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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?

#81

Post by ohyoutravel »

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.

Even worse is when their application process is "different" and they ask that you write code addressing some specific problem to submit with your resume. I'm not talking something simple, but a well thought out problem that requires a few hundred lines.

I get that they're trying to be different and evaluate candidates on metrics other than just resume, but to send that kind of thing in (which takes a week of effort outside of your real job) and receive no acknowledgement or response to a follow up a couple weeks later is lame.

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

#82

Post by stevendaniels »

I got hired at my current gig through a who's hiring ad. Our recruiter had sent me a message on LinkedIn, which I basically ignored, but when I saw the Who's Hiring post, I reached out and was eventually hired.

I've even tried doing a "who's hiring" post myself, but it didn't produce strong candidates.

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

#83

Post by BowBun »

I was hired from the monthly posts! Firepoint's Phil posted the ad when I was looking for post-grad employment. We chatted, they were exactly as described, and then they flew me out to meet in person. Couldn't have asked for a better team to work with, thanks HN!

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

#84

Post by joenot443 »

trifarious wrote: post #68
mobiuscog wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That seems to happen everywhere these days - I've sent out several applications recently (non-HN) and had absolutely nothing back, not even an acknowledgement. It says a lot for the professionalism of a company when they can't even auto-respond a receipt, although a personal rejection would always be nice - if you can't be bothered to say you're not interested, why should I be bothered to apply ?

Founder here. I used to reply to every applicant individually because I couldn't believe someone wanted to work for my startup. But then that got to be burdensome so I set up a reply template, but even then people would reply to the template and continue the conversation. Then my co-founder pointed out that spending lots of time replying to everyone wasn't a good use of my time. Point is it's nothing personal. If you…

If you're in the position to get a dozen resumes a day, is there not someone else in your organization who can handle the initial resume screen? Seems a bit inefficient to have the founder personally hitting "Archive" on all the applicants he rejects.

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

#85

Post by FLGMwt »

AustinBGibbons wrote: post #71

I am a software engineer at Periscope Data ( https://www.periscopedata.com ), and discovered the company through a Who's Hiring thread, and we have hired at least two other software engineers through HN Who's Hiring since then as well. I was searching for "scala" and they had the word "scalable" :-)

Hah, I have the same problem, but the flip side. I'm searching the "who wants to be hired" posts on behalf of my company (https://www.rallyhealth.com).

I search "scala" and get excited when I see 20 or so hits, but almost all of them are "scalable"

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

#86

Post by mobiuscog »

trifarious wrote: post #68
mobiuscog wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That seems to happen everywhere these days - I've sent out several applications recently (non-HN) and had absolutely nothing back, not even an acknowledgement. It says a lot for the professionalism of a company when they can't even auto-respond a receipt, although a personal rejection would always be nice - if you can't be bothered to say you're not interested, why should I be bothered to apply ?

Founder here. I used to reply to every applicant individually because I couldn't believe someone wanted to work for my startup. But then that got to be burdensome so I set up a reply template, but even then people would reply to the template and continue the conversation. Then my co-founder pointed out that spending lots of time replying to everyone wasn't a good use of my time. Point is it's nothing personal. If you…

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 of the applications I'm making - which I have to be making because nobody replies any more. I'm certainly looking to get some projects going in my spare time, which is minimal.

I'm too old to 'stand' out - if 20 years of programming isn't enough to get a more personal interview, then I'll just move on - I have no interest in competing with people from a marketing perspective.

Of course, I don't expect us to agree, as we're coming from completely different sides (and requirements).

In the modern world, it's amazing how many old-school (Business time is more valuable than employee) mindsets still exist.

Thanks for taking the time to reply though. I genuinely do appreciate that.

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

#87

Post by drtse4 »

wmeredith wrote: post #54
phd514 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My theory is that the no-cost HN posting allows some of these companies to keep posting perpetual openings in hopes of finding that elusive 100x developer that's willing to work for less than market rate. I can't say that bothers me too much, though. It's not that hard to see who has the same open req month after month and avoid those companies.

It's 100x now? I thought it was 10x. And theses guys work for _below_ market rate? Interesting... I have a feeling those positions will be open for a while ;)

A 10x developer that works for 10% the normal rate, maybe :)

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

#89

Post by freework »

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…

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 when you don't have to?

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

#90

Post by J41Manning »

I actually got my current job at IBM Watosn through a Who's Hiring post.

It stuck out to me because my hiring manager put his email in the post. Since I would be talking to an actual person rather than applying into a black hole, I decided to send an email asking for more details.

A few months and several remote interviews later, I got an offer.

I can't find the actual post anymore though.

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