Every engineer at LotusFlare will say we have an amazing team. The team is located in three continents, builds awesome products used by millions, and demonstrates effective cross-functional cooperation. As an HR professional I’d like to share some of the keys to hiring and building a great international engineering team.
Passion
Surely, we look for top notch talent who work and collaborate effectively, brilliant minds with world-class coding skills, and people with the ability to deliver innovative solutions. But there is something else when it comes to working in a startup – and it is passion.
Big companies can rely on their well recognized brand name, proven revenue streams from established clients and deployed infrastructure. They have a long and rigorous hiring process and choose only people who are the “perfect fit.” Fast growing startups often don’t have the luxury of time and brand name, and that’s when they have to take a risk. The million dollar question is how do we take that risk and still win the team-building game?
I always approach challenging decisions like this by referring to Henry Ford: “If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got!” The fact is startups can provide a life-changing opportunity and we want to take world-changing people on this journey. So, the first step of selecting a new member of our team is: choosing passionately.
Not only should the future employee be passionate about their job but also about the people who discovered them, interviewed them and welcomed them into their teams. People are only able to express their full potential if they are passionate about what they do while having the guts to trust their instinct.
Transparency
Transparency has always been the forte of start-up companies. Transparency at its core means being honest, helpful and open minded. Start-ups often offer a fun working environment but also have longer working hours. Being transparent with team members about their needs, requirements and decision making, is essential for enabling them to ask questions,improve faster, and be creative in problem solving. Executing well on this supports faster scaling, and at LotusFlare we do a great job in being transparent.
Trust
We don’t have a hierarchy but we do respect each one of our team members and they do respect each other. We believe in creating an environment where you want to work and we believe in nurturing core human values. Our values such as being passionate, long term thinkers, determined, persistent and humble, (along with great benefits) are what we highlight when hiring new employees.
While working on a product that disrupts an entire industry, we have built a game changing team by nurturing these key values. They are passionate and dedicated people who ask why and improve, but most of all they are happy! Not long ago, I began asking candidates about their feedback after the interview process was over, and many times the response was that we have a team of happy people. In my humble opinion if the team feels like the one you want to work with then it is an amazing team.
