Hiring is hard, especially in today’s market. To help all founders compete in this market, here are the best resources on the topic:

• Finding great developers – by Joel Spolsky
• Hire based on interest not credentials – by Ash Fontana
• Recruiting students by a CS student – by Li Pi
• The Phone Screen –  by Joel Spolsky
• Closing candidates – by Dan Arkind
• Onboarding new employees – by Alex McCauly (Twitter)
• Engineering Management at Facebook – by Yishan Wong
• A simple technical screening question – by Imran

These posts will teach you the 5 things most important things for founders to keep in mind about hiring:

1. Always be recruiting
   You can’t just flip a switch when you need to add good people. If you can’t (or are too lazy to) meet, get to know, and inspire real people to work with you, you will never succeed as a founder — no matter what you are working on.
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2. Great people don’t apply on job boards
   The people you really want on your team will never actively look for a job because they will always have one. Through our new experimental jobs product NextDigest VIP we found that, out of the 500 engineers and designers we screened, all of them already had jobs and not one of them was actively searching for a new one.
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3. Passion trumps experience
   Your specific skilled needs will change. Your team and the problem your team is trying to solve won’t. Contract out the former and hire the people who truly care about the latter.
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4. Iterate your hiring process just like you do with your product
   Even if a person eventually says no to your offer, don’t stop there. Learn why and get direct constructive feedback so you can improve your hiring process and more easily close the next candidate who comes in.
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5. A signed offer letter is just the beginning
   Before you hire anyone, write down plans that will make on-boarding, knowledge transfer, and team-building easier once you do..

Let me know if you have any additions to these resources and points in the comments.