How to Hire 10x Freelance Engineers

Hiring is a top priority at All-In Consulting as it enables me to scale operations effectively. Currently, I focus on managing engagements while building strong teams to deliver on each workstream.

Clients have praised the strength of my team, and I believe my hiring methods can scale revenue to the low seven figures without the need for full-time employees.

A comment one of my clients made regarding my team.

Hiring freelancers and contractors offers many advantages over full-time employees.

You can select the best talent for each project, leveraging their specific expertise to avoid common pitfalls. It also keeps expenses down because you’re not paying for anyone’s time on the bench.

The only disadvantage is that sometimes there is a lack of continuity as they may have other projects going on.

But personally, I have not found this to be a big issue.

Many freelancers have worked with me for over a year, providing stability comparable to full-time employees, who can also leave with little notice.

In today’s article, I will discuss my process for attracting and hiring the best freelance engineers.

Create Job Posts with SEO in Mind

The first step in attracting the best engineers is to be mindful of SEO when creating a job post.

Think about the words your ideal candidate would use to search for a job, and include those keywords in the headline and body of your job post. This will ensure your job is discoverable.

Some details worth mentioning include:

The title of the role they may be looking for (e.g., intern, CTO, architect)
The technologies they should have experience with

If you’re unsure about the right keywords to use, search for existing job posts similar to yours and incorporate their keywords into your job post.

Don’t Be Cheap with Hires

I also recommend not being cheap with your hires.

You can’t ask for a 10x engineer and pay 0.1x the price.

Don’t lowball engineers - research market rates, and at minimum try to match it. Too low of a budget will turn away the best candidates from applying for your project.

The time a good hire will save by making the right technical decisions and requiring less management is well-worth the cost.

In fact, I view paying more as insurance against mistakes from happening.

Also, paying to boost your post so more people see it on job boards is generally worth it.

For example, on Upwork you can pay $30 to make your post a “Featured” job. If $30 helps me attract the best candidates to apply, it’ll easily pay for itself.

Example of a “Featured” post (check the badge in the top left) where someone paid to have the post be more visible

Choosing the Right Platforms

The platform you choose to hire from is also critical for the right types of hires, as different platforms cater to different types of talent.

This is a breakdown of what you can expect on the most popular platforms:

Fiverr - for hiring people for one-off gigs
Upwork - for hiring general talent
Catalant - for hiring management
Toptal - for hiring specific technical expertise

So depending on the requirements, choose your platforms wisely.

Criteria for Selecting the Best Candidates

So now that you have a job post in place, you need a way to evaluate candidates. Here’s the 4 criteria I use, in order of priority:

Technical excellence (40%) - Do they have the skills to get the job done exceptionally well?
Communication (30%) - Are they fast and reliable with communication? Do I understand what they are saying?
Past performance (20%) - Have they completed similar projects before? Do they have strong testimonials?
Vibe check (10%) - Do I get good vibes or bad vibes from the candidate?

Technical excellence is number 1 because if they can’t do the job then nothing else matters.

Communication is second, since how fast we communicate dictates how fast we execute on a project, especially in a world where remote work is so common.

Past performance matters because it helps de-risk the hire.

And vibe checks are important because if my gut tells me something feels off about the person, it’s probably right.

Some folks have disagreed with my use of vibe checks saying it’s too subjective, but imagine getting on a call every day with someone with bad vibes for 6 months.

That’s a no-go for me, hence why the check is there.

Deciding Who to Interview

When filtering candidates, I’ll first evaluate them on the strength of their past performance and cover letter.

Past performance can include things like testimonials, reviews, and case studies.

If they don’t have any past performance, then a strong, customized cover letter detailing their approach and showing they read the description and put effort in can compensate.

My Interview Process

I’ll then shortlist the top 10 candidates to interview, who I will then slot in 20-minute interviews back-to-back.

What my schedule looks like on interview day

I will usually send them the problem to discuss 24 hours before our call. The problem is usually more context around the actual project they will be working on, so it’s more realistic.

Then during the interview, we will discuss their solution and compare it with the solution I come up with.

If their solution scales and produces the right output, they pass on technical excellence and communication.

I reject the LeetCode puzzle style of interviews as I believe it’s not realistic and fair to put engineers on a timer.

After I interview all the candidates, I’ll rank them, make the hire, and call the winner to inform them that they won the project.

I’ll usually finish all of this before I go to lunch.

Conclusion

I’ve met truly incredible and inspiring talent through my hiring process. Almost all of the freelancers, contractors, and consultants that I’ve hired I’ve worked with long term.

In summary, if you:

Be mindful of keywords that candidates are searching for
Don’t be cheap
Have set criteria for interviewing and filtering candidates
And be decisive

You’ll be well on your way to hiring the best candidates yourself!

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