Menu

July 09, 2025

What Tech Hiring Teaches Us About Talent: Lessons from SaaS, Startups, and Scale-Ups

By Margaret Buj
Global Talent Acquisition Leader and Interview Coach

After two decades of recruiting for tech companies – from high-growth SaaS startups to global players like VMware or Expedia – I’ve seen what makes hiring succeed… and what quietly sabotages it.

Tech hiring moves fast. Roles evolve rapidly, products shift direction, and org structures get rebuilt overnight. But one thing stays consistent: the best teams are built by people who know how to hire not just for skills, but for adaptability, ownership, and clarity of thought.

Here’s what I’ve learned from working at the heart of tech talent acquisition – and what HR leaders in any industry can take from it.

  • Lesson 1: Skills fade fast - hire for capability, not just experience

In the world of B2B SaaS, the tech stack you hire for today might be obsolete in 12 months. That’s why the best hiring teams don’t just ask “Have you used this tool?” – they ask “How do you learn?”

I’ve seen too many companies reject strong candidates because they didn’t tick one specific box. But the reality is, a candidate who’s curious, resourceful, and fast to onboard often outperforms someone who meets every requirement on paper but stagnates quickly.

What to do differently: Train interviewers to assess for learning agility, not just tool familiarity. Use scenarios to test how candidates adapt, solve problems, and navigate ambiguity.

  • Lesson 2: High-growth hiring requires structured flexibility
Tech companies often scale in waves – hiring dozens of people across product, engineering, and marketing in short bursts. The pressure is high, and it’s tempting to “just get someone in.” But ad hoc hiring creates messy teams, overlapping roles, and unclear accountability. At Mixmax, where I lead global hiring for engineering, product, and marketing, we’ve had the most success when we combine speed with structure:
  • Interview plans are aligned across roles
  • Each stage has a clear purpose
  • Feedback loops are tight
  • We move fast – but not blindly 
What to do differently: Even in high-growth mode, build clarity into your process. Define role outcomes, not just responsibilities. Align hiring panels early. This creates better candidate experience and long-term team cohesion.
  • Lesson 3: The best candidates aren’t always the loudest
In startups, there’s often an unconscious bias toward extroverted, high-energy candidates who “own the room.” But some of the strongest hires I’ve seen are thoughtful, quiet problem-solvers who deliver impact with minimal noise. For example, I once hired a Staff Engineer who wasn’t flashy in interviews – but his clarity, ownership, and cross-functional influence transformed an entire delivery stream. You wouldn’t have known it from the first call. What to do differently: Help interviewers evaluate thinking quality, not just charisma. Use structured interviews, scoring rubrics, and diverse panel representation to reduce bias toward style over substance.
  • Lesson 4: Growth marketers and product hires need more than CV keywords

I’ve recruited for some of the most in-demand tech roles – including growth marketing, product design, and PMs. These roles are hard to evaluate if you only look at keywords.

A great growth marketer doesn’t just “run campaigns” – they tie user acquisition to product loops, optimize journeys with data, and partner with product, design, and sales. That nuance often gets lost in a CV.

What to do differently: Go deeper in interviews. Ask candidates to walk you through a strategy from hypothesis to execution. Have them share learnings from failed experiments. This uncovers critical thinking, cross-functional maturity, and whether they actually drove outcomes or just supported them.

  • Lesson 5: Remote changed hiring - but not always for the better

Global, remote hiring opened doors – but it also exposed a lot of bad habits. I’ve seen companies over-index on async tools and under-invest in candidate experience. Long, drawn-out processes. No updates. Generic assessments.

Meanwhile, the best candidates – the ones who are still getting multiple offers — expect clarity, speed, and a sense of connection.

What to do differently: Even remotely, make hiring feel human. Communicate regularly. Set expectations. Tailor the process to the role. Remote shouldn’t mean distant – it should mean intentional.

  • Lesson 6: Great hiring reflects great company culture
Hiring isn’t just about filling seats – it’s often the first real experience a candidate has with your brand. If your process is inconsistent, disorganised, or overly transactional, that’s how your company is perceived – no matter what your careers page says. The companies that get hiring right often get other things right too:
  • Decision-making is clear
  • Accountability is shared
  • Communication is intentional
  • Feedback loops exist
What to do differently: Treat hiring as a product. Ask: Is this designed well? Is it tested? Do we iterate based on feedback? The answers usually tell you how well your team is operating – not just how you hire.
  • Talent strategy is a leadership function

In the early days of SaaS hiring, talent was often seen as a reactive function – post a job, fill a seat. That’s no longer viable.

Today, the best HR and recruiting leaders act as strategic partners:

  • Advising on role design
  • Helping managers interview effectively
  • Challenging vague requirements
  • Improving cross-functional alignment
  • And making hiring a core part of how the business scales

Great hiring isn’t about copying what worked last year – it’s about adapting fast, hiring intentionally, and making every headcount decision count.

About the Author

Margaret Buj is a Global Talent Acquisition Leader and Interview Coach with two decades of experience recruiting top talent across EMEA, LATAM, and the US. She has led hiring for global tech companies, scale-ups, and high-growth SaaS startups – including Microsoft, VMware, Cisco, Box, Typeform, and Mixmax.

Margaret currently leads hiring at Mixmax and coaches professionals worldwide through her practice and Kadima Careers. Her advice has been featured in Forbes, Business Insider, and Financial Times. She specialises in hiring across engineering, product, and marketing – and helping companies build inclusive, high-performing teams.