Recruiting and the
Technical Mind
(and how to think like one)

Fire on the
talent!
I can’t see
any!

We have a serious problem
Not answering when I ask for more specifics
about the kind of work such as tech stack or
interesting classes of problems. I get this
one a lot, and my goal in asking for more
details is to find out if I or someone I know
might be a good fit. If you refuse to say
anything more than ‘uses Python’, I'm
probably not going to respond back.

It’s a very serious problem
Asking me if I'm interested in a job using a
technology that appears NOWHERE on my
resume AT ALL and yet clearly requires
significant expertise in the technology

Oh no…it’s even worse
Asking me to spam all my friends in
exchange for an iPad in the off chance that
one of them takes the job.

Far worse…
Being entirely unwilling to provide the name
of the company advertising the position

Oh dear…
Calling me at work – or at all, for that matter.
I'm way more likely to answer you via email
and I'm not sure why I get the argument,
‘No, trust me, I know how you want to be
contacted’

Coding Wisdom For Recruiters
When debugging, novices insert corrective
code; experts remove defective code
(listen to how people describe their projects)

Coding Wisdom For Recruiters
Java is to JavaScript what Car is to Carpet
(please don’t fake what you know if you don’t know)

Coding Wisdom For Recruiters
It's hard enough to find an error in your code
when you're looking for it; it's even harder
when you've assumed your code is error-
free
(when assessing, use broken or obfuscated code testing)

If debugging is the process of removing
software bugs, then programming must be
the process of putting them in
~Edsger Dijkstra
(ask for the developer’s reaction during the interview)
Coding Wisdom For Recruiters

Always code as if the guy who ends up
maintaining your code will be a violent
psychopath who knows where you live
(ask how they work with psycho-code)
Coding Wisdom For Recruiters

There is not now, nor has there ever been,
nor will there ever be, any programming
language in which it is the least bit
difficult to write bad code
~Flon's Law
(ask opinions about alternatives to existing stack)
Coding Wisdom For Recruiters

Most software today is very much like an
Egyptian pyramid with millions of bricks piled
on top of each other, with no structural
integrity, but just done by brute force and
thousands of slaves
(legacy code is a reality and everyone works on it)
Coding Wisdom For Recruiters

Any code of your own that you
haven't looked at for six or more months
might as well have been written by someone else
~Eagleson's law
(making decisions based solely on code repos is folly)
Coding Wisdom For Recruiters

Good code is its own best documentation
(assess code with and without documentation)
Coding Wisdom For Recruiters

Engagement & Assessment
(best ingredients + best recipe + best chef = ?)

Secrets to Engagement
• The People are the ingredients
• You must know Cultural Differences; their Likes,
Dislikes, Quirks
• Look for tools other than the hammer – because
not everything is a nail
• You don’t want to lead the horse to water – you
want to make them thirsty
• Most of all, be knowledgeable & personal

Subj: De acuerdo con "Visual Networking Index" de Cisco...
...in Mexico, IP video will be 85% of all IP traffic in 2018, up from 66% in 2013;
...total Internet video traffic (business and consumer combined) will be 82% of all Internet traffic
in 2018, up from 64% in 2013;
...Ultra HD Video-On-Demand will be 5.2% of IP VOD traffic in 2018, up from 0.0% in 2013
(353.3% CAGR).
I'm not assuming anything about your happiness at work but I am assuming that as someone
who seems to like technology, you might be interested in how the exploding use of video has
forever changed the structure and landscape of how Educational institutions teach and interact;
how Enterprises develop their employees and culture; and how Media & Entertainment
companies stream and monetize content...
...and how COMPANY’s open-source video platform is poised to be the superhighway in Mexico
on which the above growth travels. Por supuesto , el crecimiento significa contratación - y en
este momento , significa ingenieros de ventas.
So I'd enjoy connecting with you here and answering your questions about COMPANY and
Mexico.
One more thing - if anyone you know needs career assistance, I'll help them any way I can (I
have a very large professional network). Even from New York. Really.
If you have any questions, please let me know. Thank you very much for reading all the way to
the end.

