All of our Recruiting articles

How Talent Teams Can Better Weather Boom-and-Bust Cycles — Advice from Two Decades at Gem, Facebook, and Robinhood

Richard Cho has led talent acquisition teams at large tech firms for the better part of two decades. He’s collected the lessons he’s learned from operating in both hiring booms and busts, offering a thoughtful guide on how startup talent teams can do more — with less.

The Tactical Guide to Making Better Decisions When Starting and Scaling Companies

The First Round team has been lucky to work with retired poker player and decision-making expert Annie Duke in a special capacity these past few years. Here, we open-source some of the advice she gives to help founders face down uncertainty and make better decisions.

23 Tactical Company Building Lessons, Learned From Scaling Stripe & Notion

From Stripe to Notion, Cristina Cordova has worked on some of the biggest products in tech. She shares tactical tidbits on what she’s learned about about scaling companies and shaping your career.

The Playbook for Hiring the Right Marketer at the Right Time for Your Startup

Should you hire a brand, product or growth marketer, and how do you know when you've found the right candidate? Maya Spivak, former marketing leader at Segment and Wealthfront, unpacks her frameworks for identifying the type of marketer your startup needs, interviewing and closing candidates.

20 Underrated Qualities to Look for in Candidates — And 50+ Interview Questions to Suss Them Out

We've rounded up a curated set of attributes you may be overlooking in your hiring process — and the interview questions you can use to surface them.

Hiring a VP of Engineering? Use This Framework from Shopify’s VPE to Get it Right

After more than 20 years in tech, eight companies, and thousands of hires, Shopify's Farhan Thawar shares his go-to-framework for snagging a VP of Engineering. From the skills that are most important to the questions to ask and red flags to watch out for, his advice will help founders dive several l

The 40 Best Questions to Ask in an Interview — How to Go Deeper Than “What’s the Culture Like?”

Top startup leaders shared their favorite thought-provoking questions for candidates to ask during an interview to stand out from the crowd and gain in-depth knowledge about the company, the team, and the role.

40 Favorite Interview Questions from Some of the Sharpest Folks We Know

Given the high-stakes nature of every hire, interviewing chops are always in need of sharpening. We’ve spent the past few months reaching out to some of the most thoughtful company builders in our network to pose a simple question: What’s your favorite interview question to ask and why? Here are the

So You Think You’re Ready to Hire a Marketer? Read This First.

As First Round’s Marketing Expert in Residence, Arielle Jackson often helps early-stage founders navigate the search for a full-time marketer of their own. From the when and the why to the who and the how, Jackson offers a crash course on every aspect of the marketer hiring process.