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Ask HN: Team for Hire?

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Re: Ask HN: Team for Hire?

#71

Post by krschultz »

mtalantikite wrote: post #54
LargeCompanies wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Heck yeah anywhere in TN vs. SAN Francisco. There's about a zero homeless epedemic(it's very sad to see/experience how many suffer on the streets there) in Nashville and elsewhere compared to the Mecca of that SAN Fran. Cost of living is great.. mountains.. fresh air.. no people shouting crazy stuff with a megaphone and more. Note I live and am from the D.C. area and graduated from MTSU.. visited SAN Fran many times…

Homelessness is not just about pan handlers on the street and other visible forms of homelessness. A lot of the time you can't tell someone is homeless, or is experiencing intermittent homelessness. A quick google seems to point to about 4000 people in Chattanooga experiencing homelessness per year. SF has concrete stats that are easy to find [1] and points to 7,539 experiencing homelessness per year. Based on total…

You are comparing apples to oranges. The SF number is a "point in time count", so on that particular day there were 7500 homeless people. The Chattanooga # you are referencing is "how many people were homeless at any point in the year". Given how many people are temporarily homeless, I'm sure any point in time survey of Chattanooga would show a dramatically smaller number. I don't know if it's better or worse than SF, but comparing those two numbers is basically meaningless.

Re: Ask HN: Team for Hire?

#72

Post by krschultz »

ramses0 wrote: post #65
eganist wrote: post #2

http://nooga.com/174179/opentable-to-leave-chattanooga/ Interesting. I know there are Very good reasons for not relocating to either Los Angeles or San Francisco, but what were the specific reasons (aside from family/homes, if any) you and the team had for opting not to relocate? Further to this: 2) Were team members offered raises as part of a relocation package? 3) Were team members offered the opportunity to work…

I recently moved from TX to CA (Bay Area). I had a 3k s.f. house and an all-in monthly cost of ~$2k/mo (including mortgage, insurance, pest control, etc) for household expenses. I recently had a soft offer (verbal discussion of salary ranges) of around ~$150k to move back to TX. To match that in CA dollars, it requires ~$200k/yr+ compensation. Method: Use the following two tax estimators: https://smartasset.com/taxes…

Sounds about right to me, and I think your numbers are more accurate than most "cost of living" calculators because it doesn't sound like you got exactly the same house in CA that you had in TX. Most cost of living calculators assume if you have a 3k sf house in one place you'll do that again in the more expensive area, which is just not how people actually live. When you move somewhere more expensive you generally downsize a bit so the increase in spending is not as extreme. Finding only a 25% difference between CA & TX is pretty conservative.

Re: Ask HN: Team for Hire?

#73

Post by chattamatt »

eldavido wrote: post #49
chattamatt wrote: post #43

Please know that this post does not represent the views of all of us at this office. While I appreciate the effort to place us as a team, I feel this effort in particular does not represent the professional nature in which we conduct ourselves, and was posted without the permission of all of us on the team.

SF-based dev here. This behavior (OP) doesn't come off as unprofessional at all. You have nothing to worry about. I get that you might feel upset if this was posted without your consent, but tech is becoming hollywood and there are plenty of people who'd like to hire a proven team. I'm really interested in the belief system that led you to post this message. Details?

It's a sensitive time... I wanted to post that response so it was understood that wilwade doesn't speak on our behalf entirely. He may not say anything negative, nor answer any questions poorly; however, it's simply worth noting that he posted this on his own.

Re: Ask HN: Team for Hire?

#74

Post by krschultz »

Klarbichu wrote: post #10

You'll find success faster if you split up and join the talent pool sooner rather than later. If you're trying to get hired as a team, that sounds new, so employers might not have heard of such a thing. It's the first time I've heard of something so preposterous. Maybe if it was a progressive state like Colorado, I could understand, but Tennessee? I can't stand the hot, humid summers myself. Then you have chiggers an…

It's only preposterous if you aren't at the higher levels of the companies. 3 of the last 4 companies I worked for considered either selling out as a team or hiring a team. It's a thing, just not some thing that is talked about all that much because it's fairly sensitive.

