The Hardest Thing About Hiring in Tech

Hiring in tech is frustrating. You set up interviews, ask a bunch of questions, maybe throw in a take-home assignment—and at the end of it all, what did you really learn? That someone is good at passing interviews?

Most of what we test for—coding ability, familiarity with certain tools, even system design—can be learnt on the job. Sure, some roles require deep expertise, but for the most part, if someone’s smart and willing to learn, they’ll figure it out.

What’s way harder to teach? How to be a decent coworker.

The Stuff That Actually Matters

There are things that separate a good hire from a great one, and they have nothing to do with how fast someone can reverse a linked list. The real questions are:

• Do they care about their work? You can’t force someone to take pride in what they do. Either they care about quality, or they don’t.

• Can they work well with others? Nobody wants to deal with a brilliant jerk. Tech is a team sport.

• Are they open to feedback? If they think they already know everything, good luck getting them to grow.

• Do they have grit? When things get hard (and they will), do they step up or check out?

These things are hard to measure in a traditional interview, which is why so many hiring processes focus on the easy stuff—like “does this person know X framework?” instead of “will this person make our team better?”

So, Who Do You Hire?

I’ve worked with engineers who had every credential you could ask for but couldn’t take feedback or work with others. I’ve also worked with people who started out with gaps in their knowledge but had the drive to improve and became some of the strongest folks on the team.

Given the choice, I’ll take the second person every time. Because skills can be learnt. Mindset? Not so much.

So if you’re hiring, ask yourself: Would I want to work with this person every day? If the answer is no, move on—regardless of how good their resume looks.