What are the best ways to hire and onboard product engineers?

1 Define your hiring criteria

Before you start looking for candidates, you need to have a clear idea of what you're looking for. What skills, experience, and personality traits do you want your product engineers to have? How do you assess their technical and soft skills, such as problem-solving, communication, and collaboration? How do you align your hiring criteria with your product vision, goals, and culture? Having a well-defined hiring criteria will help you narrow down your search, filter out unqualified applicants, and focus on the most promising ones.

2 Source and screen candidates

Once you have your hiring criteria, you need to find and attract candidates who match it. There are many ways to source and screen candidates, such as referrals, job boards, social media, events, or recruiters. Depending on your budget, time, and resources, you can use a combination of these methods to reach out to potential product engineers. However, you should also be proactive and creative in your sourcing and screening strategies. For example, you can use online platforms like GitHub or Stack Overflow to find candidates who have relevant projects or contributions, or you can create coding challenges or hackathons to test their skills and interest.

4 Make and negotiate offers

After you have selected the best candidates for the role, you need to make and negotiate offers with them. This is a crucial step, as it can determine whether you can secure or lose a great product engineer. You should make your offer based on the value and potential of the candidate, as well as the market rate and your budget. You should also consider other factors that may influence the candidate's decision, such as benefits, perks, growth opportunities, or relocation. You should be transparent and respectful in your negotiation process, and try to address any concerns or questions that the candidate may have.

5 Onboard and integrate

The last step is to onboard and integrate the new product engineers into your team and company. This is not a one-time event, but an ongoing process that can last for weeks or months. The goal of this step is to help the new product engineers become productive, engaged, and happy in their role. You should provide them with the necessary tools, resources, and support to learn and perform their tasks. You should also introduce them to the team, the product, the customers, and the culture, and help them build relationships and trust. You should also set clear and realistic expectations and goals, and provide regular feedback and recognition.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?