Just got back from the NextNy meet up on how to build a start up team. I hadn’t been to one of these in a while and it was good to see some familiar faces. The discussion around how to interview for technical positions played to many of the moderators expertise and may have been the most helpful of the night.

One popular theme echoed by all of the discussion leaders was having a specific set of questions and tests and asking every candidate the same set. This may sound pretty basic, but I can see how many first time entrepreneurs get caught winging it by asking different candidates different questions and complicating the final decision.

The discussion around what skill set to look in for an ace developer was also helpful. The best advice I heard was not to focus on certain languages when trying to hire an A+ programmer. The best developers can adapt to nearly any language. The real top notch guys will be familiar in the newest, hottest technology and will be able to adapt to nearly any language you want to build your site in. I’ve never thought of it that way.