Re: Ask HN: Team for Hire?

#75

Post by sailfast »

mrfusion wrote: post #60
sailfast wrote: post #40

If you can't find a group that will hire you as a team, perhaps you should start a consulting / product firm. There's overhead / non-dev work to setting up shop and starting a business development pipeline to get revenue in the door of course, but if you want to stick together, build great things, and keep your culture that's a solid option if others fail.

How do you start a business development pipeline?

Well - this is a broad question and sales / pipeline building is an art all its own that is industry specific BUT assuming you want to build products for people for hire you might:

- Identify a number of potential network contacts working for companies that may need the help, reach out to them, tell them about what you're doing and ask to meet for coffee to talk about how you can help them

- Work your network to see who is looking for the kind of service you want to provide - find one client and start small and build on that work

- Find companies you'd like to support and contact the "right" person (maybe the CTO? Maybe CIO? Maybe head of purchasing?") and see if they need what you want to provide or at least give them something to think about for when they need it

- Look for companies putting RFPs on the street for software work (public sites or otherwise though this win rate is probably a lot lower)

- Ask larger businesses in the area and/or consulting companies from more established industries if they are interested in subcontracting for software development

- Ask your current employer if there's any interest in continuing the relationship as contractors for specific applications to give you some runway.

This is by no means a complete list but it's what I would do in order to get it started. Then you'll want to keep doing it all the time and if you get big enough hire a sales / BD person.

Re: Ask HN: Team for Hire?

#76

Post by chattamatt »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #51
chattamatt wrote: post #43

Please know that this post does not represent the views of all of us at this office. While I appreciate the effort to place us as a team, I feel this effort in particular does not represent the professional nature in which we conduct ourselves, and was posted without the permission of all of us on the team.

I really, really want to second what eldavido said. * This is not unprofessional * It's fair if you'd prefer to opt out * I don't believe this reflects poorly on OP at all. Your employer is closing an office. Your team supposedly has a positive dynamic, which has value, value your employer is passing on. Why would it be unprofessional or unethical to advertise this when said employer is cutting the team loose? I do n…

Thank you for your feedback... My original comment should have said "this post..." instead of "this effort..." to make specifically what I was addressing more clear.

Re: Ask HN: Team for Hire?

#77

Post by archon »

As another Chattanooga dev, I hate to be a wet blanket, but I would be very surprised if any startup here has a need for or ability to employ a team that large. Especially since the larger employers here (TVA, Blue Cross, Unum, Covenant Transport, USX) are all .Net shops.

I'm not saying it's impossible, just that I believe you would be better served to either find individual jobs here, or be willing to relocate. (And just to be clear, I'm not pushing the relocation thing. I love this city and wouldn't want to move either.)

Re: Ask HN: Team for Hire?

#78

Post by tbrooks »

Chattanooga is a beautiful town. I almost moved their in January. The city has a lot to offer and it could be one of the next great tech hubs.

I decided not to move because I didn't think the local economy offers a lot of choice for software engineering jobs. When I visited people remarked, we've got VaynerMedia, we've got OpenTable, we've got CarbonFive, etc. etc.

This news sucks because I really want to see Chattanooga grow into a techhub, but it also confirms the suspicions I originally had. :/

Re: Ask HN: Team for Hire?

#79

Post by paulddraper »

archon wrote: post #77

As another Chattanooga dev, I hate to be a wet blanket, but I would be very surprised if any startup here has a need for or ability to employ a team that large. Especially since the larger employers here (TVA, Blue Cross, Unum, Covenant Transport, USX) are all .Net shops. I'm not saying it's impossible, just that I believe you would be better served to either find individual jobs here, or be willing to relocate. (And…

Yeah, 12 engineers is a lot, for anywhere.

Plus, how does hiring a team of 12 work any differently than interviewing 12 candidates and giving offers to the qualified ones?

Methinks "Developers for Hire in Chattanooga" would be more useful.

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