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by sixhobbits·8y ago·view on hn ↗
This is a pretty difficult problem. If you can't vet the candidates, you probably can't vet the person you want to vet the candidate.

It's a common problem for non-technical founders trying to hire their first engineer and has been written about quite extensively. One good resource that was on YC blog recently is this post [0] by TripleByte (it's basically marketing but also has good content).

Even if you're early stage, try not to think about it as a yes/no for the two candidates you have, but rather try build some kind of pool of potential candidates (even ones that seem very likely unsuitable). The questions you ask in each interview and the questions that other candidates ask you will be very helpful to get some kind of feel for what you're looking for, red flags, etc.

[0] https://blog.ycombinator.com/how-to-hire-your-first-engineer...

1 comments
> If you can't vet the candidates, you probably can't vet the person you want to vet the candidate.

Totally. There may exist platforms or people that claim to do this for you, but between false positives, cronyism, and bad actors gaming the qualifiers those people and organizations use to vet them, none of those avenues make sense to me.

As I said in my other reply, having someone you trust that is in the same field of work talk to them, or strong referrals from people like yourself who can vouch for the outputs of the new candidate's work sound the best. Or give them a trial yourself if the candidates are game, although as some pointed out it's not always reasonable to expect they will be.