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Comment by bluGill | Hacker News Reader

Call a contract organization and bring in a few people for a 6 month contract. At the end of the contract offer jobs to the good ones.

6 Months is only because that is what contract organizations want - you can buy the good people out sooner, but they need 6 months from people to make their budgets work. 6 months is plenty of time to ensure you know if someone is bad or just slow to get productive, but not too long to pay someone who is not worth it.

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That leaves you only with candidates that are willing to work on a contract. Most are not that desperate. Do you want desperate employees? then go ahead. Also, don't be surprised when people that like contract work jump ship as soon as something slightly better appears on the horizon.

This happened to me. Company was on the verge of extending me an offer for a full time position. Hiring manager and team loved me. Then the CTO pulled some bullshit and the offer became one for a 6 month contractor, not a FTE.

I took the job anyways because I was desperate (had just been laid off). But I continued interviewing every chance I got and jumped ship at around the 5 month mark. The CTO was livid that I abandoned ship.

That's if your agreement with the contract company allows you to recruit their people.

I’ve had that happen a few times. Generally there may be a signing fee paid to the contractor.

Though in one case I got the job first and the contracting house second. BigCo had approved vendors but was having trouble finding people with the skill sets they needed.

there is a lot of financial incentive to just dump everyone and restart again and again; also financial incentive to extract work beyond the terms of the agreement, and to invent failure to justify reducing new offers. Some senior management looks for people who signal that they can and will do this to others, also hire intermediaries to oversee the process who will bear false witness against the employed. Magnify all of this in the USA where access to health care (or a green card) are contingent on employment.

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