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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?

#151

Post by framebit »

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.

I've been on the job market in several industries before finding my way to software engineering. I can tell you that non-acknowledgement is absolutely the norm in pretty much any other industry, particularly in the case of online applications. Imagine firing off 100 applications through online portals, personal emails, responding to posts, going in person, etc and never, _ever_ hearing even a robo-response. It is soul-crushing. I felt like I was screaming into the void.

Even though I've been in this industry awhile, the _luxury_ of being sought after in the job market still shocks me. Every time a recruiter reaches out to me on LinkedIn, even when they're clearly spamming, it is still mind-blowing. Every time I get a casual job offer from friends or acquaintances who are hiring on their teams, I'm flabbergasted.

Back in the day, I would've been thrilled to hear even a "thanks but no thanks."

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

#152

Post by karmakaze »

Found my current gig at 500px through Cmd+F "Toronto". It was the most effective filter for finding progressive tech companies. Also interviewed at a couple other places. This was the most interesting by far. Started out as just a series of conversations regarding technologies/processes used at 500px and other places I've worked and the conversations evolved into an offer.

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

#153

Post by akavi »

I got a pre-senior year internship at PagerDuty through a Who's Hiring post back in 2011. Ended up converting to full time the next summer and working there for nearly four years. A+ experience, would apply through HN posts again.

The post in question: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2431094

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

#154

Post by ohyoutravel »

xapata wrote: post #95
ohyoutravel wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 o…

Is it possible they didn't expect the problem to require a few hundred lines?

Well, that's not the point. The point is they didn't acknowledge that I submitted anything at all, and didn't acknowledge me after a follow up email a couple weeks later. That is always annoying, but in especially poor taste when you ask the applicant to complete a coding challenge before submission.

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

#155

Post by exolymph »

danesparza wrote: post #132
freework wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 wh…

"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." If you're a programmer and you're approaching problems this way, I most likely don't want to hire you. Strike a balance between automation and giving a personal touch where it's necessary.

I have a form cover letter with a few customizable sections, and it works great.

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

#156

Post by owenversteeg »

As a freelancer, I've found lots of work through HN. My most recent posts [0] have gotten a decent amount of attention and I usually get emails for a few days after the posting. I find that most people from HN are my best clients, but a few are people who I have absolutely no interest working for (never reply to emails, low pay, confusing project specifications.) They rarely lie in the middle.

I'd bet that freelancers (or people hiring freelancers) are way more successful than people looking for full-time jobs, because the process of hiring an employee usually involves a lot more people than just one "normal person" typing up a comment on HN - a handful of people will work together with budgeting, interviewing, salary discussions, HR, etc to get a person hired as opposed to a freelancer who can be hired by just one person who says "sounds good, here's the project, let's get started."

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12853391

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

#157

Post by gumby »

ktRolster wrote: post #118
dripton wrote: post #63

I've gotten two solid leads leading to interviews through "Who's Hiring" posts, but didn't end up taking either job. Company 1 wanted me for a remote position, but wanted to pay me about half my market rate. This is a casualty of the salary dance -- everyone is so busy hiding their numbers that sometimes you get too far into the process before you realize there's no way to make the numbers line up. If they'd listed a…

Company 1 wanted me for a remote position, but wanted to pay me about half my market rate. Is it possible to get anywhere close to a Silicon Valley salary on a remote position?

Sure, I always pay everybody the same (for a given position). I.e. paying for the job done, not for the needs. Else what do you take into account? "This person has no kids, so needs less cash." "This person has a vacation house; clearly need to cover those expenses". I always prefer local so if I'm hiring remote it's because of some skill I can't find locally. I want them to be a happy, productive employee, not to feel that they are getting a lesser deal.

I also have a "no salary negotiation" rule since I do a lot of negotiating, while most people don't. If I'm hiring two Scala developers, why should one get paid more because they possess better negotiating skills when what I actually need from both of them is good Scala programming skills?

(Not hiring at the moment -- at new company none of us are drawing any pay yet).

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

#158

Post by nathanvanfleet »

I have received 3 offers through "who's hiring" for a job as a iOS developer. As a Canadian I am still waiting for some VISA requirements to finalize the job I accepted and I will be moving to SF.

I believe I got a lot more responses when applying through HN than I did elsewhere. My experience has been very good.

If the VISA does not work... square one and I guess remote work again.

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

#160

Post by freework »

TheMog wrote: post #126
freework wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 wh…

Well, it works both ways. You might send out 20 resumes. As a hiring manager - especially when using a "no filter" approach like posting on here (keep in mind that IME people posting jobs on Hacker News are more likely doing "guerilla hiring" and circumvent their HR departments) - I easily get 100+ resumes, and I don't have days to spend trawling through them. I think it was rands of randsinrepose who mentioned befor…

> I easily get 100+ resumes, and I don't have days to spend trawling through them

It is your job to look through resume's. This is what you are paid to do. You claim to be a hiring manager. It is not my responsibility to convince you to do the job you are paid to do. My resume contains all the information you need to make the determination of whether I am qualified for the job, including "I love writing web apps in Ruby on Rails with a ClojureScript front end" adds nothing to the application but does waste my time.

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