Via @bswatson on Twitter:

@synack Can you make any recommendations for devs interested in getting in early at a startup?

Right now, the demand for high quality engineers who are willing and able to work for a startup is very strong… Not a day goes by that I don’t see tweets, emails, and random conversations that start with “Anybody know a good X engineer?” where X is the latest must-have technology. However, sometimes it is neither simple or prudent to approach strangers and shove your resume in their face. Here are few things you can do to make your search for an exciting work environment a bit easier.

Don’t trust recruiters

Specifically, recruiting firms and contract recruiters that have no loyalty or stake in the company they’re recruiting for. I’m not saying that these people don’t represent amazing companies, but I’ve found that their motivations are mainly focused on getting the commission.

Example: A firm in San Francisco asked me to come in for an interview. After keeping me waiting for over an hour, they spent five minutes reading my resume, then showed me two potential positions that I was completely unqualified for and uninterested in. I didn’t hear from them again until several months later, when the very same recruiter had no prior knowledge of me or the positions I had already rejected. I’ve had very similar experiences with firms like this at least three times.

Bottom line: This process turned out to be a massive waste of time that could’ve been spent chasing down job leads that I had already vetted.

Meetups are great

“They say it’s all about who you know, and I know crackle!”

-Mitch Hedberg
Startup and tech events, like the regularly scheduled GitHub meetups, are potentially the best place to meet founders, employees, investors, and just plain cool people. With an open mind and some booze money, you can learn an amazing amount about what local startups are working on and what sorts of problems they’re encountering. Stick around long enough, and somebody’s sure to say something like “We’re looking for a good JavaScript/iPhone/Android guru, know anybody?” Even if you don’t, remember who’s looking for what. If you can help out with another startup’s recruiting, that karma can go a long way in your own job search.

Social media is your friend

Yes, it’s a buzzword, but that doesn’t make it irrelevant. Networks like Twitter and Facebook have a ton of power in finding startups that are doing cool things. Figure out who the thought leaders in your areas of expertise are, follow them, and maybe even start a conversation. Keep an eye on who and what they’re talking about… Sooner or later, you’ll see a new company or idea pop up. Find out if there’s an IRC channel and get friendly with it’s residents. If nothing else, you’ll probably learn something.

Write code

This one seems to trip a lot of people up. If you’re looking for a job as a coder, write some code and open source it! I think Eric S. Raymond put it best,

“Every good work of software starts by scratching a developer’s personal itch.”

That is, write something that helps you. A database to organize your music library, a driver for some obscure piece of hardware, a parser for freely available weather data, etc. Find something that’s interesting to you and do it. Don’t be afraid to experiment, this is one of the only places where you can write anything you want, any way you want. Use bleeding edge tools, libraries, and services and get familiar with them. Eventually, you’ll meet somebody that uses the same combination of tools and needs a developer to maintain them.

Do your own thing

If you’re having trouble finding a company that feels like a good fit for you, you might have the curse of the entrepreneur. If you’re one of these poor souls with the insatiable urge to work long, thankless hours to make your idea fly, I bow to you. Most of the above still applies in this case, but rather than poking and prodding people for a job, you’ll be asking for their opinion on your idea. Build a prototype as fast as possible and show it to some people. Listen to them. Iterate. Share it with more people. If it’s a good idea, it’ll snowball into something amazing. If not, pray that you grasp the concept of failure before you lose all of your hair. Lather, rinse, repeat.