Why We Hire T-Shaped Engineers

The single piece of advice I can give about hiring amazing engineers is that you should hire for their strong suit, not just because they are full-stack engineers.

Hiring full-stack engineers seem like a "best of both worlds" scenario, but from my experience, it's the T-Shaped engineers that drive the biggest impact.

T-shaped engineers are experts who have deep experience in a single skill while being capable of understanding related subjects.

For example, full-stack developers are a great asset, but what we're really looking for is someone who specializes in the front- or back-end, and if they can also handle the other side, that's a huge bonus.

Now, I’m not saying I-shaped or generalist candidates aren’t good at what they do, but I’ve seen our t-shaped engineers perform in great ways.