[tucaz]

Not hard at all. We were 3 years in and we had around 20 employees by the time I left. I was the CTO and since we didn’t have a big development team, I still coded every day so I was sharper than ever and with more experience not only in technology but also with raising money, accounting, HR, sales, etc so I had multiple offers to choose from.

That experience was super useful for my next/current endeavor with my wife and also for my next job since I had to learn and grow a lot in terms of management, prioritization and dealing with lack of resources. Skills which are super valuable to companies and teams of all sizes.

When hiring, I’m biased towards ex-founders and people who tried to launch their own products. I believe that shipping something and asking for money for it is the ultimate proof that a developer can offer in terms of how far and how much they can do/learn so I always favor people who done something even if they failed. Launching a product/company requires tons of different skills which, as I said before, I believe are super valuable in addition to tech skills.

[schmookeeg]

I wish "non-tech/well-rounded" were better valued or even understood in the mainstream. People mention them as cultural virtue-signals, but it's not part of any interview or screening I've been a part of, and I've done dozens in the last year.

I don't feel that "soft skills" are sought or even desired in an engineer -- I'm only ever asked about some certain framework or technique or algorithm (lol), not even tangential open-ended stuff like "hey how would you approach a customer complaining about X" or "How would you prioritize technical debt vs features in a product's lifecycle?" or, heck, even something fun and off the wall like "you've lost your wallet in a foreign country -- now what?"

I'm glad your startup experience was useful in your own search. Best of luck on your new endeavor! :)

[siquick]

> I wish "non-tech/well-rounded" were better valued or even understood in the mainstream. People mention them as cultural virtue-signals, but it's not part of any interview or screening I've been a part of, and I've done dozens in the last year.

> I don't feel that "soft skills" are sought or even desired in an engineer

An engineer who can communicate well will never be out of a job.

[tucaz]

If there is something I learned from politicians is that you should never respond to what was asked, but to what you wish was asked instead.

If you know what you are talking about you can still respond to "How would you prioritize technical debt" and offer way more than a direct technical answer. You have to take opportunity to "enhance" every question you are asked with information that portray you in a good light and directs the conversation towards where you think you can generate most value.