and skills,
and you want to make sure that they actually
have the goods to back it up.
So now to actually get them on your team,
it's really important to think about them
as a whole person, and what about your job
is going to be really compelling to them
and where they want to be in their future,
and how you can play a part in getting them to that place.
You're talking to top engineers.
Some of these top engineers are going to say no,
and it's really important that you engage with them
and figure out why they said no.
And it's important for two reasons.
One, a lot of the time, by understanding
that, you can actually get them back on your side
and maybe it was a, hey, this is just bad timing
and you can engage them on a contract basis
until it's better timing, or something like that.
Two, you need to refine your process,
and the only way you can refine your process
is by understanding what isn't working,
and by talking to them about what you could perhaps
have done better.
These strategies have essentially
allowed me to build this, from what was around a year ago, me
sleeping on my friend's couch trying to figure out
how to grow this idea into a 20-person organization, that's
growing incredibly fast, and we're
on something like 800,000 Chrome books in education,
and protecting students in their online activity.
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