Ask HN: Has anyone ever been hired from “Who wants to be hired?” threads? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone ever been hired from “Who wants to be hired?” threads?

#41

Post by souprock » Tue, Jul 02, 2019, 1:43 AM UTC

dandigangi wrote: post #37

I was just going to post a similar thread from the hiring manager's side. Genuinely curious how many responses y'all receive. I'm in Chicago, not SF but the responses almost never come.

I usually get several responses off of something like this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20328264

It's almost always at least 1 response. I don't think I've ever gotten more than 10 responses. Something like 4 is typical.

On average I think I find one that is good and one that is minimally acceptable. Several have been hired, but at least one of those was redundantly discovered elsewhere.

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone ever been hired from “Who wants to be hired?” threads?

#42

Post by patientplatypus » Tue, Jul 02, 2019, 1:44 AM UTC

mevile wrote: post #34

Recruiter spam seems inevitable when responding to such posts, but the way I avoid long term recruiter spam is by creating an email addresses for each time I seek employment. I own a domain so I create an email address such as career2019@example.com where example.com takes place for my actual domain. I recommend this. I also use this temporary email to sign up for linkedin for the duration of my employment seeking. A…

I've found that its actually better to use my own email address. Oh you added me to a mailing list with thousands of other people. And you addressed me as "Dear Trusted Associate". Well thanks for the information! Now I know to redirect any and all future emails directly to my trash. If you do it enough with gmail after about a month you'll find you get maybe one or two a week.

Rot in my trash bin Martha.

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone ever been hired from “Who wants to be hired?” threads?

#43

Post by paxswill » Tue, Jul 02, 2019, 1:45 AM UTC

BowBun wrote: post #6

I reached out to a company from a Who's Hiring post and got hired. Great job, got to move with relocation.

Echoing this. I ran across my current employer in a Who’s Hiring post, bookmarked it for later, and then ran across them again an Angel List and applied. Been here for a few months now.

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone ever been hired from “Who wants to be hired?” threads?

#44

Post by 0kl » Tue, Jul 02, 2019, 1:48 AM UTC

I’ve had several great connections and solid job interviews, as well as my current role at the USDS.

I am currently* a “Senior/Lead SWE” that’s flirted a lot with SRE.

Earlier in my career it was a lot harder to get responses, but still managed to get an interview or three out of it.

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone ever been hired from “Who wants to be hired?” threads?

#45

Post by valtism » Tue, Jul 02, 2019, 1:53 AM UTC

About to start in 2 weeks! This was the first job I contacted through HN, and they were very responsive. No recruiter, no spam.

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone ever been hired from “Who wants to be hired?” threads?

#46

Post by jcsnv » Tue, Jul 02, 2019, 1:53 AM UTC

I got my first professional contract on a "Who wants to be hired?" over 5 years ago! I didn't have any professional experience and was a junior dev at the time. I met my current employer because of/during that contract as well.

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone ever been hired from “Who wants to be hired?” threads?

#47

Post by mevile » Tue, Jul 02, 2019, 1:57 AM UTC

lzzzfelipe wrote: post #38

mevile wrote: post #34

Recruiter spam seems inevitable when responding to such posts, but the way I avoid long term recruiter spam is by creating an email addresses for each time I seek employment. I own a domain so I create an email address such as career2019@example.com where example.com takes place for my actual domain. I recommend this. I also use this temporary email to sign up for linkedin for the duration of my employment seeking. A…

You can always just do yourname+career2019@gmail.com

This approach doesn't prevent your email address from being clogged with recruiter spam, unless you want to maintain filters forever, and as another says, the real email is still there. I don't even use the same domain as my real email. Jumping in exposes one to a subset of misbehaving recruiters, those making a bad name for the rest, an experience comparable to taking a bath in shit and I don't want to taint my daily life with its rank smell once I'm done prospecting.

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone ever been hired from “Who wants to be hired?” threads?

#48

Post by waits » Tue, Jul 02, 2019, 2:07 AM UTC

I posted here and was contacted by the founder of a startup the same day. Got invited for an interview and received an offer a week later. I don’t recall getting much spam from that post.

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone ever been hired from “Who wants to be hired?” threads?

#49

Post by misiti3780 » Tue, Jul 02, 2019, 2:16 AM UTC

I have hired multiple people using that thread.

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone ever been hired from “Who wants to be hired?” threads?

#50

Post by ronilan » Tue, Jul 02, 2019, 2:19 AM UTC

I’ve been posting in the "Who wants to be hired" threads occasionally since they started (somewhere in 2014 if I recall correctly) and have been doing so monthly recently. I'm also including a basic Q&A in my posts. I've varied the tone and content a bit over time. It's not an A/B test, just an attempt to keep things entertaining.

You can find my recent post here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20326583

What each month brings is very diverse. Companies are of all shapes and sizes, from different locations and different lines of businesses. It's fairly interesting by itself. I've gone through multiple interview hoops through the years and those tend to also be very diverse. I've done HR chats and tech chats, phone screens with code and phone screens without. I've done take-homes and I was twice flown to on-sites. There is also a fair amount of spam, canned recruiting emails and the automated "CTO bait-n-switch", but the overall positive far outweighs the negative in my mind. If you are considering to post - just do it.

I've learnt a lot from those postings. Reaching out is not easy and I'm thankful to whoever does. My main take-a-way is this: by reaching out, a person shows that they are the proactive kind who cares for their organization and tasks. That fact by itself is a very positive signal to me. I'm thus always trying to put best effort into whatever organizational recruiting process follows.

I have yet to be hired as a result of those posts.

P.S - ... but that one from last month that is still in process would be perfect for me. Especially if it goes south... ;)