The best candidates aren't found through job postings. Build a pipeline by meeting top engineers before you need them, asking each one for introductions to others, and creating a personal network of trusted talent. Companies like Airbnb under Brian Chesky used this approach to hire at scale.
Here's how you hire good people. Do not do searches.
This guy is the founder and CEO of Airbnb, so here's how you hire good people. Step 1: Be Airbnb. I'm sure there's some good advice, but we might have to tweak this one just a bit.
So the best way to do is pipeline recruiting. I try to map out all the best people in the Valley. So let's say I need to hire really good engineers. I don't do searches. I just informationally meet the best engineers in the world. Every—
meet the best engineers in the world. I promise you I'm gonna have an idea for you that will work even if, again, you're not Brian Chesky running Airbnb.
Every meeting, the job is to get the next meeting. Meet someone else. So if I were to meet you and I say, "Hey, who's the best people you know? Can you introduce me to 2 or 3 people?" So what you're doing is you're constantly meeting people in advance of searching.
What if all of your friends are idiots? And I'm not kidding, like, what if you don't know anybody who knows anybody?
You're just building your pipeline. You just need to know lots of talent. And all of it's referral-based. Find an ad you like and then figure out who made that ad. Start with results. Work back to the people. Don't start with the resume. The other thing to do is just keep asking people to build your Rolodex. And the moment I find somebody that's really good, I ask them who all the best people they know are. And I basically build these little mafias. And you're constantly finding more people, more people.
I mean, look, I agree. All our best people have come through referrals as well. But this is not helpful at all if you're not Airbnb and you don't already have a massive network. So here's what you can do instead. Go to LinkedIn and search for people who are already doing the kind of work that you want to do. Look at their profile, make sure they got some chops. Then direct message them and ask if you can pay them for an hour of their time. Say, "What's your hourly rate?" If they don't know, suggest $100, $200. It's money well spent. Let them know when you do it that you're trying to learn more about the role and the position. You might have to reach out to 5 to 10 people just to get one. That's okay. Just keep doing it till you can talk to at least 5. When you do, ask them, "What's the job like? What's their average day like?" Ask them about the team and the resources that they need to be successful. Ask them what somebody coming into that role should accomplish in the first 30, 60, 90 days. And then at the end, ask them if they know anybody else that you can interview. This is how you build your network. And only lastly, if it's gone well, ask them if they know anyone who'd be interested in a job like that. Be genuine. Don't try to turn it into an actual job interview. Just sincerely gather information so that you can build your network in this area. Every time we've done this, I've been able to get referrals from the people I was interviewing or have the people themselves request to be interviewed for the job. So great advice, Brian Deiss. This is how you do it if you're not Airbnb.
