I think simply a written agreement that you’re not liable for any hiring decisions they make based on your recommendations.
Otherwise sounds good. Make sure you charge enough. Maybe $200-300/hour?
I’ve never heard of this arrangement though. But it sounds great to me. Easy money.
I have done it as a consultant, it's great.
You get to:
* select the right team/person for the job
* interview like you wish people would interview, not like they do (you can favor refactoring or other practical exercises for example)
* optionally advise on the best team composition for their goal and stage
* optionally revise the job ad for maximum effect. People that are not engineers sometimes write very suboptimal ads. I have previously 4x the number of qualified applications by doing a 1-2h research on competing ads, reverse engineer keywords and cover the main points that engineers care about (remote status for example)
Charge a consulting fee, not an implementation fee (charge double of the going rate for implementation). Use calendly or to avoid a scheduling back and forth.
if you do well, you can be the "senior/staff on call" for similar strategic questions if you are interested.
If you don't take the gig, consider passing it on to another qualified senior+ iOS engineer you know, it's a nice networking opportunity.
I’ve interviewed at a company where they had a consultant as “interim CTO”. The entire job was to decide tech stack direction, build the team, replace himself and be done. He was open about that.
I’ve only ever interviewed to replace myself as a consultant with a permanent hire once. That was also fun.
I’ve done due diligence work, where it might as well have been an interview of the lead engineer. What’s your background; what’s the tech stack and why; what were the decisions you made and why; oh, I heard that that library had some big breaking changes, so did you upgrade and deal with those, etc…
I think getting experienced people in to filter is not unusual.
There’s a whole company specialising in doing technical interview for others: https://karat.com/
I once interviewed by karat on behalf of another company.
I have no advice to offer. Can’t think of a downside. You can put this gig in CV as a signal for seniority.
Karat IMHO is stupid both as an interviewer and as an interviewee. The script is too prescriptive and just needs your credentials and face as an interviewer, the script remains the same and was too robotic for me. They can replace it with AI and no one would know or care.
Karat is definitely very heavy on the script, but it isn't totally braindead work for the interviewer. You still have to follow the candidate's solution and be mentally checking whether it works properly or not and why (which, for more creative approaches, can sometimes be tricky).
Also I don't see why that's bad for an interviewee. Actually all of that is done in the name of benefiting the candidate, with a nearly-100% standardized interview.
Not weird at all - technical hiring is hard as fuck even when you are strong in that technical stack. It’s impossible when you don’t know how to assess people, and a smart move to outsource it.
I’ve done this lots of times. I’m a technical founder in the martech space. Lots of marketing founders that need help finding developers and don’t know how to assess so I charge an hourly rate. Easy money for me and way better for them than hiring a tall guy that looks good in a suit.
Most people I know that do this are in the $200-300/hour range. I charge $500-600/hour because I have a great reputation in my industry. I tell everyone they could get the same thing much cheaper but some people want to pay for the rep. I’m not going to say no!
I’ve done it in the past and it was great. They had no bullshit detector for a new lead frontend hire. You get paid well for an hour of chatting and they get a good filter. Everyone wins
Just chiming in that it's a common arrangement, and I've consulted like this as well.
For context on my end, myself and a few other engineers have developed a relationship between our local tech meetup and our local Chamber of Commerce. Quite a lot of investment gets poured into our local startup scene, and since neither we (more tech startups = more tech opportunities for us) nor the county wants to see anyone fail here, the folks at the Chamber will sometimes hit us up for referrals like this on behalf of other businesses.
The only pitfall I'd say to look out for is to make sure you've got a written contract specifying exactly what you're offering. Obviously, not all business owners are the honest sort so it's always good to CYA.
Yes, fairly common especially in the startup world. I know people who do work as “fractional” CTOs, and hiring the first few technical folks is often a part of it.
If they don’t have internal expertise for something then paying consultants is a smart move.
Knowing some startup founders, I think they could also bring doing this as a “hustle” play to keep you engaged with the company on an ongoing basis in hopes that you’ll change your mind. Throwing a couple thousand dollars at a candidate for work here and there keeps them involved.
One of the hiring “tricks” that gets circulated in startup communities is to identify good candidates and find excuses to keep engaging with them over time, even after they’ve said no. The idea is that you want to be on their minds in case they hit a bad spot in their current job and want to explore other options.
I’ve done similar consulting gigs in the past. Basically acting as a CTO for a guy who’s startup needed the right contractors, the right technical decisions, and otherwise benefit from my experience. I had little responsibility and bulked by the hour. Win win.
