Have you ever hired someone thinking they will really help you develop good product features and ended up finding the engineer to be a junior even with a PhD in computer science? I need some guidance as to how to navigate and help the hired engineer to be successful. We are behind schedule on delivering important features and when I trust that the engineer finished the task, I will find out in PR that the engineer did not implement what is expected. This is happening for almost all the features. I don’t want to micro manage but also want to stop bashing myself. #tech #startup #hiringmanager #softwareengineer Tagging Google and Amazon to get perspective from engineering leads in bigger tech UPDATE: As many of you asked the TC of the engineer, would like to update the info on that. In the application we usually ask the expected range of salary because we are a small startup and the applicant quoted 90k and we offered what was asked. Our startup is not in the Bay Area or any metro city. UPDATE 2: As you all have identified, I have worked with my team to change the interview process and improve the onboarding process. Thanks a lot for some of the wonderful recommendations to help the engineer succeed. TC - 110k YOE - 7
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What use did you think a PhD would be for developing product features? Completely different mindset unless you’re doing analysis of research or something
Very true. I’ve realized that after hiring. I thought research would have made them strong enough to navigate new challenges and come up with creative solutions but may be not everyone in Ph D has the same skills
New/Eng, are you really in engineering?
I see that for other teams, but no time to regret nowadays. Companies are hiring literally anything alive that can code.
You get what you pay for.
May be that’s true in this case.
It’s true in most cases.
Why would you think PhD means industry experience?! It's still university work and not production output with real high scale customer base.
True
Did you interview in coding ability? Though actually even if you did, it is clearly not a right fit to get a PhD person to do regular backend coding. Even if they are good at coding, it’s very boring work for their advanced background so I’m not sure what was the rationale for the hiring decision here
We did give a take home assignment and conceptual systems interview but I failed miserably in accessing. My bad.
Plus the salary is terrible sad to say for he current market
PhDs are not equivalent to industry experience in terms of coding ability. You hired a college new grad in terms of coding ability - treat them as such. Especially if you’re in the US you’re paying them bottom of the barrel.
You hired a PhD to do ape work thinking they’ll be content busting their ass for $90k for something they 99% don’t give a shit about? Advanced education doesn’t help you be a code monkey it teaches you how to think about new problems that are difficult to solve
Boing gets it!
Lol. Look at Boeing salaries for MS and PHD…I was at 80k when hired as a intern to full time …plus management s**ks at Boeing. I will recommend Boeing to only those who hated me. 😂
You are the type of typical industry manager who wants an expert for the price of a fresher. If you cannot pay enough, you should lower your expectations. All you can do now is discuss the problem with this person and work with them to improvise.
Very insightful post. Instead of bashing the OP who realizes his mistake and is working to correct it, why not give suggestions on how he can do better next time?
What's wrong with that? Doesnt all of us want the highest quality product as cheap as possible? How is this situation different?
PhD do not necessarily mean someone would excel in a position in the industry. Does the person have the right experience that fits the role ?
Yeah resume looked impressive with lot of backend experience.
Interview went fine and since we did not have many in the selection pool. We thought this person is good for the job.
How much are you paying the engineer?
90k
you’re not getting good engineers with that salary, even with a phd. They’re most likely good at academics but haven’t done whatever you’re trying to do before. Give them time, sit them down and tell them your expectations.