Hiring for a Small Tech Consulting Firm
Hiring at a small consultancy is different from hiring at a big firm. Here is what I look for and how I evaluate candidates.
Infraxio is a small team. Every hire has an outsized impact on the culture, the quality of work, and the client experience. That means hiring is one of the most important things I do, and I am deliberate about it.
Technical Breadth Over Narrow Depth
At a large firm, you can afford specialists who only do one thing. At a small consultancy, you need people who can work across domains. Someone who can configure an ERP, write a database query, build an integration, and hold a client conversation is more valuable than someone who is world-class at one of those but cannot do the others.
Client-Facing Ability
Every person on the team will interact with clients. That means communication skills are not optional. I evaluate how someone explains a technical concept to a non-technical audience. If they can make a complex topic clear and approachable, they can work with our clients.
Ownership Mentality
I look for people who take ownership of outcomes, not just tasks. If a feature they built does not work in production, they do not wait for someone to assign the bug — they investigate, fix it, and communicate the resolution. Ownership mentality is the difference between a contributor and a partner.
The Trial Project
When possible, we run a short paid trial project before making a full-time offer. The candidate works on a real task — a small configuration project, a data analysis, a documentation assignment — and we evaluate the quality of work, the communication, and the fit with the team. It is the most reliable signal I have found.