On this milestone tenth episode of the 1st10 Podcast, hosts Boris Epstein and Alexis Munger interview the founder and CEO of CodeSignal, Tigran Sloyan. They discuss Tigran's journey from Armenia, to MIT, to founding CodeSignal. Tigran also shares some incredible insights on identifying great early engineers for startups, and his perspectives on the recruiting industry.

On today's episode, XYZ talks about:

• Helping Kids To Learn Better - "The current funnel, the way it's designed, it doesn't cater to the different learning-styles. And it just sort of fails everybody involved because you try to cater to everyone while in the process failing everyone." - Tigran Sloyan (11:12 )

  
  



• Personality Is Not A Type - "I think most people misunderstand personality as a type, especially since things like Myers-Briggs popularized typing people, which makes it easy for us to think about, but it's always (A) it depends and it's a spectrum." - Tigran Sloyan (20:48 )

  
  



• Be Aware of your Own Biases - "We're biased about many, many, many things because we try to create the shortcuts! And it's part of everyone's growth to be aware of their biases and try to keep them in check in places where it's going to hurt them and their business." - Tigran Sloyan (29:44 )

  
  



• Recruitment is a ‘Matching Problem’ - "You've got to remember that it's a matching problem, right? Not a one-way street. I see so many people show up to interviews and think like, 'If I can only like represent myself in the best light...' And they forget that it's a matching problem, as in you're interviewing them as much as they're interviewing you!" - Tigran Sloyan (33:03 )

  
  

Do not miss Tigran's advice on recruitment -- for both founders hiring engineers and engineers looking to join -- early stage startups!

Chapters

00:00 - Introduction & Teaser

04:30 - Tigran Sloyan's Journey from Armenia to CodeSignal

11:42 - Attributes of Great Early Engineers

15:46 - Building CodeSignal - Mistakes, Corrections, and Luck

19:15 - Spotting Good Signal in Resumes

23:13 - About CodeSignal and Its Mission

27:18 - Early Stage Hiring - Bias, Weak Signals, and Advice

35:54 - Recruiting & The Importance of Psychology

38:38 - Conclusion

Connect with us

Website: www.1st10.com

Podcast: www.1st10.com/podcast 

Twitter www.x.com/1st10engineers

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/1st10/

YouTube: www.youtube.com/@1st10podcast 

Links:

Tigran Sloyan's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tigransloyan

CodeSignal: https://codesignal.com/

Music by ⁠Roman Senyk⁠ from ⁠Pixabay⁠
Producer: Shrikant Joshi