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Ask HN: Ever been hired through a “who's hiring” post?

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Re: Ask HN: Ever been hired through a “who's hiring” post?

#201

Post by sangnoir »

aaronchall wrote: post #141
mobiuscog wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This basically says you don't value people. You want them to go through all of the effort for you. You say that replying to everyone isn't a good use of your time, but having to apply to everyone, with the likelihood of being ignored apparently is a good use of my time ? My time is just as valuable as yours. The Github idea is great... except there's no way I can magic up a project 'relevant to the company' for all o…

> My time is just as valuable as yours. The co-founder's time is worth what? They just got investors to hand them millions of dollars over a few meetings, on the assumption that if successful, they'll be worth hundreds of millions one day. You are one of dozens of applicants. Some guys with 20 years have the problem that it was the same year over and over. How do they know your skills are even current and relevant? I…

> on the assumption that if successful, they'll be worth hundreds of millions one day.

Building good relationships is a good foundation for future success. I have had interviews that didn't result in me getting/accepting an offer, but the process was smooth and the decision amicable that I look forward to meeting/cooperate with/work with the same people in the future when the stars align. On the flip side, I have had interactions so terrible I won't ever consider working/meeting with or recommending the companies and the people involved, should they move on. It's a small world.

Re: Ask HN: Ever been hired through a “who's hiring” post?

#202

Post by rhizome »

TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #149
TheMog wrote: post #80

A post from "the other side of the table" :). The previous company I worked at, I hired two people through who's hiring posts. We pretty much tried it out for about six months as we didn't have much luck through the more traditional channels our division's HR department used. So yes, there are real positions being filled through these posts. That said, just because it's on Hacker News and this is an informal place do…

>A post from "the other side of the table" :) You're describing what worked for you. You don't know what works for other companies that are hiring. You don't know the percentage of companies that look for the same things you do, the percentage that use an automated resume filter that simply ignores cover letters, the percentage that do something entirely weird and unexpected, the percentage that believe the cover let…

Don't assume that you have an industry-standard application process

Most companies around these parts use similar services for resume intake, and those that don't seem to use email.

For the former, I haven't seen a resume handling service that doesn't have a "Cover Letter" text field, so if we can stipulate that those are common enough, why would an applicant leave it blank?

For the email case, it's a bit cold and impersonal to send an email with a resume attachment or URL with only whatever few words are necessary to keep your email client from popping up a warning questioning whether you really want to send an empty email.

Re: Ask HN: Ever been hired through a “who's hiring” post?

#203

Post by Maultasche »

gumby wrote: post #157
ktRolster wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Company 1 wanted me for a remote position, but wanted to pay me about half my market rate. Is it possible to get anywhere close to a Silicon Valley salary on a remote position?

Sure, I always pay everybody the same (for a given position). I.e. paying for the job done, not for the needs. Else what do you take into account? "This person has no kids, so needs less cash." "This person has a vacation house; clearly need to cover those expenses". I always prefer local so if I'm hiring remote it's because of some skill I can't find locally. I want them to be a happy, productive employee, not to fe…

Although negotiation skills may not be valuable to you, I'd like to point out that negotiating can be a valuable skill for a developer.

I frequently negotiate with clients over requirements and implementation details. I can save a lot of development effort by negotiating away a detail that ramps up the complexity of a feature significantly. Often the client doesn't place much value on the particular detail that makes my job a lot more difficult, and is quite willing to accept the alternate approach I propose.

Some developers don't even try to negotiate that sort of thing, and end up doing a lot of work that doesn't provide much value to the client.

Re: Ask HN: Ever been hired through a “who's hiring” post?

