Most founders make the mistake of writing job ads like encyclopedias – stuffed to the brim with every skill possibly required. Don’t waste your time looking for unicorns or generalists.
This approach only turns away perfectly viable candidates. Successful CTO’s and recruiters understand that job ads should be treated like marketing funnels.
- Lead with your strengths and get to the opportunity as fast as possible. Engineers don’t care about your “disruptive startup” – everyone thinks they have a disruptive startup.
- Cast a wide net that selects for 1 or 2 critical skills or technologies you actually need. Then filter.
Here are a few examples:
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Do This – My Version
Wanted: Technical Cofounder #side-gig #mid-level #full-stack We’ve got a little bit of cash plus equity to pay you with, a fulfilling mission, and an appropriately sized (small) MVP to build. Bored with your 9-5 and want to be part of something fun and exciting? Help us to bring cinema therapy to the masses. That’s right! Science proves that people can live a better life, manage mental health, and achieve their goals just by watching normal movies that inspire change for the viewer. BONUSES Once we’re funded, you’ll get to design a scalable machine learning system that will, among other things, recommend awesome movies for users to watch (think Amazon & Netflix). We also have a rock star Technical Advisor who can coach you to be the CTO you’ve always wanted to be. He has founded a half dozen companies and advises dozens. QUALIFICATIONS * 3+ year experience as Full Stack Software Engineer * Any modern stack [Django/Rails/PHP/NodeJS, etc.] * HTML5 + CSS3 + JavaScript * MySQL or PostgreSQL * AngularJS preferred but not required * Agile/Kanban Methodologies
Don’t Do This – The Original Version
Job Description Want to make a difference in the world and help millions of people, then you’ve come the right way. Inlite is on a mission to power social change with technology based cinema therapy platform to help people live a better life, manage mental health, achieve their goals and watch movies for good. Inlite helps to transform watching habits into a personalized development experience. As a part of this mission you’d be working on a scalable data systems and a core piece of cutting edge technology for AI, overall full stack, backend and front end systems. Inlite is looking for a talented, agile minded software engineer / full stack developer. It’s a truly full stack position! Exciting things you will be doing: * Develop Data & Systems Architecture for scale * Programming, deployment and maintenance * Database setup and structure, security, backup, migration * Business logic implementations, backend services and APIs * Implement user interfaces and features * Convert user stories, mockups and prototypes into front-end components that work within complex web applications with reusable high quality code * Machine learning, data structure, mining, structural prep, configuration, testing, deployment * Collaboration with stakeholders to deliver great product and experience * Create conventional / unconventional solutions to problems * Utilize a large range of technologies * Comprehensive testing, perform unit and regression testing; fix bugs * Develop technical documentation * Work with leading-edge monitoring and product management tools and techniques * Internal prioritization, providing solutions at micro and macro scale, making sure that every product’s iteration and feature goes in accordance with the product’s plan and vision * Ideate and explore new features to improve the product and experiences We live by our values and hire accordingly. There're lots of opportunities for growth, from achieving emotional well being and feeling great about working on something meaningful to building great tech skillset. We ensure a diverse workplace where we learn from each other. We are also driven by data, AI, psychology and entertainment, so if you are into engineering, data, and / or machine learning, this project is great to be a part of. The right candidate: You’re passionate about tech capabilities, future, machine learning and building compelling user-facing products and beautiful / clean websites / platforms. You are not afraid to learn something new and feel comfortable working in a fast moving, start-up environment. You are a self-starter, an advocate for the end user and big picture thinker. Passionate about tech and you take pride in your work. You look for problems and inefficiencies in code and find great effective solutions. You look at data and think about how our users will interact with the platform and champion positive changes. You think about which features make sense to implement in accordance with the product's vision and limited resources and also how it will evolve in the future. You are inspired by what's possible and eager to incorporate the best technologies into your work. QUALIFICATIONS BS/MS in Computer Science/Engineering 3+ year experience as Software Engineer and Full Stack Python, PHP, Ruby on Rails, API’s HTML5/CSS3, JSON, AngularJS, strong JavaScript, NodeJS Machine learning, data mining, structural preparation, configuration, testing, deployment Quick to learn and adapt to new technologies and concepts Experience with Artificial Neural Network Experience with UX/UI Willingness to go the extra mile to help other team members Strong written and verbal communication skills Write and review tech designs and specifications SQL and No-SQL, MySQL database experience.
… nobody has time for an ad like this. Here’s another pair of ads:
Do This – My Version
Wanted: React Front End Developer For Funded Startup We’re building a team of web developers, preferably Full-Time and local to LA. OPPORTUNITY We’re open to remote, contract-to-hire, and side gigs with awesome people. Help us build our MERN (Mongo/Express/React/Node) stack application as we work towards an MVP. Has your current engineering team grown too big? Has your personal impact at your company been reduced too much? Then join our small team to get another chance of that rush of adrenaline when you see your work directly making a real difference in customers’ lives. Duro Labs (www.durolabs.co) is a funded, fast-paced, startup in Los Angeles, determined to bring the hardware product-manufacturing ecosystem into the modern world. Manufacturing is still intimidating and error prone – and it doesn’t have to be. Our SaaS tools are simple and easy for users to understand. QUALIFICATIONS 2+ years developing commercial web sites using React, Javascript, CSS, and HTML Experience with CSS preprocessors SASS/LESS RESPONSIBILITIES * Design, develop, and maintain efficient front-end code for all Duro SaaS applications * Translate wireframes and UX insight reports into working production front-end code * Build and maintain front-end libraries and frameworks * Maintain high code quality through automated tests * Maintain performance across browsers and operating systems
Don’t Do This – The Original Version
This time, the author was inspired by my example above, but notice how he still buried the opportunity and turned away engineers that would have been interested by including too many qualifications and responsibilities?
Wanted: Skilled React Front End Developer For Disruptive Startup Duro Labs (www.durolabs.co) is a funded, fast-paced, startup in Los Angeles, determined to bring the hardware product manufacturing ecosystem into the modern world. Manufacturing is still intimidating and error prone – but it doesn’t have to be. With our well-designed B2B software tools, we are on a path to disruption. We’re hiring a team of web developers, preferably Full-Time and local to LA. But, remote, contract-to-hire, or side gigs are still possible. OPPORTUNITY Has your current engineering team grown too big? Has your personal impact at your company been reduced too much? Then join our small team to get another chance of that rush of adrenaline when you see your work directly making a real difference in customers’ lives. Help us build our MERN (Mongo/Express/React/Node) stack application as we work towards an MVP. QUALIFICATIONS * Bachelor or Masters in Computer Science * 2+ years developing commercial web sites, preferably SaaS B2B products, using React, Javascript, CSS, and HTML * Excellent software architecture skills and a passion for maintainable, organized code * Experience implementing Agile/Kanban methodologies * Experience with CSS preprocessors SASS/LESS RESPONSIBILITIES * Design, develop, and maintain efficient front-end code for all Duro SaaS applications * Translate wireframes and UX insight reports into working production front-end code * Build and maintain front-end libraries and frameworks * Maintain high code quality through unit tests and test-driven development * Implement metrics to maintain performance across browsers and operating systems * Develop highly efficient and extensible code to ensure successful product launches and code maintainability * Continuously improve functionality and performance of our automated build and test resources
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