Curb Appeal
• Research your target group
• Humor works…sometimes
• Controversial issues?
• Specific problem to be solved?
• The power of the ellipse…
Emails and InMails

Lead-Off Home Run
• Don’t go the “Pick me! Pick me!” route
• If you can, make it short and sweet
• Continue the pace of the Subject line
• Have fun…show your personality
Emails and InMails

Yeah, Recruiters Do Suck
• They know why you’re reaching out to them so
you might as well be in on the game
• They’ve already trashed 246 crappy emails and
InMails this week – so they’re really good at it
Emails and InMails

The Behavioral Contract
• So (a) I won’t contact you anymore unless you
want me to, (b) I’ll go away if you tell me to, and
(c) I’ll help any friend of yours who might have a
need to change jobs or find a job - even if they
aren’t in software development. Not all recruiters
are {actually, Google “recruiters are “}.
Emails and InMails

Why We’re special
• One line preferred unless you really have a story
to tell that ties into why you’re contacting them
• You know those novels about your company that
proceed the “meat” of your job description? No.
Just NO.
• Be honest
Emails and InMails

You’re Beautiful To Me
• There are many reasons why this person will be
receiving your email – tell them why
• Be prepared to go into more detail when they
respond – because the good ones will ask
• Our API Layer is heavy node.js. Since you’re
one of its 500+ authors, I’m reaching out to you
because others who use node.js probably look
up to you
Emails and InMails

Sourcing Cool
• Demystify the blackhole and show them “yours”
• Then I read some of your Tweets and checked
to see if Googling ‘FIRST LAST’
forum produced posts of yours (you seem to
like vaadin.com); I know it looks like
cyberstalking but in the recruiting world it’s
called ‘research’
• In case you dislike recruiters, feel free to Google
me without () – (steve-levy recruiting), and see
for yourself that I'm not like ‘them’
Emails and InMails

It’s Up To You
• Give them the power for the “next move”
• Feel free to ping me if you need more info –
here's something I wrote about our layers; relay
this email on to those whom you think might be
interested (perhaps coming off contract or
pissed off that they’re not doing the things they
were promised in their current role); or I suppose
ignore me if this email creeped you out
Emails and InMails

Hey Escher, get your ass up here right now!

What Techies Want
• They want you to be honest; never fake it
• They want to know the real job not the tasks
• They want to know the entire stack
• They want to discuss your problems – not get
grilled about contrived CS 101 material
• They want a real mentor
• They want to be heard once on the job
• They want to have an impact – that’s mine

TechAnical Assessment Mistakes
• The 7-10 years problem
• Trusting self-assessment as a Rockstar
• Not asking to write the “right” code
• Hire but not for my team
• Ignoring spelling errors
• Not focusing on technical and people skills
• Fear of hiring someone better

Putting Assessment Together
• A/B Testing Your Process. How do you know
that it works? Or are you simply cutting &
pasting from a previous job?
• How We Really Work. Scrum, Agile, Waterfall,
Paired, TDD, BDD, Design Patterns: Do you
assess they way you really work?
• How Our Best Developers Work. Is this built
into your assessment process?
• Community Matters. Do you really care that
many want to be part of something even larger
than the company?

• 360 Relationships. Are you building all
relationships into your process?
• Great Code. How do you define and “score” great
code? “We’ll know it when we see it”?
• What They Really Want To Do. Do you care
about what excites them? How can your company
help them achieve this goal?
• Use Humor. “If you had just boarded a plane and
discovered that your team of programmers had
been responsible for the flight control software,
would you immediately disembark?”
Putting Assessment Together

Code Testing Today
• It has to be real life to be “predictive”
• Hire for performance, not school
• Code Challenges differentiate good from great
developers
• Hackathons are the new career fairs
• Since great programmers live everywhere, you
need to engage them everywhere

Your Recruiting Challenges?
• What one thing would you like to improve?

Questions?
If you prefer, email your questions to me…
levy.steve@gmail.com
www.linkedin.com/in/stevenmlevy
@levyrecruits

Technical Recruiting Reads
• Read this:
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/Guerr
illaInterviewing3.html
• This too:
http://www.fastcolabs.com/3015662/want-to-
recruit-better-developers-give-them-broken-
code