Sourcing and Vetting Remote Engineers 101

This document aims to provide actionable insights and tips to help founders and engineering leaders identify and hire top-tier remote engineering talent.

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1. Crafting an Eye-Catching Job Description (JD)

We like to follow this general structure when posting our job listings:

1. About us: Just 2-3 lines to attract attention to the company.
2. Role type: Remote/Hybrid/On-site Job.
3. Summary: Provide a brief overview of the position (1-2 sentences).
4. Key Responsibilities: Highlight the main tasks and duties the employee will perform (5-7 bullet points).
5. Qualifications: Specify the skills, education, and experience required (5-7 bullet points).
6. Benefits: 4-5 bullet points.

2. Job Posting on Various Platforms

Strategically distribute your job posting across a range of platforms. Some of our favorites include.

3. Look Beyond Traditional Platforms

While platforms such as LinkedIn and Upwork enjoy widespread popularity, they often attract a broad spectrum of candidates, making it challenging to identify the best fits. Platforms like GitHub and Stack Overflow can serve as treasure troves for identifying skilled engineers deeply engaged in meaningful projects. While this process may be somewhat time consuming, uncovering candidates who are not actively seeking a job, you can start to scout and nurture relationships with top engineers.

4. Master the Art of the Outreach Message

Crafting an outreach message that stands out from the deluge of generic connection requests is key. LinkedIn messages are filled with garbage, recruiters mass blast thousands of generic messages a day, you need to stand out. Start by demonstrating genuine interest in the candidate's work – mention specific projects, contributions, or articles that caught your attention in the first message you send. Most important of all: keep the message short & casual.

5. Comprehensive Resume Screening and Phone Interviews

Once applications start rolling in, embark on a two-fold screening process: thorough resume screening and insightful phone interviews. Look beyond the surface to identify patterns in a candidate's work history, progression, and impact. During phone interviews, dive deeper into their experience and make sure they’re up for the challenge. Phone interview is a must for us before the technical interview.

🔥 Pro Tip: During phone interviews, ask candidates to explain a complex technical concept as if they were teaching it to a non-technical person. This demonstrates their communication skills and deep understanding of the subject matter.

6. Technical Interview Structure

For the technical interview design tasks that reflect the actual responsibilities of the role, such as optimizing code performance or solving practical issues. This approach provides insights into problem-solving abilities, adaptability, and collaboration skills. Some of our favorite technical challenges include code reading and coding interview questions. For code reading, take a random function from your codebase and show it to the interviewee without much context. Have them try their best to explain what the function is doing and what its purpose is. This will shed a lot of light on the interviewees technical abilities.

🔥 Secret Hint: Take a real world technical problem- from your codebase-  that software engineers on your team had to solve, and ask the interviewee to solve the problem live. This could range from an actual algorithms coding question to a higher level database infrastructure problem.

7. AI-Powered Tools: Smart Screening to Reduce Technical Interviews

I’ve seen companies where recruiters take 500 applications, and literally just randomly cut them in half and drop one group, wasting a lot of talent. Embrace the power of AI-based tools to screen candidates before moving to technical interviews. When we open a job application we literally get hit with 100s of applications and resumes in the first few days (not kidding). Platforms that use AI to assess skills can significantly reduce the number of technical interviews required. Here at micro1 we built our own quick verbal + coding exercise pre-screening tool to filter down the candidate pool accurately.

🔥 Pro Tip: If you are drowning in applications, opt for micro1's gpt-vetting test to assess both technical skills and soft skills, ensuring the ideal candidate fit for your needs. And to keep your recruiters workload balanced.

8. Cultural Fit Assessment

Cultural alignment is as crucial as technical prowess for remote engineers. Beyond the typical interview questions, consider incorporating scenarios that reflect your company's values and remote work culture. Ask candidates how they've navigated challenges in remote collaborations or how they've contributed to creating a positive remote team environment in their previous roles. This not only helps identify candidates who will thrive in your remote setup but also showcases your commitment to a supportive work culture.

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In today's fast-paced environment, time is of the essence. Clients cannot afford to spend excessive time searching for top-tier engineers and waiting for months to secure elite talent. That's where platforms like micro1 come into play. We can rapidly deliver the top 1% of talent within a matter of hours. Clients have the ability to filter by tech stack, view profiles, and schedule an interview in 2 clicks. Additionally, there is a one-week free trial available to assess the developer's performance. Anyways, that’s all for now.