Episode 23: How to hire and build great teams

How can we achieve diversity and excellence while hiring new employees and building great teams? Listen to this fantastic discussion with Jeff Johnson and Edward Stull. While we often talk about mentoring developers from the software developer’s perspective, we haven’t talked much about what it’s like from the hiring manager’s side of things. Have you ever wondered what the hiring process was really like behind the scenes? Learn the answers to many of your burning questions in episode 23. Arsalan Ahmed hosts a panel discussion with two of the tech industry’s finest, Jeff Johnson and Edward Stull concerning team building and the hiring process.
Happy Learning!
Arsalan: Today, on our discussion panel we have Jeff Johnson and Edward Stull. I’m really excited about this discussion panel because it’s going to be about building a team and doing the hiring, but from two different perspectives. Jeff is on an upward trajectory but is still fairly new to the industry. Jeff has the experience of being a startup CTO and hiring in that context, as well as being on the other side and being hired several times in the last few years. We also have Edward Stull who is a user experience expert but he has been in managerial positions. He has managed teams and hired a ton of people. So here we have two different perspectives, which is what the thought show is all about.
Arsalan: So, right off the bat, I want to ask both of your general impressions about building a team and hiring. Is that something you both enjoy?
Edward: I really enjoy hiring because it ends up setting the success of what your everyday life is going to be. If you have a good team, work can be a real joy. If you have problems with the team, then it can be like a bad relationship. The job of hiring folks is probably the most important task you can do. Teams are echo systems. So, you want people to be happy and like they are doing good work. But, the introduction of new people into that echo system can make that team either happier or less so.
Jeff: I totally agree. It is such a core piece. When you’re looking at developing a product, the team is almost the product in and of itself. The growth from line 0and the person to the point you reach as you tack on more team members and libraries become more of a comfortable, natural progression.
Arsalan: If you need to grow and build a team, how do you approach that task? Do you need to think about it, form a strategy, or do a mass hiring, or just get whoever you can get?
Edward: Having a strategy for your hiring process is definitely beneficial. At a larger company, people have requisition orders to staff folks. But, sometimes you just have an acute need. Knowing what you’re getting into with that hiring is not only good for you but also good for the person you’re hiring. Knowing what you’re getting into is definitely good practice.
Arsalan: In my experience what a lot of companies end up doing is saying they have the budget to hire two warm bodies. So that usually means they need to go out and push for resumes from recruitment companies or put job qualifications and requirements on job websites, to recruiters, or whatever. Then they get back a bunch of resumes, interview the candidates and choose the two people from the candidate pool. What you think, Jeff?
Jeff: I think that’s a big part of the perception in a bigger established environment where you’re working with these business constraints that say this is our budget. We want our team to be as good as it can and we want our team to be filled, and with the right people on it. If your manager can look at you as being beyond just a resource, and say, “Here’s how your career looks here and here’s a growth opportunity that you could have here if you chose to proceed with certain steps on your own.” I think it’s possible to define a good trajectory for a person even if on paper they are a resource.

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