1/ @kirillz and I recently put up a new version of our hiring page: unsplash.com/hiring
It looks simple but we put a lot of thought into it. Here's some of the things we considered along the way.
It looks simple but we put a lot of thought into it. Here's some of the things we considered along the way.
2/ We've only been full-time on Unsplash for little over a year. In that time, we've grown nearly 5x, supporting 70 billion photo requests. This scale is usually handled by teams of hundreds of people. We're doing it with 16.
3/ How we think about building our team is key to making this happen. The best way to get where we want to go is to build a lean team of exceptional product-driven people.
4/ Think early Instagram, supporting 30M users (I don't like the term users but it's clearest in this context) with 13 teammates. Or WhatsApp supporting 450M users with 35 teammates.
5/ Also, it's "teammates." Not "employees." Employee is a dirty word. It implies you are subservient to someone else. You're subservent to no one. We're all part of one team.
6/ Like (hopefully) everyone else, the purpose of our hiring page is to attract thoughtful, skillful people to join our team.
7/ If you want to attract great people, the bottom line is: great people want to work on great things with other great people.
8/ This is why our hiring page focuses on two things:
1. what you'll be building
2. who you'll be building with
1. what you'll be building
2. who you'll be building with
9/ Now, there's a difference between great people and the right great people. The right great people are talented *and* resonate with your company's purpose/how you do business.
10/ To speak to our "right great people", our focus was to:
- highlight our idea.
- highlight our people.
- highlight our purpose as a company.
- highlight how we do business.
- highlight our idea.
- highlight our people.
- highlight our purpose as a company.
- highlight how we do business.
11/ A couple things we didn't focus on: Perks and investment money raised.
12/ Perks. Of course we have perks but great people don't care about perks first and foremost. The connection to purpose and people come first. Besides, the best perk you can give someone is freedom, autonomy, mastery, and great company.
13/ Investment money we raised. If someone is attracted to the money you raised, they'll be the first to leave when you don't have it.
15/ If you raised a lot of investment, that might signal security. But it also might attract people who are more interested in getting a piece of good stock than making an impact.
16/ Be mindful of what you focus on when trying to build your team. What you say or put on your hiring page will attract people who are attracted to those things.
17/ You don't have to follow what the new hot company does to attract people. Seek to tell the story that will connect with your "right great people."