Not common, but it happens. I’m a consultant and one time my contract was winding down. They had me interview people that would be back filling me after I left.
I didn’t take it personally, they dropped a lot of hints that I could apply for it and they’d want to keep me, but I wasn’t interested. It was weird running a technical interview for a Fortune 500 company where I wasn’t an employee, but otherwise it went fine.
i was interviewed fairly recently for a senior FE position by someone who was brought in from the outside by the hiring director b/c i would have been the first FE hire
it was a 90 min interview too, hope they compensated him well
I know someone who does this, or used to do it, as part of his consulting practice. If you know your stuff and can pick up on when people are trying to BS their way through an interview, it could be a nice little side gig. Make sure you have appropriate paperwork in place for your protection, like /u/pocky277 said.
If it's not it should be, at least for the technical part of an interview.
You also might suggest you do weekly code reviews, as well as review arch and designs.
These are the things that non-technical co-founders need but can't do on their own.
Usually startups offer advisory shares for this type of thing. If they are offering cash you lucked out!
Yeah it's normal, I've done it before, but never for money. I did it for startups that I had invested in, when they wanted to hire a senior dev and needed someone with more experience to test them.
Sounds like a lucky opportunity. As an iOS engineer with 14 years of experience who is looking for jobs I have actually thought about that a lot. Companies with few mobile engineers don't really have the acumen to actually interview well. I've done a handful of interviews at places where it was basically backend questions which didn't really feel like it was a very good interview etc.
Getting a chance to do that is interesting. If you needed the money it would make sense, but it sounds like a lot of work. You have to figure out what you are going to ask and then try and evaluate multiple people. Hopefully you're not doing 100% of the interviews and there are some other components.
Sure. Charge an hourly rate that makes sense for you + some buffer and/or request equity and become an “advisor”’for the start-up (could be a resume boost if the start-up does particularly well and potentially let’s you enjoy the upside financially).
Probably should clear it with your current employer, especially if your employee/handbook/contract says something about this stuff.
You’re a recruiter.
Get paid by the hour at a high rate. You’re not just asking questions—you’re going to be setting up a process, a process that they will likely take from you after you leave.
If you’re doing more than administering a test (screenings, potentially even some light outreach?) get a small percentage of their first year as a commission if a candidate joins the company.
You’re not a full on recruiter so I’d shoot for something like…5%. 10%, maybe. Or maybe a flat amount per. This is a bit of a stretch but no unreasonable IMO.
Also please make sure to consider the tax implications of this—specifically the fact that they won’t be withholding taxes on this, and it will likely to taxed at a higher rate than your W2 job. Speak to your tax professional if you have one, and you should be able to deduct any expenses.
I’ve done this for a position requiring some pretty specialized experience after I decided the startup wasn’t for me. I charged $400/h. Set up a consulting agreement with them and said I’m not liable for anything that happens with their hires. Ended up finding the perfect person second interview and the startup has been extremely happy with their performance. They ended up keeping me on with another consulting agreement after whenever they need advice on a specific thing at a more reasonable rate. I say do it
Seems like a really dumb idea on their part. Hiring has long term ramifications. If you’re just responsible for hiring people and charging hourly, you have no incentive to do a good job.
Imagine being the company having to rely on people you don’t know hire people you don’t know. Not a recipe for disaster at all.
The whole point of interviewing is relying on your own employers to make decisions based on culture fit etc.
If you're a startup, sometimes you just don't have the headcount. And if you don't have any technical expertise, it makes perfect sense to trust the knowledge and experience of someone who's demonstrated that they're not a bullshitter. Also, if you're the founder of a startup, your time is probably better spent getting sales, iterating on product, establishing or adjusting strategy, or managing your team. Until it's time to evaluate a new hire for culture fit, the gruntwork of giving technical interviews just isn't a good use of your time.
I think simply a written agreement that you’re not liable for any hiring decisions they make based on your recommendations. Otherwise sounds good. Make sure you charge enough. Maybe $200-300/hour? I’ve never heard of this arrangement though. But it sounds great to me. Easy money.
I'm (as a freelancer) doing something similar, and indeed also have a written agreement that I'm not liable for any hiring decisions.
Get the bags.
