Work for smaller companies
Only "apply" to jobs where you already know at least one person at the company
Ask HN: Why is hiring so dehumanized, and what can be done?
11–20 of 172 posts
Re: Ask HN: Why is hiring so dehumanized, and what can be done?
#12In one of the startups I worked at, when we really needed to find good people, CEO raised the referral bonus from 3k to 10k, paid 90 days after start date. In another startup, management asked every IC on hiring teams to find at least one potential candidates - every week. Time to find them was allocated into sprints. The referral bonus was raised from 2k to 3k. The first example was more successful from what I remem…
One unfortunate side effect of referral bonuses is that they don't really help increase diversity since employees are most likely to refer friends from their existing social circles. I didn't realize that at first!
Re: Ask HN: Why is hiring so dehumanized, and what can be done?
#13> Applicants must wade through large volumes of job postings, which are often poorly written, and frequently lacking key information which is important to the applicant. > Employers are overwhelmed with large numbers of applicants, most of whom don't meet the requested minimum requirements. > Employers are then too overwhelmed to reply to all the applicants. Employers should stop casting such a wide net, then. If you…
Most of the problem in 2 is on the applicant side (shotgunning applications to every opening).
Re: Ask HN: Why is hiring so dehumanized, and what can be done?
#14Hard take which is pretty much unpalatable to HN crowd: If I had a small dev shop, I would put out an hiring ad that says you must drop off your resume in person and we will only hire people from 50 mile radius.
Like they used to do in 1970's.
Not a fan of: 1) Global pool of candidates 2) Leet code bullshit 3) Remote work
Fan of 1) Permanent hiree after 3 months of time with us. 2) You will be part of our family, we'll build great things together 3) You'll get a decision when you visit us. Just drop by, no appointment necessary. We'll make time. 4) If you get rejected, we’ll tell you in the most honest way possible. No HR bullshit talk.
Re: Ask HN: Why is hiring so dehumanized, and what can be done?
#15It is tough balance between "humanizing" and trying to be fair and unbiased when reviewing candidates.
I think this is where small companies really have a huge advantage over larger companies, and they should be taking advantage of it!
Re: Ask HN: Why is hiring so dehumanized, and what can be done?
#16Part of my job responsibilities is hiring, retention, and unfortunately layoffs. Hiring is only going to get worse in technology related fields. The competition has increased 10x in the last couple months compared to the last year for a single jr - mid developer position at my company. That's going from 1000 applications to 10,000 applications. I even created a jupyterhub notebook to do some analysis on the unfiltere…
It sounds like you're saying you want to hire people who weren't laid off? If so, what's the reasoning behind this?
Re: Ask HN: Why is hiring so dehumanized, and what can be done?
#17In one of the startups I worked at, when we really needed to find good people, CEO raised the referral bonus from 3k to 10k, paid 90 days after start date. In another startup, management asked every IC on hiring teams to find at least one potential candidates - every week. Time to find them was allocated into sprints. The referral bonus was raised from 2k to 3k. The first example was more successful from what I remem…
Am I the only one that isn't incentivized by referral bonuses? The last thing I want is the blame for a bad hire because I somehow referred someone ended up not being a good fit for whatever reason.
Usually the amounts just aren’t enough to be worth the effort. A couple thousand, where a recruiter would get tens of thousands?
Re: Ask HN: Why is hiring so dehumanized, and what can be done?
#18Applicants could organize in a guild. The members can rate each other in a friendly environment with constructive feedback. Then, the guild knows who are the best matches for a given job.
Employers at first communicate with the guild and only have to evaluate 5-10 candidates. All interviewed candidates pool their knowledge about the employer so the next suggestions from the guild will be even better matches.
Medieval guilds made sure that craftsmen could be trusted. Programmers can do the same thing.
Re: Ask HN: Why is hiring so dehumanized, and what can be done?
#19In one of the startups I worked at, when we really needed to find good people, CEO raised the referral bonus from 3k to 10k, paid 90 days after start date. In another startup, management asked every IC on hiring teams to find at least one potential candidates - every week. Time to find them was allocated into sprints. The referral bonus was raised from 2k to 3k. The first example was more successful from what I remem…
One unfortunate side effect of referral bonuses is that they don't really help increase diversity since employees are most likely to refer friends from their existing social circles. I didn't realize that at first!
I personally would prefer to work with people from my social circle.
Re: Ask HN: Why is hiring so dehumanized, and what can be done?
#20Part of my job responsibilities is hiring, retention, and unfortunately layoffs. Hiring is only going to get worse in technology related fields. The competition has increased 10x in the last couple months compared to the last year for a single jr - mid developer position at my company. That's going from 1000 applications to 10,000 applications. I even created a jupyterhub notebook to do some analysis on the unfiltere…
Just require applications to be sent by mail. Explain why you're doing it up-front. The tiny hassle and tens-of-cents cost should cut volume down tremendously.
[EDIT] Incidentally, in the age of ChatGPT, I suspect I'm going to be recommending this more and more often for a lot more use-cases....