#204

Post by lostcolony »

freework wrote: post #160
TheMog wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, it works both ways. You might send out 20 resumes. As a hiring manager - especially when using a "no filter" approach like posting on here (keep in mind that IME people posting jobs on Hacker News are more likely doing "guerilla hiring" and circumvent their HR departments) - I easily get 100+ resumes, and I don't have days to spend trawling through them. I think it was rands of randsinrepose who mentioned befor…

> I easily get 100+ resumes, and I don't have days to spend trawling through them It is your job to look through resume's. This is what you are paid to do. You claim to be a hiring manager. It is not my responsibility to convince you to do the job you are paid to do. My resume contains all the information you need to make the determination of whether I am qualified for the job, including "I love writing web apps in R…

Actually, no. A hiring manager is "a manager who is hiring". I.e., not an HR manager, but the person who put in the request to hire someone. Generally their job actually entails delivering a product or service or similar. -Part- of that is filling the team. But that is not what they are measured on. At the end of the day, what they will be evaluated on is delivery, not hiring.

As such, it is up to them how much time they spend hiring, and it is up to them what heuristics they use in that. Because, ultimately, time spent on hiring is time they're not spending actually helping the other team members who they have already hired, and it is only indirectly related to actually delivering the thing they are supposed to deliver (whereas they may have demands on their time that -directly- affect the delivery).

It is also up to you whether or not you try to help them by showing you have actually read the posting, and know something about the company, and whatever other heuristic they have. That's totally your prerogative. But you do not have -any- standing to fault someone whose job is delivering something with not considering you because you didn't want to put in some effort.

Re: Ask HN: Ever been hired through a “who's hiring” post?

#205

Post by antisthenes »

framebit wrote: post #151
joekrill wrote: post #6

I was actually very surprised at the amount of folks that simply didn't respond _at all_ -- meaning not even an _acknowledgement_. The folks that I did hear back from were great, though. Nothing ever actually worked out in my case, though.

I've been on the job market in several industries before finding my way to software engineering. I can tell you that non-acknowledgement is absolutely the norm in pretty much any other industry, particularly in the case of online applications. Imagine firing off 100 applications through online portals, personal emails, responding to posts, going in person, etc and never, _ever_ hearing even a robo-response. It is sou…

It's like the difference between being an attractive person vs non-attractive.

Re: Ask HN: Ever been hired through a “who's hiring” post?

#207

Post by clarry »

TheMog wrote: post #126
freework wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have to see it from th job hunter's perspective. It is very common to send out 20 resume's and maybe get a single response or two. It is very time consuming to write a custom multi-paragraph cover letter with every application. Eventually all job hunters learn that you get the same response rate when you write one sentence cover letters as you do when you put a lot of effort into them. Why spend so much effort wh…

Well, it works both ways. You might send out 20 resumes. As a hiring manager - especially when using a "no filter" approach like posting on here (keep in mind that IME people posting jobs on Hacker News are more likely doing "guerilla hiring" and circumvent their HR departments) - I easily get 100+ resumes, and I don't have days to spend trawling through them. I think it was rands of randsinrepose who mentioned befor…

What if I don't love writing web apps in RoR and just want a friggin job? I shouldn't send you a resume at all? Would it be appropriate for me to just lie about it?

What if the all the people who tell how they love writing web apps in RoR are just bullshitting you in the hopes that you really believe it? What if they're mostly just very excited newbies who haven't yet had the time to figure out that maybe it's not so exciting and lovely after all?

I'm not saying you're doing anything wrong, but it sounds like you choose very arbitrary filters. Not that I can recommend a better filter, if your time is indeed so limited.

Re: Ask HN: Ever been hired through a “who's hiring” post?

#209

Post by adrianpike »

Kalium wrote: post #173
Grae wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Correct. It's also possible that, as a candidate, demonstrating token emotional attachment to a job posting positively correlates with advancing through the candidate funnel. Your strategy is yours to choose.

If that is how a given company filters for candidates, then I have desire to advance through their funnel. This seems like a reasonable deal to me.

Funnels can filter both ways. :)

Re: Ask HN: Ever been hired through a “who's hiring” post?

#210

Post by huehehue »

Early in my job search, I sent a few emails out to companies through Who's Hiring. Turns out I was a bit under-qualified for the positions (college sophomore, they wanted post-terminal-degree types), but each chat was a positive experience.

Maybe 1 in 5 stopped replying before we could have a serious talk.

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