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The Holloway Guide to Technical Recruiting and Hiring
A practical, expert-reviewed guide to growing software engineering teams effectively, written by and for hiring managers, recruiters, interviewers, and candidates.
440 pages, ebook
Published November 19, 2019
1 person is currently reading
80 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
August 7, 2020
About six months ago, I started a new role where I had to rebuild a team. The tech stack and culture were different from what I've been used to, and I had to adapt and stabilize.
The book is not a dummies guide to recruiting. Neither is it academical. I found it as a resource that had practical advice on every aspect of hiring. You can tell it is written by practitioners from how it speaks ground truth by highlighting the nuances, danger, and confusion wherever there could be one.
Providing candidates a fantastic interview experience does not have a marginal cost. But it gets you a better conversion rate. The book helped me see the gap that I had to fill in our recruitment and hiring process to be on par with the best in class.
I would be remiss if I didn't point out the beautiful and innovative layout of the book. As much thought has been put into the book's structure and design as there is in its words. There are pointers to related content, notes from other authors, and references to other sections that all tie together like an interest graph. Just for that reason, I recommend getting the digital copy if you had to choose between paper or digital.
I look forward to reading more guides in this format.
The book is not a dummies guide to recruiting. Neither is it academical. I found it as a resource that had practical advice on every aspect of hiring. You can tell it is written by practitioners from how it speaks ground truth by highlighting the nuances, danger, and confusion wherever there could be one.
Providing candidates a fantastic interview experience does not have a marginal cost. But it gets you a better conversion rate. The book helped me see the gap that I had to fill in our recruitment and hiring process to be on par with the best in class.
I would be remiss if I didn't point out the beautiful and innovative layout of the book. As much thought has been put into the book's structure and design as there is in its words. There are pointers to related content, notes from other authors, and references to other sections that all tie together like an interest graph. Just for that reason, I recommend getting the digital copy if you had to choose between paper or digital.
I look forward to reading more guides in this format.
July 8, 2020
I've been working at startups for the last 10+ years and this is the best book out there.
August 3, 2020
There's something for everybody here, regardless of your business' size, maturity, and whether you're a recruiter, hiring manager, interviewer, or even a candidate navigating the process.
Ozzie has synthesized best practices and learnings into one source, all the way from the broad discussions such as the philosophy of hiring and candidate-company fit, to concrete examples of putting things into practice like how to write effective job descriptions.
Even if you're experienced with hiring already, you'll still find clarifying content here that puts what might have been previously abstract concepts into words and concrete actions you can take to improve your process. And if you're new to hiring or looking to build out your company's hiring pipeline, this book can take you from knowing nothing about the process to being an expert.
Ozzie has synthesized best practices and learnings into one source, all the way from the broad discussions such as the philosophy of hiring and candidate-company fit, to concrete examples of putting things into practice like how to write effective job descriptions.
Even if you're experienced with hiring already, you'll still find clarifying content here that puts what might have been previously abstract concepts into words and concrete actions you can take to improve your process. And if you're new to hiring or looking to build out your company's hiring pipeline, this book can take you from knowing nothing about the process to being an expert.
August 30, 2020
As a hiring manager in startups, I had read most of the recruiting literature without ever finding a convincing, definitive reference book. In a few weeks, the Holloway Guide to Technical Recruiting and Hiring has become my bedside book on the topic.
While most business books digress extensively, the Holloway Guide to Technical Recruiting and Hiring focuses on giving solid, practical advice and best practices on every fundamental aspect of recruiting.
It provides a deep, highly detailed look at each key element required to assemble successful software teams.
I like the fact that, beyond the main author, many content contributors and reviewers bring their expertise adding nuance and keeping both ideology and oversimplification at bay.
I’d recommend the guide to anyone serious about building a state-of-the-art hiring process.
While most business books digress extensively, the Holloway Guide to Technical Recruiting and Hiring focuses on giving solid, practical advice and best practices on every fundamental aspect of recruiting.
It provides a deep, highly detailed look at each key element required to assemble successful software teams.
I like the fact that, beyond the main author, many content contributors and reviewers bring their expertise adding nuance and keeping both ideology and oversimplification at bay.
I’d recommend the guide to anyone serious about building a state-of-the-art hiring process.
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July 15, 2020Inputs determine outputs, not the other way around. As software now plays a huge part in our everyday lives, it’s not impertinent to say that the engineers who create software have a massive impact on how our world operates. Holloway’s Guide to Technical Recruiting and Hiring dives deep into first principles, enumerating many of the important players, dynamics, and social implications of the end-to-end hiring process. If you’re a founder, hiring manager, engineering leader, or software engineer looking for your next gig, I highly recommend purchasing and reading this guide.
August 28, 2024
"The best people are problem solvers and like to build elegant solutions and are not hung up on specific languages or technologies."
This book is an essential read for anyone involved in the hiring process or looking to establish a recruitment system from the ground up. As a technical interviewer, I found numerous invaluable insights and practical tips that I could immediately apply. I only wish I had discovered this book sooner.
The book is well structured and contains many useful references and is easy to read
July 17, 2020
I was excited to read this book as an aspiring manager of analysts with a technical emphasis. However, a few pages in this book emphasizes that the focus is only for software engineers and future updates may include project managers and more. Overall, this book gave some good tips but wasn't geared towards the technical positions I was interested in to hire.
Thanks to Holloway and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for an honest review.
Thanks to Holloway and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for an honest review.
July 11, 2020
Hiring is the most important decision a manager makes. You’re going to live with your next hire for years, you hope, but you haven’t read a great hiring book? That’s nuts, my friend. Start with this one. I haven‘t seen another book as thorough or as well-researched. Ozzie has tried to bring a lot of best practices together, so you don‘t have to cobble together your own approach.
July 20, 2020
I read this book on release (digital version) before I got my hands on the paperback, and have found myself reading it several times over in preparation of technical hiring sprints. It's a great resource when you're trying to bootstrap a new hiring process, improve an existing one, or to simply more deeply understand the technical hiring processes at leading orgs. Highly recommended!
December 28, 2020
The contents are decent, and I got a few new perspectives out of the Diversity & Inclusion chapter, however I bought the book at about S$80 after 20% discount which is way too much for the quality of the contents. I think this book is worth picking up at about 30% of its retail price.
July 11, 2020
The right people can make or break your company, but the finding and hiring them is incredibly challenging. This guide covers it and tells how you exactly what you need to do get it right.
September 20, 2023
Highly recommended for new engineering managers.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews