A Conversation at WeWork: Building Data Teams with an AI Startup
Tuesday morning, sipping on my freshly brewed oat cappuccino in the open seating area of WeWork. As a former Data Analyst now owner of a DR Analytics Recruitment Agency, being in a shared office means there's always work going on with the chance of conversation. That day, my conversation was with Zane, whose entering the market with an AI tool, and we spoke about the first steps in hiring and building his team.
Zane is nurturing a growing startup and he casually mentioned his search for an iOS Developer and Cloud Data Engineer. I realised that I was in a position to help put the plan together to find these people.
To assist Zane, we started discussing the path he needed to navigate through the hiring process. Here’s a summary of the conversation and steps:
Step 1: Defining Job Responsibilities and Outcomes
The cornerstone of effective recruitment is understanding the role. Some important questions to consider at this conception stage are:
What problem is this person solving?
What will this person be doing day-to-day?
What outcomes are expected in 3, 6 and 12 months?
How will they contribute to the team and the broader business objectives?
Before anything else, getting clear on the intention for a new hire is paramount as the rest of the process and the individual's success is impossible without clear intention.
Step 2: Researching Skillsets and Experience
With a clear understanding of the role responsibilities, we dug deeper into the specific skills and experiences the ideal candidate should possess. This looked something like:
iOS Developer: strong understanding of Swift and Objective-C programming languages, has experience with iOS frameworks such as Core Data and UIKit, is proficient in using Xcode and Interface Builder and exposure to deploying app solutions.
Cloud Data Engineer: proficient in Azure data services and products such as Azure SQL Database, Azure Data Factory, and Azure Data Lake. Demonstrate a strong understanding of SQL, Python, or other scripting languages, possess hands-on experience with ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) processes and data pipeline development, and have knowledge of big data architectures like Hadoop and Spark.
Step 3: Defining Budgets
Every founder, actually every person, knows that business resources are finite and one of the most important resources is the funds to pay employees. We had to set a realistic budget that balanced the need for talent with fiscal responsibility. That’s where an open and honest conversation about salaries and benefits became critical. It's not feasible to spend $400 000 per annum in most cases.
Step 4: Crafting a Hiring Strategy
With the job role, skill sets, and budget defined, it was time to plan our approach. We brainstormed multiple avenues of how Zane could build his team.
a. Job Advertisement: Casting a wide net by advertising the role on popular job boards. This is the most common approach.
b. Networking: Leveraging personal and professional connections to find potential candidates. Second most common approach!
c. Active Sourcing: Directly reaching out to potential candidates who might not be actively looking but would be a good fit. Less common as is time intensive.
d. Recruitment Agency: Engaging a recruitment agency to tap into a larger pool of potential candidates. As a recruitment agency owner, this is my favourite approach!
Step 5: Developing the Interview Process
Building a solid interview process is crucial in identifying the right candidate. Zane and I discussed building a process that involves initial screening to gauge the candidates' potential, technical testing to evaluate their technical skill capabilities and several rounds of meetings to ensure a cultural fit within the team. The interview process should reflect the job responsibilities and experience. Every company does this differently so best to do your research into different approaches.
Step 6: Setting Clear Expectations
Finally, we wanted to ensure all candidate communication had clearly defined responsibilities, expectations, growth opportunities and overall package information. This should be outlined in any job advertisements and candidate contact. Clear expectations reduce the chance of hiring the wrong individual!
Meeting and talking to Zane was a great way to share some knowledge and learn more about the challenges that tech startups have in acquiring talent. DR Analytics Recruitment is specialised to help with this process and at a commercial level can be engaged to employ the resources needed to find, screen and onboard the right data team.
