Establishing Engineering Culture: Hiring Guide

Building Engineering Culture Through Hiring

Culture Elements to Define

Before hiring, clarify what culture you're building:

• Quality standards - Code review, testing, documentation
• Collaboration patterns - Pair programming, async vs sync
• Decision-making - Consensus vs ownership
• Learning culture - Growth mindset, knowledge sharing
• Work-life balance - Sustainable pace vs crunch

Key Hires for Culture

First Engineering Hires (1-5)
Most influential on culture:

• Set initial standards and practices
• Model the behaviors you want
• Write the first "how we do things"
• Hire subsequent engineers

Engineering Leadership
Shapes culture intentionally:

• Defines engineering values
• Creates and enforces standards
• Builds hiring processes
• Resolves culture conflicts

Hiring for Culture Building

What to Look For

Culture Shapers vs Culture Adapters

• Culture shapers actively improve environments
• Culture adapters fit into existing cultures
• Early hires should be shapers

Interview Questions for Culture Fit

1. "Describe the engineering culture at your current/last company. What would you change?"
2. "How have you improved engineering practices at previous jobs?"
3. "How do you handle disagreements about technical approaches?"
4. "What engineering practices do you care most about?"

Assessment Approach

• Look for opinions about how teams should work
• Ask about times they influenced culture
• Discuss their ideal engineering environment
• Watch for alignment with your intended culture

Culture Practices to Establish

Code Quality

• Code review standards (required, turnaround time)
• Testing expectations (coverage, types)
• Documentation practices
• Technical debt management

Collaboration

• Communication norms (meetings, async)
• Pair/mob programming practices
• Knowledge sharing (tech talks, docs)
• Cross-team collaboration

Learning & Growth

• Learning time allocation
• Mentorship programs
• Career development
• Failure and experimentation tolerance

Work Practices

• On-call and incident response
• Deployment practices
• Planning and estimation
• Remote/hybrid norms

Common Mistakes

1. Hiring Skills Without Culture Alignment

Technical skills aren't enough:

• Brilliant jerks poison culture
• Misaligned values create friction
• Culture problems compound over time

2. Assuming Culture Forms Organically

Culture happens whether you shape it or not:

• Default culture may not be what you want
• Early patterns become entrenched
• Intentional culture requires intention

3. Copying Another Company's Culture

What works elsewhere may not work for you:

• Context matters (stage, industry, people)
• Authentic culture beats copied culture
• Start with your values, not Netflix slides

4. Not Documenting Culture

Implicit culture doesn't scale:

• Write down your values and practices
• Use documentation in hiring
• Reference in onboarding

Culture Building in Practice

Companies Known for Engineering Culture

Stripe is known for attention to detail, rigorous engineering, and long-term thinking. Their culture attracts engineers who value craft and quality.

Linear built a distinctive culture around speed, simplicity, and user experience. Small team, high bar, clear values.

GitLab pioneered transparent, all-remote culture with extensive public documentation of how they work.

Key Elements of Strong Cultures

Clear Values:
Not just words on a wall—values that actually guide decisions. Engineers should be able to cite values in discussions.

Consistent Application:
Values apply to everyone, including leadership. Inconsistent application destroys culture faster than anything.

Continuous Evolution:
Culture isn't static. Good cultures evolve while maintaining core principles.

Interview Assessment for Culture Building

Evaluating Culture Shapers

Ask about culture improvement:
"Tell me about a time you improved how your team worked."
Good answers: specific initiative, built consensus, measurable improvement

Ask about opinions:
"What engineering practices matter most to you?"
Good answers: specific preferences with rationale, not "whatever the team does"

Ask about conflicts:
"How do you handle disagreements about technical approaches?"
Good answers: healthy debate, data-driven, disagree and commit

What to Look For

Culture shapers have:

• Opinions about how teams should work
• Track record of influencing environments
• Ability to articulate values clearly
• Experience navigating cultural challenges

Culture Building in Practice

Establishing Engineering Values

Define What Matters:
Before hiring, articulate your engineering values:

• What does quality mean to you?
• How do you balance speed and craft?
• What collaboration patterns do you want?
• How do you handle failure and learning?

Make Values Actionable:
Values without behaviors are just words:

• "We value quality" → specific code review standards
• "We value learning" → dedicated learning time, blameless postmortems
• "We value collaboration" → pairing practices, knowledge sharing sessions

First Hires Set the Tone

Outsized Influence:
Your first 5-10 engineers establish norms that persist:

• Their coding standards become "how we do things"
• Their communication patterns become team culture
• Their attitudes toward quality set expectations
• Their hiring decisions shape future team composition

Hire Intentionally:
Don't just hire for skills—hire for the culture you want to build:

• Do they embody your values?
• Will they actively shape culture, not just adapt?
• Can they articulate how they think teams should work?
• Do they have experience improving engineering practices?

Sustaining Culture Through Growth

Culture at Scale

Culture becomes harder to maintain as you grow:

• New hires dilute existing culture
• Communication becomes more formal
• Subcultures form in different teams
• Original values can drift

Strategies for Scaling Culture:

• Document values and practices explicitly
• Use hiring as a culture filter
• Onboard new engineers with culture education
• Reinforce values through recognition and promotion
• Evolve practices while maintaining principles

When Culture Needs to Change

Sometimes existing culture needs evolution:

• Business needs have changed
• Current culture has problems
• Growth requires different practices
• New leadership brings new perspectives

Changing Culture Thoughtfully:

• Acknowledge what worked before
• Explain why change is needed
• Involve the team in defining new practices
• Be patient—culture change takes time
• Lead by example, not just by mandate