[ihadaquestion]

I can tell you from personal experience that very large companies, especially the ones that are no longer perceived as hot as they once were, have a rather low bar of entry. I can see however why a small business would want to be very cautious though. Say you're a 9 person business, the 10th guy you hire is going to determine 10% of the company's success. You want to make sure you don't screw up on that. It's a fine balance, right?

Is your opinion that startups these days are on the excessively cautious end? Would hiring more openly for a trial position and firing fast be a better approach?

[andrewstuart]

The question is, wait six to nine months, have no-one in the job and don't get that stuff done, or recruit a smart person now who needs to learn stuff? Hire smart people with good fundamentals of computer science who have a proven willingness and ability to learn.

[ihadaquestion]

It's a good point. The only case I can think of where you wouldn't want that is if you don't even know if you'll have enough runway in 9 months, but that's probably not quite hiring stage.