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

Yes! I learned of Mixmax (https://mixmax.com) in a Who's Hiring post from last fall, interned with them from January to August of this year, and am returning early next year after I graduate.

We're still hiring like crazy :).

"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" is faulty thinking. There are many reasons an employer might not be interested in an applicant, and many reasons why they might be. The frustrating part of the hiring process is that not getting a response doesn't provide you with visibility into any of them.

But assuming the cover letter doesn't matter is as much of a mistake as assuming industry experience, or years of experience, or having gone to a particular school doesn't matter.

a) different companies prioritize different things, even if the requirements list is the same.

b) small things can get your application silently rejected (or more often, delegated to a 'maybe we'll come back to them' virtual pile), because employers get dozens of applications (hundreds over multiple positions) and the cost of interviewing is high (and worth noting, much higher than your cost of writing a cover letter).

I was hired through a "who wants to be hired" post. I was looking for part-time work, provided my background, and got contacted by a great company. Not long after, we decided to make it full-time.

Speaking from the other side, I've hired 10 people from HN over the past 5 years, 2 within the last 6 months. These have included some of my best hires.

Currently, I see about 30 HN applicants per month. We interview roughly 30%. The rest are unqualified, demonstrated no understanding of or interest in what we do, and/or were spamming their resume.

These get interviews:

  * Strong candidates who did their homework (this is always the best)
  * Strong candidates with minimal or lightly tailored emails
  * Borderline candidates who did their homework

These get polite rejections:

  * Borderline candidates who did no homework
  * Unqualified candidates

These get ignored:

  * Candidates who send blatantly templated emails
  * Candidates who apply via "email blasts" (e.g., BCC all recipients; send via an email campaign tool)

I prefer to see both understanding of and interest in the role. Tell me why you're a fit and why you want to work here. A few sentences will suffice. Doing so: 1) improves the probability of an interview; and 2) for me, practically guarantees you a response.

About 18 months ago I posted on "Who wants to be hired?" and saw that Realm was looking for people in the monthly "Who's hiring" thread. I think it was Tim ('ello mate, hope you got the bucket picture) who posted those on HN back then.

I reached out to them, alongside a number of other startups that were interested in remote workers or had an office in Copenhagen (my SO and I wanted to move there from southern France). I got to the final stages of interviewing with a handful of companies before choosing Realm.

I initially applied for an engineer position on their C++ backend database, but was offered a team lead position. I'm currently leading the Realm Object Server team in Copenhagen.

We're always looking for great people around the globe, either remote, or through relocation packages.