I am looking to find and hire a software developer to join the Shopify Talent Acquisition Team. Help us build the company by optimizing, scaling, and hacking the hiring pipeline to better build and shape the next generation of Shopify. [Add more specific details here?]
Recruiting is different here. Forget every terrible interaction you have had with recruiters who pressure you to consider working for “their rapidly growing market leading client” that they can’t tell you about in any detail, let alone the people you would inevitably spend the next chapter of your life with.
Recruitment at Shopify is human. It’s a series of conversations with people from several teams across the company. The intention is to discover how you, the candidate, are going to have a good time working in a team and ultimately grow as a software developer and as a person. Considering the success of the company, how many friends of staff referrals we get, and our sub-1% annual turnover, this focus on personal conversations as the primary interviewing medium sure is working.
- You enjoy introducing people to each other
- You enjoy playing non-zero-sum games
- You tend to be that person ”who knows a guy/gal” to help in any bind. Among your friends, your superpower is being a “fixer”.
- Meet with developers interested in joining Shopify and have a conversation about their life and experiences.
- Introduce the people you are excited about to the teams they’re a best fit for and act as their advocate and guidance councillor throughout the process.
- Negotiate salaries between candidates and hiring managers.
- Scout out great talent across the world.
- Work with the community team to sponsor and speak at as many events as you think make sense for you.
- Blog about your thoughts, ideas, and experiences on fixing the software industry’s perception of recruitment.
You bring the technical background and I can turn you into a natural interviewer and killer team and company builder.
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When it comes to hiring the right people being able to judge character and make great decisions is a solid skill to learn. Most startups are staffed by their CEO’s in the early years. The better you can hire, the better the chances of startup success. You can learn how to make that difference.
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The recruiting team in most companies are usually relatively untrained staff who follow a script, have little influence over their work and the fate of the company, and as a result are sequestered somewhere in the bowels of HR. The Talent Acquisition Team at Shopify is constantly running experiments on how to make the hiring process better and we meet directly with the CEO and other executives to share our results/build the company/plot to take over the world.
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The recruiting industry as a whole is not operating well and there are many opportunities to fix and develop areas such diversity outreach, sponsoring open source and meaningful community events, and how to interview beyond asking for the results of a coding test. If you want to fix this industry, there’s no better place to be.
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When done properly recruiting is the best job out there. I get to talk to people about their life stories, and hack on the tools, software, and processes the team and company uses every day. Essentially, candidates are interactive biographies interested in sharing their experiences. If you genuinely like people, you will love this.
If you are interested in discussing it, please fill in your info below and I will be in touch. If you do not have a software development background but are interested in a recruiting role, hang tight. I will be posting a Recruiter role shortly.
Regards,
Doug Tetzner Shopify