Article · 20 min read

Hiring Software Engineers

Gergely Orosz · The Pragmatic Engineer Freemium Intermediate

Orosz builds a hiring process from role definition through to the final debrief, written by someone who has hired and been hired across startups and big tech. It is the missing manual for a founder who has never run a real engineering interview loop, only briefed an agency. Follow it so your first in house hire is chosen with rigor rather than gut feel.

  • Start from a written role definition and calibrate the loop against it
  • Interview for the actual work, not for trivia or credentials
  • A structured debrief prevents one loud opinion from deciding the hire
Open on newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com ↗

The question it answers

  1. When should I stop using an agency and hire my first in-house developer?

Read with it

  1. Battle-tested YC advice on landing your critical first engineering hire, from founders who've done it at scale. It reframes... YC Startup Library Article · Essay How to hire your first engineer (YC Startup Library) Y Combinator (Greg Brockman, Harj Taggar)
  2. Graham wrote this after watching hundreds of early companies fail, so the failure patterns are observed, not theorized. Two of... YC Startup Library Essay · ~20 min read The 18 Mistakes That Kill Startups Paul Graham
  3. This gives you the sharpest rule for the build versus buy call: if it is a core business function, build it yourself, and if it... Joel on Software Essay · 10 min read In Defense of Not-Invented-Here Syndrome Joel Spolsky
  4. Once no-code has carried you to traction, this is a grounded guide to building the early team you eventually need, including... Lenny's Newsletter Article Hiring your early team Lenny Rachitsky
  5. A deep, practitioner heavy set of guides from operators who built strong technical teams from scratch, useful once you commit... First Round Review Article · long read Hiring engineers First Round Review
  6. Finding a great engineer is only half the battle when everyone is competing for them, and this piece is about the other half:... Y Combinator Startup Library Article · Medium read Convincing engineers to join your team Y Combinator
eChai Partner Brands The partnership →