Fellow speaker, and a large part of my "speaking with confidence" breakthrough was realizing this point exactly.
The other key unlock for me was the realization that I was the ONLY one in the entire room who would know when I fumbled a word or didn't deliver the content on each slide absolutely perfectly.
You'll ultimately become a better dev (e.g. higher quality code, faster, and more maintainable) as you learn more of the underlying stuff. For web dev definitely learn how to do everything in "vanilla" js, html, and css at least a few times.
Some people think better at a lower level and some think better with abstractions. I for one feel more 'at home' at the lower level but can live with higher level abstractions if I know how it's done at a lower level :)
It is not as expensive as hiring the wrong person.
As you iterate, your win percentage (AKA how many people you bring in and actually hire) goes up. We got to a point where we hired 75% of the people we brought in to the office.
Having built & led many teams, the time and energy that goes into managing an underperformer or a poor culture fit far outweighs the cost of thorough interviewing.
Even worse, you have to go through the hiring process again! So we can at least say it costs twice as much.
As mentioned, this kind of investment in the hiring process requires you to actually iterate it and continuously improve your win percentage. If not, you might be throwing money away.
I found that investing time in educating the recruiter on what you look for, and the why behind that criteria is key. A primary source of that investment is quick, direct feedback to the recruiter on why someone you just turned away is not a good fit. Helping them figure out how to deliver well-qualified candidates to you is not magic. It takes LOTS of effort.
Once you develop that working relationship with a recruiter, never let go! I have a handful of recruiters that I work with because they quickly absorb the feedback I give and I never see another candidate with that missing requirement again. If a recruiter shows they can't adjust/learn from your feedback, find one that does.
I mentioned in another comment, but I filtered recruiters based on their ability to filter resumes. If they couldn't use their own time efficiently, I was gonna have a hard time. And yes, recruiters can be trained, and yes it is expensive training.
Agree with this. If you are great at starting things, stick with that. Do what you love. Hire a proven CEO with a track record of taking something from $X million to $XX million. Build a solid transition plan and go be happy.
Good point. Maybe it isn't always a human that tells us. Something or someone informs us we are wrong. We just have to pay attention and keep an welcome the information.
The other key unlock for me was the realization that I was the ONLY one in the entire room who would know when I fumbled a word or didn't deliver the content on each slide absolutely perfectly.