How to post a job on Twitter when you are hiring your first engineers

To post a job on Twitter, write a plain post from your own account that names the role, the stack, where the person can work and how to apply, then ask a few people in your field to share it. That free route works best when your feed already reaches engineers, and the TechTwitter IO list of who to follow shows founders where the builders they want to hire spend their time.

X also has a structured option for companies, covered below. For a founder hiring the first few engineers, the personal post usually comes first.

Two ways to put a role on X

HR Dive reported in November 2023 that X opened its job search to all users, with keyword, location and remote filters. Check X's current terms before you sign up for anything; the program may have changed since.

Anatomy of a hiring post that gets replies

Founders who hire well on X tend to write short and specific. A template:

We're hiring our second backend engineer at [company]. Go and Postgres, remote within EU time zones, salary range [x to y]. You'd own billing and the public API. Apply here: [link]. Reposts appreciated.

What each part does:

1. The role and the number. "Second backend engineer" tells a candidate how early they would be.
2. Stack and location. These are the first two filters in anyone's head.
3. A pay range. It saves a round of messages and signals you respect people's time.
4. What they would own. One concrete area beats a list of buzzwords.
5. One link. Send people to your own careers page or a form, not to your DMs.

Pin the post to your profile while the role is open, and reply to every serious question in public. The thread itself becomes part of the pitch.

Repost the role once a week while it stays open, with something new each time: a detail about the team, a problem the hire would solve, or a line from an engineer who already works there. A fresh angle gives your followers a reason to share it again instead of scrolling past a repeat.

Getting it in front of the right people

A post only travels as far as your network. Before you need to hire, spend a few weeks being useful in public. The TechTwitter IO tips are written for newcomers, and they apply to founders too: reply more than you post at first, because a good reply under a big account reaches more people than a new account's own post. Post what you are building, with screenshots. Engineers follow people who ship.

From its Founders and investors group, Paul Graham's essays and Garry Tan's posts as head of Y Combinator are standard reading for early-stage founders. For hiring and engineering culture, Gergely Orosz of The Pragmatic Engineer, in its Engineers group, is worth reading.

When a post is not enough

Senior or specialist roles, roles that need a visa sponsor, or any search where you need dozens of qualified applicants fast are better served by a recruiter, a job board or a referral bonus. Use X alongside those, not instead of them, and keep your hiring post live while the other channels run.

One thing not to borrow

TechTwitter IO's free satirical paper has a Classifieds section with Help Wanted ads, and all of them are jokes. It is a good read on a Friday, but do not copy the tone of "Steam Library Sitter" into a real listing.