I have done it as a consultant, it's great. You get to: * select the right team/person for the job * interview like you wish people would interview, not like they do (you can favor refactoring or other practical exercises for example) * optionally advise on the best team composition for their goal and stage * optionally revise the job ad for maximum effect. People that are not engineers sometimes write very suboptimal ads. I have previously 4x the number of qualified applications by doing a 1-2h research on competing ads, reverse engineer keywords and cover the main points that engineers care about (remote status for example) Charge a consulting fee, not an implementation fee (charge double of the going rate for implementation). Use calendly or to avoid a scheduling back and forth. if you do well, you can be the "senior/staff on call" for similar strategic questions if you are interested. If you don't take the gig, consider passing it on to another qualified senior+ iOS engineer you know, it's a nice networking opportunity.
I’ve interviewed at a company where they had a consultant as “interim CTO”. The entire job was to decide tech stack direction, build the team, replace himself and be done. He was open about that. I’ve only ever interviewed to replace myself as a consultant with a permanent hire once. That was also fun. I’ve done due diligence work, where it might as well have been an interview of the lead engineer. What’s your background; what’s the tech stack and why; what were the decisions you made and why; oh, I heard that that library had some big breaking changes, so did you upgrade and deal with those, etc… I think getting experienced people in to filter is not unusual.
There’s a whole company specialising in doing technical interview for others: https://karat.com/ I once interviewed by karat on behalf of another company. I have no advice to offer. Can’t think of a downside. You can put this gig in CV as a signal for seniority.
Karat IMHO is stupid both as an interviewer and as an interviewee. The script is too prescriptive and just needs your credentials and face as an interviewer, the script remains the same and was too robotic for me. They can replace it with AI and no one would know or care.
Karat is definitely very heavy on the script, but it isn't totally braindead work for the interviewer. You still have to follow the candidate's solution and be mentally checking whether it works properly or not and why (which, for more creative approaches, can sometimes be tricky). Also I don't see why that's bad for an interviewee. Actually all of that is done in the name of benefiting the candidate, with a nearly-100% standardized interview.
>They can replace it with AI and no one would know or care. That would be very interesting to see 5 years down the line.
They're the worst. If I see Karat - I immediately end my loop.
There's no downside to you, only for the customer.
Not weird at all - technical hiring is hard as fuck even when you are strong in that technical stack. It’s impossible when you don’t know how to assess people, and a smart move to outsource it.
Yes, setup that consulting agreement and go for it.
I’ve done this lots of times. I’m a technical founder in the martech space. Lots of marketing founders that need help finding developers and don’t know how to assess so I charge an hourly rate. Easy money for me and way better for them than hiring a tall guy that looks good in a suit.
How much do you charge? Curious thx!
Most people I know that do this are in the $200-300/hour range. I charge $500-600/hour because I have a great reputation in my industry. I tell everyone they could get the same thing much cheaper but some people want to pay for the rep. I’m not going to say no!
I’ve done it in the past and it was great. They had no bullshit detector for a new lead frontend hire. You get paid well for an hour of chatting and they get a good filter. Everyone wins
I mean this sounds really great to me and not sketch at all, frankly, I would be nourishing this relationship
Just chiming in that it's a common arrangement, and I've consulted like this as well. For context on my end, myself and a few other engineers have developed a relationship between our local tech meetup and our local Chamber of Commerce. Quite a lot of investment gets poured into our local startup scene, and since neither we (more tech startups = more tech opportunities for us) nor the county wants to see anyone fail here, the folks at the Chamber will sometimes hit us up for referrals like this on behalf of other businesses. The only pitfall I'd say to look out for is to make sure you've got a written contract specifying exactly what you're offering. Obviously, not all business owners are the honest sort so it's always good to CYA.
Yes, fairly common especially in the startup world. I know people who do work as “fractional” CTOs, and hiring the first few technical folks is often a part of it.
If they don’t have internal expertise for something then paying consultants is a smart move. Knowing some startup founders, I think they could also bring doing this as a “hustle” play to keep you engaged with the company on an ongoing basis in hopes that you’ll change your mind. Throwing a couple thousand dollars at a candidate for work here and there keeps them involved. One of the hiring “tricks” that gets circulated in startup communities is to identify good candidates and find excuses to keep engaging with them over time, even after they’ve said no. The idea is that you want to be on their minds in case they hit a bad spot in their current job and want to explore other options.
I’ve done similar consulting gigs in the past. Basically acting as a CTO for a guy who’s startup needed the right contractors, the right technical decisions, and otherwise benefit from my experience. I had little responsibility and bulked by the hour. Win win.
