Align your team to avoid expensive hiring mistakes.
A practical, expert-reviewed Guide to growing software engineering teams effectively, written by and for hiring managers, recruiters, interviewers, and candidates.
- 440-page online book
- 838+links and references
- Digital access to this title in the Holloway Reader
- Downloadable PDF for personal offline use
Everyone should have access to expert knowledge.
Hiring software engineering talent is a struggle for most companies. The ever-growing demand for software in almost every business leads to extensive searches for the right candidates. Hiring is rated as one of the biggest obstacles to growth by most CEOs. Hiring managers, recruiters, and interviewers all wrestle with how to source candidates, interview fairly and effectively, and ultimately motivate the right candidates to accept offers. The whole process is often costly and frustrating for companies, and all too often stressful or unfair to candidates navigating this high-stakes process.
Anyone who cares about building effective software teams should benefit from the experiences and knowledge of those who have tackled similar challenges, and avoid repeating common and costly mistakes. In this Guide, we’ve assembled know-how from some of the most insightful and experienced leaders and practitioners—senior engineers, recruiters, entrepreneurs, and hiring managers—who’ve built teams from early-stage startups to thousand-person engineering organizations. The lead author of this Guide, Ozzie Osman, previously led product engineering at Quora and teams at Google, and built (and sold) his own startup. Additional contributors include Aditya Agarwal, former CTO of Dropbox; Jennifer Kim, former head of diversity at Lever; veteran recruiters and startup founders Jose Guardado and Aline Lerner; and over a dozen others.
We believe recruiting and hiring can be done well, in a way that has a positive impact on companies, employees, and every candidate. With the right foundations and practice, teams and candidates can approach a stressful and difficult process with knowledge and confidence.
Reviews
Table of Contents
Researched, written, and edited by experts.
Written by practitioners. Edited by professionals.
Get lifetime access now.
Read with Holloway.
More than words on a page.
We believe the reading experience for book-length resources can go beyond paper or e-books. Reading on Holloway means a distraction-free, interactive format to help you find what you need, when you need it, in your browser. Digital access to a Guide also means access to ongoing new content, curated commentary from experts and readers, and features like search and bookmarks.
Over 130 definitions of key terms
Definition A job requisition (or job requisition form) is an internal company document a manager uses to formally request permission to fill a role or position. These documents are particularly useful for coordination and wider alignment at larger companies. For instance, the requisition might require approval (often from finance, HR, and upper management) to ensure sufficient space and funding are available for a new hire. Once the requisition receives the necessary approvals, it can serve as the starting point for a discussion between the hiring manager and their designated recruiter (for instance, at a role intake meeting).
Find what you want, when you need it
Pitfalls and confusions highlighted
danger️️ Wording in your job description can have unintended consequences in determining who applies. Attempts to make your roles sound more enticing can actually discourage people from applying. Researchers have found evidence that using gendered language contributes to an imbalanced pipeline of candidates; certain language can also discourage older candidates or candidates from marginalized communities from applying.
confusionPeople often confuse percentiles and percents, with serious consequences. When someone recommends compensating at the 75th percentile, they are talking about percentile rank, or paying at a rate that is greater than what 75% of companies pay for a role (in a given market, stage, et cetera). This is very different from paying 75% of what a fair market salary would be.
controversyThe “best” interview format for coding questions is a notoriously controversial topic. While many companies rely primarily on onsite, face-to-face coding interviews, a significant fraction of engineers consider “whiteboard coding” to be intimidating, stressful, and not predictive of job performance. On the other hand, alternatives like take-home tasks have drawbacks as well.
Visual presentations
Why pay for an online book?
At Holloway, we imagine a place on the web where depth, quality, and high-value writing are the norm. A place where experts’ ideas are accessible to anyone. Where thoughtful, inclusive, and well-written resources win over quick takes, self-promoting blog posts, and content marketing.
We believe you, the reader, know the difference. It’s 2021. You recognize sites riddled with ads and clickbait headlines. Deep and comprehensive resources take expertise, time, and money to build. By buying access to this title, you’re supporting a place online that makes longform reading a pleasure—and allowing us to pay authors, contributors, engineers, and editors who build and improve them. Holloway is a new and powerful way to publish. We hope you’ll join us on the journey.
Does this sound like you?
- We’ve been looking to fill certain roles for ages and can’t find the right engineers, or lose them to other more prominent companies.
- I’m a new manager and wish I had more support or guidance on building the team.
- I’m an engineer, not a manager, but I’ve seen bad hiring decisions and care a lot about how hiring is done on my team.
- How can I and my team level up as interviewers?
- How can we hire a more diverse team?
- I can’t connect with the people I most want to hire.
Learn more.
Frequently Asked Questions
What exactly am I buying?
Every title sold on Holloway.com is a one-time purchase for full digital access. That means you get lifetime access online for that title on the web, using the Holloway Reader. That also includes future updates from the author or editors. Finally, you get a PDF download for offline use.
What is the Holloway Reader?
The Holloway Reader lets you read and engage with books bought on Holloway. It is the most advanced reading experience for books on the web—you use it right in your browser, on desktop or mobile. In contrast to ebooks and paper books, online content in the Holloway Reader is always up to date, including updates when changes to the content are made, like responses to reader questions, new data, or new developments. It includes expert commentary in the margins and offers bookmarks and highlights, instant definitions of technical terms from a glossary, instant previews of links and footnotes, and a powerful search capability only available on Holloway titles—and we have a lot more on the way.
Do you sell print books?
For a few titles, yes, you can buy paperback editions directly on Amazon. We believe the web is the most flexible interface for reading—but we know it won’t replace the satisfaction or practicality of print for some people. Current paperback titles include Art for Money: Up Your Freelance Game and Get Paid What You’re Worth, Ask Me This Instead, The Holloway Guide to Technical Recruiting and Hiring, and Angel Investing: Start to Finish and more are on the way. (Stay on our mailing list to get notified when new ones are out!)
Can I get a Holloway title as a download?
Yes. A majority of our readers take advantage of the Holloway Reader because of its power and convenience, but you have other options as well. If you buy a title, you get a PDF that you can download and keep to use on any of your own devices—or even print it if that’s your thing. If you care about design, you’ll be pleased that it’s formatted using the same quality of typography you’ll find in books. (Just please don’t share or republish downloads.*)
Do I have to be online to read?
To access the Holloway Reader, you need a connected browser. It works for desktop and mobile (iOS and Android) browsers. If you’ll be offline to read, you can save and use the PDF download on your device or laptop. PDFs also work on Kindle.
Are there any discounts?
Before a book is released, it may be available for pre-order. By pre-ordering a title, you’re supporting us and our authors in their work. Pre-ordering also gets you early access to authors, a discount, and other perks. We also offer student discounts to individuals with a valid .edu email address.* And stay on our mailing list! We send updates about our titles, as well as seasonal discounts and other special deals.
I have more questions!
Don’t we all. We’d love to hear from you at hello@holloway.com.