If you work in the world of tech, you’re likely familiar with the name Andreessen Horowitz, one of the largest venture capital firms in Silicon Valley. Founded in 2009 by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, the firm manages upwards of $4 Billion in investments.
What you may not know is; in addition to providing funding, they also provide much-needed counsel to startups looking to grow their teams. In fact, they have a whole team dedicated to dispensing advice and best practices.
Shannon Schiltz heads up Technical Talent at Andreessen Horowitz, leading a team devoted to helping startups connect with, hire and retain top tech talent. So how exactly do startups recruit tech talent? We got the latest insights from Schlitz.
What does a startup usually look for when building out a team?
As the environment becomes tougher and more competitive, more companies say they want to grow their engineers and their teams
Some companies go through their network and attract folks they’ve worked with before. You have folks who go after college talent or go out and understand how to recruit, they use every recruiting platform. Next, they bring someone on that owns the recruiting process, vetting, selling the culture, etc.
So more companies are using recruiters and HR?
There’s so much excitement and energy around how important technology is and how many markets are being changed. It’s a very competitive industry and market so you have to nail the process. It’s really hard to hire engineers and designers, and hard for entrepreneurs to hire a recruiter. We focus on how to hire the recruiter so you can get the great engineer.
How can a job candidate make their skills stand out?
Make sure there's a GitHub presence and that you're actually contributing to open source projects, and make sure that info is included on your resume. I would say most people these days when they review a resume, they are looking at internships, where you have worked before, what kind of technology are you working on. Are you in a niche that's relevant or have you gone general and broad?
The next question is what have you contributed to, and what does your code look like? That whole piece has become very transparent, so from the technology standpoint its really about showcasing what you’ve done in your coding experience.
What are the most in-demand skills in these days?
The engineering side hasn't changed much over the last few years. Folks want full stack experience; they want people to understand the whole facet they're going to be working on. Back end engineers who are generalists that have exposure to different programming languages are very important. Mobile obviously is very, very hot.
We hear flexibility is key too, correct?
It's really understanding and being able to move quickly. These companies are growing fast, they're changing fast, you can't really be stuck in your old way of doing things. Be open-minded. A lot of these companies are built with collaboration so you have to be able to fit into the culture and the environment.
Every time we sit down with an early stage company and talk about their recruiting needs, they're like, “We just need a generalist background, we just need someone who’ll want to work on different things as we figure it out.”
How can a company attract the best talent?
To attract the best talent, you’ve got to be working on something cool. Everyone wants to go to the exciting world-changing, game-changing companies. Salaries are creeping up constantly, compensations change annually, so be able to sell your opportunity. People don't make the decision off of perks; it’s more of the other things they offer.
You also mentioned retaining talent, what’s the best way to do that?
You can spend your time recruiting top talent, but if you don’t think about how you retain them, you’re going to have an on-going exit and you’re never going to get ahead. You have to invest in your employees and build it the right way. When people start leaving because they don’t think the company really cares about their employees, that’s a really hard perception to change – you’ve got to address it up front.
What about perks, does that matter?
Perks are great, food has become a standard; lunch and dinner and also salary and proximity. The younger generation wants to be in the city, so perhaps transportation vouchers, lots of young people don't have cars anymore. Paying for Lyft or the train is a perk folks in the city appreciate, as are pet policies, yoga and meditation rooms. Social events are really important, the younger generation likes to work together and then hang out together, so you see more and more off-site social activities.
