Do Not Hire From Big Tech Companies

2024-08-31

Why you should not hire developers from big tech companies if you are a startup.

If you are an early startup hiring developers, you should not hire from big tech companies.

I have seen my friends who are building their teams for the first time become desperate for developers from big tech companies. They think all developers from FAANG must be rockstar developers who can build amazing products. Sometimes, they even skip the interview process altogether when they find someone who is open to working at an early startup. They think the person is vetted enough to be a skillful developer because they passed the rigorous hiring process at a big tech company already.

But this is often not a good idea. After having worked at multiple big tech companies, I can tell you that many developers from big tech do not actually get to experience building a service from scratch. Instead, they often have to spend time maintaining complex services, scaling services that already exist, or getting alignment with other teams. None of these matter before having built a service that people love. And if you are an early startup, you probably haven’t built such a service yet. Most startups fail before even reaching that milestone.

If you want to have a shot at building a service that people love, you should focus on looking for people who have built something from scratch to production at a small company instead. They understand that the last 10% often takes more time to build than the first 90%. They understand when to just copy and paste code instead of obsessing over the “best practices.” They talk to the customers themselves instead of assigning an inbound support ticket to the (non-existent) customer success team.

Developers with such valuable experiences are rare. Even if you find them, you will have to compete with other tech companies who know how much they are worth. But when you actually succeed in convincing them to join you, you have an actual shot at building a successful product and company.