How do skills relating to business value stack up here for you? For example, an engineers ability to prioritize, build and share context, and create vision/roadmaps?
Awesome article. Attitude is my number one "to-appoint" attribute and definitely boolean.
Sidenote - the 20% to 100% analogy doesn't compute in my brain :) I think 20% over 5 people might still be just 20%...? Not sure! still 5x20% is better than 1x20% :)
Attitude and Mindset are key when exploring the root cause for high-potential engineers. I like that you speak to potential as that's what really matters. Past performance and current knowledge and skills speak to the current state of a candidate. To see the potential, you need to dig deeper. As I like to say "Don't hire people for what they know. Hire them for why they know it." A deeper exploration of the Root Cause of a 10x Engineer can be found here: www.TalentWhisperers.com/2024/04/09/10x-Engineer
I really liked the article, Gregor. Most hiring focuses on the productivity the new hire can offer right now, instead of focusing on the potential they have to develop.
About the topic, I can recommend the book "Hidden Potential" by Adam Grant. Also from the book "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" by Stephen Covey, I got the idea of the P/PC ratio (P is the product, PC is the production capability). You can focus on the eggs or you can focus on taking care of the chicken that produces the eggs. It's much better in the long-term to focus on the PC, like you described in this article finding those people with ownership and desire to learn
"love to do good code reviews" - No. They would prefer to pair program, to mob program or to at least design things together. PR-based work isn't team work - it's individual work that happens co-incidentally on the same codebase. If they are good at teaching and helping then it is _despite_ the PR review process not because of it. The great collaborator is an outlier in a PR-based process - not something most people learn to become. Every incentive goes away from real collaboration with PRs. It's better to use Trunk-Based Development and actively push _everyone_ to get better at working together.
Definitely going to share this with my founder clients who are hiring right now (as most are). I’ve found that first-time founders routinely under-index on mindset/attitude, and always to their and their team’s detriment!
I’ve always catered my own hiring process to look for mindset and attitude first over skills and experience.
Too often, I’ve seen hiring processes centered around experiences and skills. They can likely do the job today but they may well flounder when new challenges arise. Mindset and attitude are what I’ve seen to be the best way to ensure success.
Hi Gregor, very interesting! I don't have an engineering background and picked this issue up in Substack's "tech" suggestions, but I really appreciated it.
I have always wondered, especially in this "AI" era, what are some points of engineers' thinking or ways of doing things that could be expanded to other disciplines, and how more technological backgrounds could be contaminated by some more related to the social sciences or clinics, such as economics or psychology. Thanks for sharing!
I agree with everything said. Is it possible to do all that while maintaining a work life balance? Specifically if you have young children to take care of
How do skills relating to business value stack up here for you? For example, an engineers ability to prioritize, build and share context, and create vision/roadmaps?
Very nice article. Can this be a criteria for hiring engineers - As during interview we would just need to believe what they say?
Awesome article. Attitude is my number one "to-appoint" attribute and definitely boolean.
Sidenote - the 20% to 100% analogy doesn't compute in my brain :) I think 20% over 5 people might still be just 20%...? Not sure! still 5x20% is better than 1x20% :)
Attitude and Mindset are key when exploring the root cause for high-potential engineers. I like that you speak to potential as that's what really matters. Past performance and current knowledge and skills speak to the current state of a candidate. To see the potential, you need to dig deeper. As I like to say "Don't hire people for what they know. Hire them for why they know it." A deeper exploration of the Root Cause of a 10x Engineer can be found here: www.TalentWhisperers.com/2024/04/09/10x-Engineer
I share the mindset. Technical skills are easy to learn compared to changing behavior! Thanks for sharing! 👏
It is good to have the compound interest of knowledge sharing always in mind.
Nice article!
I really liked the article, Gregor. Most hiring focuses on the productivity the new hire can offer right now, instead of focusing on the potential they have to develop.
About the topic, I can recommend the book "Hidden Potential" by Adam Grant. Also from the book "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" by Stephen Covey, I got the idea of the P/PC ratio (P is the product, PC is the production capability). You can focus on the eggs or you can focus on taking care of the chicken that produces the eggs. It's much better in the long-term to focus on the PC, like you described in this article finding those people with ownership and desire to learn
Great write up!
Lifting the team around you has massive returns on time and effort invested.
Think in terms of multipliers and not additions.
"love to do good code reviews" - No. They would prefer to pair program, to mob program or to at least design things together. PR-based work isn't team work - it's individual work that happens co-incidentally on the same codebase. If they are good at teaching and helping then it is _despite_ the PR review process not because of it. The great collaborator is an outlier in a PR-based process - not something most people learn to become. Every incentive goes away from real collaboration with PRs. It's better to use Trunk-Based Development and actively push _everyone_ to get better at working together.
Definitely going to share this with my founder clients who are hiring right now (as most are). I’ve found that first-time founders routinely under-index on mindset/attitude, and always to their and their team’s detriment!
Love this article and it resonates with me!
I’ve always catered my own hiring process to look for mindset and attitude first over skills and experience.
Too often, I’ve seen hiring processes centered around experiences and skills. They can likely do the job today but they may well flounder when new challenges arise. Mindset and attitude are what I’ve seen to be the best way to ensure success.
Hi Gregor, very interesting! I don't have an engineering background and picked this issue up in Substack's "tech" suggestions, but I really appreciated it.
I have always wondered, especially in this "AI" era, what are some points of engineers' thinking or ways of doing things that could be expanded to other disciplines, and how more technological backgrounds could be contaminated by some more related to the social sciences or clinics, such as economics or psychology. Thanks for sharing!
Nice article.. Agree
I agree with everything said. Is it possible to do all that while maintaining a work life balance? Specifically if you have young children to take care of
There is one problem... understanding.
I get it... you judge engineers on the skills you need.
However there is one thing missing... Intuition...
Every now and then there comes someone (like me) that comes up with an Invention that changes everything.
That throws all that came before into the gutter.
Nikola Tesla did this over 100 years ago.
And i do it now... presenting Technology that changes everything.
I even throw Einsteins theories into the gutter where they belong.
Is the world ready for this?
Let's face it... the world is never ready for change... even that change is the only constant...
Because the world operates on the assumptions you present.
https://fritzfreud.substack.com/p/the-invention-the-illuminati-does