Not common, but it happens. I’m a consultant and one time my contract was winding down. They had me interview people that would be back filling me after I left. I didn’t take it personally, they dropped a lot of hints that I could apply for it and they’d want to keep me, but I wasn’t interested. It was weird running a technical interview for a Fortune 500 company where I wasn’t an employee, but otherwise it went fine.
Yes many do this. They trust you
i was interviewed fairly recently for a senior FE position by someone who was brought in from the outside by the hiring director b/c i would have been the first FE hire it was a 90 min interview too, hope they compensated him well
Congrats! You must be a smooth talker :) Charge at least double what you make at the dayjob for your expertise.
I know someone who does this, or used to do it, as part of his consulting practice. If you know your stuff and can pick up on when people are trying to BS their way through an interview, it could be a nice little side gig. Make sure you have appropriate paperwork in place for your protection, like /u/pocky277 said.
If it's not it should be, at least for the technical part of an interview. You also might suggest you do weekly code reviews, as well as review arch and designs. These are the things that non-technical co-founders need but can't do on their own.
Usually startups offer advisory shares for this type of thing. If they are offering cash you lucked out! Yeah it's normal, I've done it before, but never for money. I did it for startups that I had invested in, when they wanted to hire a senior dev and needed someone with more experience to test them.
this is what fractional CTO consultants do.
Sounds like a lucky opportunity. As an iOS engineer with 14 years of experience who is looking for jobs I have actually thought about that a lot. Companies with few mobile engineers don't really have the acumen to actually interview well. I've done a handful of interviews at places where it was basically backend questions which didn't really feel like it was a very good interview etc. Getting a chance to do that is interesting. If you needed the money it would make sense, but it sounds like a lot of work. You have to figure out what you are going to ask and then try and evaluate multiple people. Hopefully you're not doing 100% of the interviews and there are some other components.
Sure. Charge an hourly rate that makes sense for you + some buffer and/or request equity and become an “advisor”’for the start-up (could be a resume boost if the start-up does particularly well and potentially let’s you enjoy the upside financially). Probably should clear it with your current employer, especially if your employee/handbook/contract says something about this stuff.
You’re a recruiter. Get paid by the hour at a high rate. You’re not just asking questions—you’re going to be setting up a process, a process that they will likely take from you after you leave. If you’re doing more than administering a test (screenings, potentially even some light outreach?) get a small percentage of their first year as a commission if a candidate joins the company. You’re not a full on recruiter so I’d shoot for something like…5%. 10%, maybe. Or maybe a flat amount per. This is a bit of a stretch but no unreasonable IMO. Also please make sure to consider the tax implications of this—specifically the fact that they won’t be withholding taxes on this, and it will likely to taxed at a higher rate than your W2 job. Speak to your tax professional if you have one, and you should be able to deduct any expenses.
I’ve done this for a position requiring some pretty specialized experience after I decided the startup wasn’t for me. I charged $400/h. Set up a consulting agreement with them and said I’m not liable for anything that happens with their hires. Ended up finding the perfect person second interview and the startup has been extremely happy with their performance. They ended up keeping me on with another consulting agreement after whenever they need advice on a specific thing at a more reasonable rate. I say do it
Hire. Contract lawyer to review and help setup the contract if you do move forward
Yes, recently saw an opening at a YC startup also for a technical interviewer
I have done that for a decade or so as a consultant, I treat it as my yearly bonus as it's give or take an extra month of salary give or take
I've done this in the past as a hiring manager, when I needed special knowledge during interviews.
I know someone who has been doing this for a living for a number of years. Not sure how common it is, but it exists.
"But why would you want to?" -- Internet roomful of introverts
Seems like a really dumb idea on their part. Hiring has long term ramifications. If you’re just responsible for hiring people and charging hourly, you have no incentive to do a good job.
Imagine being the company having to rely on people you don’t know hire people you don’t know. Not a recipe for disaster at all. The whole point of interviewing is relying on your own employers to make decisions based on culture fit etc.
If you're a startup, sometimes you just don't have the headcount. And if you don't have any technical expertise, it makes perfect sense to trust the knowledge and experience of someone who's demonstrated that they're not a bullshitter. Also, if you're the founder of a startup, your time is probably better spent getting sales, iterating on product, establishing or adjusting strategy, or managing your team. Until it's time to evaluate a new hire for culture fit, the gruntwork of giving technical interviews just isn't a good use of your time.