Ask HN: How effective have the job posts on HN been? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: How effective have the job posts on HN been?

#61

Post by chunky1994 » Thu, Mar 13, 2014, 1:51 AM UTC

jonnathanson wrote: post #46

I owe my writing career to HN. I have been writing my whole life (I probably put in my 10,000 hours before I left high school). But until recently, I'd never really considered it as a serious job option. Journalism rarely pays a living wage. Trying to sell book proposals is like trying to make a career out of buying lottery tickets. Unless you are confident you're the next J.K. Rowling [1], you should leave writing w…

I have always been interested in turning writing into a secondary source of income, since I have been writing as a hobby for quite some time now.

What genre is your book in, and what kinds of work do you produce? Do you think you could possibly answer a few of my questions over email? Thank you!

Re: Ask HN: How effective have the job posts on HN been?

#62

Post by thirdtruck » Thu, Mar 13, 2014, 2:18 AM UTC

jonnathanson wrote: post #46

I owe my writing career to HN. I have been writing my whole life (I probably put in my 10,000 hours before I left high school). But until recently, I'd never really considered it as a serious job option. Journalism rarely pays a living wage. Trying to sell book proposals is like trying to make a career out of buying lottery tickets. Unless you are confident you're the next J.K. Rowling [1], you should leave writing w…

Writing any fiction? Asking as as fiction writer who has brought a few bucks in to date with their prose.

Re: Ask HN: How effective have the job posts on HN been?

#63

Post by bliti » Thu, Mar 13, 2014, 2:25 AM UTC

I was hired from a regular HN post. But know of people hired through the job posts themselves. It works well.

Re: Ask HN: How effective have the job posts on HN been?

#64

Post by Matt_Mickiewicz » Thu, Mar 13, 2014, 2:30 AM UTC

fsk wrote: post #50

namelezz wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same experience here. Need to pass an online code puzzle -> a short phone interview -> No response.

Why is it considered acceptable to just cut off contact after a phone interview or an onsite interview? If you get an onsite interview or phone interview, they should at least have the decency for a form letter "Thanks for applying, but we chose someone else." (especially after an on-site interview)

Not sending a formal rejection email is a sign of an company that is still immature in developing its HR function.

Unfortunately, we see this more often than not at seed stage companies.

Re: Ask HN: How effective have the job posts on HN been?

#65

Post by lbotos » Thu, Mar 13, 2014, 2:58 AM UTC

As an applicant https://news.ycombinator.com/jobs was always a fun way to read the pulse of the YC crowd. I saw something interesting, I applied, and now I'll be starting my new position in a few weeks! In a word; useful. :)

Re: Ask HN: How effective have the job posts on HN been?

#66

Post by mmorris » Thu, Mar 13, 2014, 3:12 AM UTC

8_hours_ago wrote: post #38

From the viewpoint of a job applicant, I have been very happy with the job postings on HN. Of the 4 jobs that I applied to over the past 3.5 years (I'm pretty selective), all 4 responded to me on the same day, and 3 resulted in phone interviews. Those numbers are very good compared to other job posting sites. I found that job aggregation sites like Monster performed absolutely terribly. In that same category are the…

Just curious... you said your best result was "applying directly" after seeing a company on CL, but that emailing the company after seeing on CL was not as successful. In this instance, does "applying directly" mean you went to each company's website and applied on their jobs page? Or did you call them/research and email someone specific/something else?

Re: Ask HN: How effective have the job posts on HN been?

#67

Post by rrpadhy » Thu, Mar 13, 2014, 3:40 AM UTC

jonnathanson wrote: post #46

I owe my writing career to HN. I have been writing my whole life (I probably put in my 10,000 hours before I left high school). But until recently, I'd never really considered it as a serious job option. Journalism rarely pays a living wage. Trying to sell book proposals is like trying to make a career out of buying lottery tickets. Unless you are confident you're the next J.K. Rowling [1], you should leave writing w…

Hey .... I could not have asked for more... Thanks for the detailed response. It really helps in my understanding and adds a not of value.

Re: Ask HN: How effective have the job posts on HN been?

#68

Post by sizzle » Thu, Mar 13, 2014, 4:18 AM UTC

jonnathanson wrote: post #46

I owe my writing career to HN. I have been writing my whole life (I probably put in my 10,000 hours before I left high school). But until recently, I'd never really considered it as a serious job option. Journalism rarely pays a living wage. Trying to sell book proposals is like trying to make a career out of buying lottery tickets. Unless you are confident you're the next J.K. Rowling [1], you should leave writing w…

any pointers on improving writing ability?

Re: Ask HN: How effective have the job posts on HN been?

#69

Post by akg_67 » Thu, Mar 13, 2014, 4:24 AM UTC

wwweston wrote: post #60

namelezz wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same experience here. Need to pass an online code puzzle -> a short phone interview -> No response.

I know people are busy (doubly so when hiring or looking for a job), so generally I think the best policy is to not take it personally and simply move on when people don't respond. It happens on both sides of the search, and dead ends are to some extent just part of the game. However, with the rise of the code puzzle/challenge test/work sample, I wonder if it might be time to forge a new professional ethic where it's…

However, with the rise of the code puzzle/challenge test/work sample, I wonder if it might be time to forge a new professional ethic where it's understood that it is an important courtesy to give an applicant's work attention and useful feedback in return for investing time in completing a challenge.

I agree with you on this front. I have never received feedback on such tests from any of the companies I talked to. In one instance, company asked me to prepare a decent size report before the onsite interview but it was clear during the interview that none of the interviewers looked at the report beyond the summary on the cover.

I started to address this issue by posting any presentations and reports, I prepared on the request of a company, as part of my work profile online. I believe one of the responses I received from Who is Hiring? March 2014 thread was due to one such work that I did for another company as test.

Your tips on checking who is serious are good. I will try them next time.

I have stopped responding to companies who want me to create account and/or use their API to create something. I learnt, from an angel investor acquaintance, that a lot of early-stage startups are using such tactics to inflate their user/API usage metrics for investor pitches.

Re: Ask HN: How effective have the job posts on HN been?

#70

Post by akg_67 » Thu, Mar 13, 2014, 4:37 AM UTC

kiyoto wrote: post #48

We hired our frontend engineer, and he's been nothing short of awesome. To put this in context: We are an enterprise SaaS company (www.treasuredata.com). In other words, this is not something a lot of frontend folks are aware of let alone interested in by default. Still, we managed to find someone who was really good. He and another frontend engineer made a worlds of difference in our webapp and boosted customer enga…

Very interesting company. Thanks for making me aware of it. I wasn't aware of an enterprise data storage, management and analytics SaaS company. This is my area of interest. I noticed you have couple of opportunities that I may be a good fit. Sending my application.