This document provides a guide to hiring top software engineers by outlining the steps involved, including where to find engineers, how to conduct coding interviews, and how to onboard new hires. It recommends marketplaces to find engineers at different experience levels, using coding interviews to evaluate engineers, providing credentials and access to code repositories, using project boards for collaboration, and appointing a project manager for communication and updates. It also pitches a service that will handle all these hiring and management tasks for clients to simplify the process.

1. How to Hire Top Software Engineers:
Your Guide to Hiring Like the Top Tech Companies

2. Module 1:
Introduction
Section 1:
Instructor
Introduction
● Rick Mac Gillis - Director of Software
Engineering at Dragon Cloud
● Previously:
○ Hiring Manager at Dragon Cloud
○ Project Manager at Dragon Cloud
● Building software since 2003
● Built software for small businesses, as well as
big businesses
● I crafted the process described in this course,
and it’s still in use today.

3. Module 1:
Introduction
Section 2: Course
Introduction
● This course is designed for someone looking to
have a website or mobile app developed.
● You:
○ Not necessarily an engineer
○ Never hired an engineer
○ Maybe made bad hiring decisions
○ Can use a computer
○ Can easily open accounts on websites
○ Have a solid idea of what you want
● Don’t stress out - there’s a way to skip the hiring
process!
● Dragon Cloud LLC, nor myself are responsible
for what you do with the information in this
course, or choose not to use in the course. Your
actions are your own, and we strongly
encourage you to research everything to make
sure it’s in your best interest to take, or not take,
whatever action you are considering.

4. Module 2: Top
Engineers and
Where to Find
Them
Section 1:
Marketplaces
● Time to select a marketplace: 1-3 days
● Demographics:
○ Brand new engineers
○ Lightly peppered
○ Heavily seasoned engineers
Brand New Engineer
Lightly Peppered
Heavily Seasoned

5. Free-for-All Marketplaces
(Anyone can join)
Project-Focused Marketplaces Agency-Screened Marketplaces

6. Compete
For Time

7. You Get What You Pay For
New Engineer Decent Engineer Artisan in the Trade
● $10 per hour
● 50 hours total
● Mediocre at best
● Total cost: $500
● $45-60 per hour
● 15-20 hours total
● Decent quality
● Total cost: $675 - $1,200
● $100 per hour
● 10 hours total
● Top of the line quality
● Total cost: $1,000
* Data is just for demonstration

8. Get a
Time
Quote

9. ● Most flexible
● One of the largest contractor populations
● Flat-Rate v. Hourly Rate
● You must message them to start the
conversation.
● Bid amounts may be different
● Initial Consultation
● Best for one-off projects

10. Recruiters
1. No marketplace fees
2. Higher up-front cost (usually once)
3. Locates candidates for you
4. Preliminary interviews tailored to your needs
5. Makes sense for larger projects or many
projects

11. Module 3: The
Mindset of an
Engineer
Section 1: What
Makes Us Tick
● We all like something different
● Clean code matters as much as a properly
formatted book (Understatement!)
● Artisans always put their heart and soul into
their work
● Micromanaging is a problem for everyone

12. Module 3: The
Mindset of an
Engineer
Section 2: Is
Challenging Always
Fun?
● We like a decent challenge
● New concepts are more enjoyable

13. Module 3: The Mindset
of an Engineer
Section 3: Software
Engineering is Both an
Art and a Science
● Art: Everyone writes software differently
● Science: Correctly executing code
● Artisans: Make software that runs smoothly for
the end user

14. Module 4: Conducting
a Coding Interview
Section 1: Coding
Interviews are a Crucial
Heuristic
● Time to conduct one interview: 1 hour
● You have someone to interview now.
● You must know how to write software to
conduct a coding interview.
● Pass this information to an engineer you trust,
or use Codility.
● Coding interviews are a heuristic.

15. Module 4:
Conducting a
Coding Interview
Section 2: Codility
● Don’t have a trusted engineer yet? Use a
platform to do it for you.
● Codility is expensive, but it’s effective.
● Multiple-choice tests on other sites don’t do the
trick.

16. Module 4:
Conducting a
Coding Interview
Section 3: Finding
Coding Questions
● Time to locate and learn proper questions: 3-5
hours
● Geeks For Geeks
● Google “coding interview questions”
● 2-3 questions
● Don’t sell yourself short by selecting only the
most difficult questions!
● Find two collaborative text editors. One is your
backup.
○ collabedit.com

17. Module 4:
Conducting a
Coding Interview
Section 4:
Conducting the
Interview
● 5 minute greeting
● Open the collaborative text editor
● Paste the first question
○ Tell them not to use Google
○ Tell them to talk through their thought process
○ No plagiarization!
● Reject them politely if they don’t finish in 30
minutes
● Second question if they finished within 30
minutes
● Check their space and time complexities to
ensure optimum results
● REMEMBER: Coding interviews are highly
technical. If you’re incapable of conducting one,
don’t try. You’ll sell yourself short. Instead have
someone else do it, or use Codility.

18. Module 5:
Onboarding the
New Engineer
Section 1: Legal
Stuff and Payroll
● Onboarding setup: 30 minutes
● Congrats on your first engineer!
● Contact your legal team to discuss what you
need to do to set up a contract.
● Using a marketplace? Just follow the
marketplace’s policies on accepting the bid.
● NDA’s have their place, but not always. Consult
your legal team.
● Payroll has tax, legal, and paperwork
considerations, discuss these concerns with
your tax and legal teams to see how to handle
them. Also, look into using a full-service payroll
provider.

19. Module 5:
Onboarding the
New Engineer
Section 2:
Credentials
● Account setup: 5 minutes
● Opt to give your engineer their own credentials
with only the permissions required for them to
do their job.
● Unable to give them their own account?
○ Unique password on each site (LastPass or
1Password)
○ Change it after the engineer is finished with the
project.
● Delete the engineer’s account or restrict its
access once the engineer is done with the
project.
○ The trusted engineer might lose control of the
credentials on accident, so always change the
password.

20. Module 5:
Onboarding the
New Engineer
Section 3: Code
Repositories
● Account setup: 5-30 minutes (Consider adding
your existing code and personnel)
● We learned the hard way.
● Always keep control of the code with a code
repository.
● Can be a stipulation for paying the engineer
● Bitbucket.com offers free private code
repositories.

21. Module 5:
Onboarding the
New Engineer
Section 4: Project
Boards
● Set up new board with your desired work: 1 hour
- 1 day (Depends on the project and how
detailed you get.)
● Project Boards make for easy collaboration
● Instant project updates
● Easy to hand off the code to other engineers
● Might have some miscommunication even with
the board

22. Module 5:
Onboarding the
New Engineer
Section 5: Project
Management
● Work necessary each day: 1 hour - 5 hours
(Depending on the project(s))
● Project Manager should be familiar with SCRUM
and Agile
● Handles communications with the engineer(s)
● Should give you updates within 24 hours of your
requesting an update
● Project Managers need to be the most
communicative
● Fees up your time.

23. Want to skip everything you just learned and
still get awesome engineers on demand?
● Time to start onboarding: Immediate
● We do everything in this course for you.
● We handle the hiring process
● We handle the Project Management
● We handle the code repositories
○ Your code whenever you request it
○ PM and engineers have access
● We handle the project boards
○ You get access to it, too!
● No need for you to waste countless
hours or pay for expensive services to
recruit on your own.
● Own an agency with way too many
projects to manage? We’ll handle the
overhead so you get paid.
Dragon Cloud LLC
1-877-712-2912
https://dragoncloud.io (Live chat available!)