Rethinking what makes an engineer valuable – and how to find them.
When hiring engineers, especially those earlier in their tech careers, it’s easy to focus on the obvious: how quickly can they hit the ground running? How fast can they get to production, contribute to the roadmap, and ease pressure on the team?
That’s a fair question – but when that’s your only question, you risk missing the people who could bring so much more. People who don’t just fit – but who help you go faster, think sharper, and build better in the long run.
Here’s what we’ve learned at Counter about how to spot high-potential engineers, and that right level of potential.
1. Stop Hiring Out of Fear
When we hire people for our client engagements at Counter, we look at how quickly they can go from zero to production. Of course, everyone wants someone who can hit the ground running – commercially, that makes sense. The faster someone can contribute, the faster the team delivers.
But that kind of thinking can quietly create a risk-averse approach. It becomes about survival: how quickly can I find food (get the job done) without getting eaten (getting sacked for hiring an unproductive team)?
When the goal is to avoid hiring someone who might slow you down, you risk overlooking the people who could actually help you go faster – because they challenge how things are done, bring fresh thinking, or offer a perspective your team hasn’t considered.
So next time you’re hiring, don’t just ask: How soon will they be productive?
Instead, ask:
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- Could this person’s thinking change how we work for the better?
- Could their approach help my team see things differently?
- Could they help us move faster – not by fitting in, but by adding something new?
- What could their past career experience bring to help us build better for the user?
2. Context-based experience always starts at zero
You might interview someone with 15 years of experience, fluent in every framework and tool you use. Great. But here’s the truth: they’ve still never worked in your environment, with your people, on your challenges.
We all start at zero with context-based experience. No one walks in knowing:
- Don’t speak to Steve before his morning coffee
- Wendy prefers straight-to-the-point communication
- That API quirk that everyone’s learned to work around
When you accept that everyone’s context experience starts at zero, you can shift your focus to what really matters: how fast can they adapt? How well do they learn?
3. Define (and limit) your non-negotiables
A lot of tech knowledge can be taught – faster than you might think. But there are always a few things you don’t have time or space to teach right now. Maybe it’s knowledge of a specific language, or a deep understanding of cloud networking, or experience with a critical tool.
Whatever those are, define them. And then, limit your binary tests – the can-they-or-can’t-they part of interviews – to those things. Everything else? That’s where you should be testing learning mindset. Give candidates a problem or a technology they haven’t seen before. See how they approach it. See how they think.
That’s where high potential shines through.
The Takeaway
If you want engineers who can help your team grow – not just your headcount – look beyond the usual checklists.
- Focus less on fear, more on possibility.
- Accept that context is new to everyone.
- Define the real deal-breakers – and give space for potential everywhere else.
That’s how you spot the engineers who’ll help you go faster, think bigger, and build something that lasts.
If you’d like to learn about how we could build a Counter team for you, get in touch with our team.
