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Hire Family People

37signals.com

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Re: Hire Family People

#81

Post by brlewis »

mosburger wrote: post #23

Thank you so much, 37signals guys. I've always found pg's essays to be motivational and inspring, but there are two things that always turn me off; 1.) I don't live in San Fransisco, and probably never will, and 2.) I have a family. I often feel dismissed by PG and his disciples. DHH's stuff gives me hope that there's still a chance for "fogeys" (cripes, I'm only 33!) like me. I have a feeling that, if I ever applied…

I have a feeling that, if I ever applied to YCombinator, my application would end up in the wastebasket the moment they caught a whiff of the fact that I have a wife and kids. Is that fair?

No, it is not fair for you to air that feeling here. The YC partners get enough discouragement from having to reject a lot of smart people, so why add discouragement about someone speculating they would be rejected if they actually applied?

News.yc is a handout. Take it and be grateful. The information I've gotten here has been invaluable for my own work, and it's actually possible to keep up with it. (I try to follow TechCrunch for photo-specific news that doesn't rise up here, but there's too much noise. I have a day job and 3 kids, so I have to budget my time.)

If you don't want to be dismissed, implement something great. Nobody will ask about your family status.

Re: Hire Family People

#82

Post by run4yourlives »

dhh wrote: post #12
sanj wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe that David came away from Startup School with a heap of new ideas that he's been talking about back in Chicago.

You're exactly right. Startup School was a great way to collect some thoughts that had been scattered for a while. A real energy boost.

Holy geeze you even joined HN!

Just want to say that was a great talk (watched the video) last week. Also, I saw you in Vancouver (Fuck You!) a while back and was impressed with your speaking ability then as well.

Keep up the good work man.

Re: Hire Family People

#84

Post by rms »

run4yourlives wrote: post #82
dhh wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're exactly right. Startup School was a great way to collect some thoughts that had been scattered for a while. A real energy boost.

Holy geeze you even joined HN! Just want to say that was a great talk (watched the video) last week. Also, I saw you in Vancouver (Fuck You!) a while back and was impressed with your speaking ability then as well. Keep up the good work man.

Fuck You?

Re: Hire Family People

#85

Post by jrockway »

DaniFong wrote: post #11
slapshot wrote: post #7

I'm just going to point out that this sets a troubling precedent. If one firm thinks it's legitimate to discriminate in favor of mothers with children, that suggests that being a parent is an acceptable basis on which to discriminate. It opens the door to people thinking about whether somebody is a mother in making hiring decisions. That's troubling on a lot of levels, and in some states illegal. EDIT: apparently the…

Laws or not, in the startup world there's a lot of discrimination when it comes to hiring decisions.

And the laws are kind of weird. If you say you discriminate, but don't, you've committed a crime. If you say you don't discriminate, but do, it's not a crime. (I think the reality is that everyone discriminates in favor of "people they like" anyway. It is somewhat scary that we have so many thought crimes now.)

Re: Hire Family People

#86

Post by plinkplonk »

rms wrote: post #84
run4yourlives wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Holy geeze you even joined HN! Just want to say that was a great talk (watched the video) last week. Also, I saw you in Vancouver (Fuck You!) a while back and was impressed with your speaking ability then as well. Keep up the good work man.

Fuck You?

I think he was referring to one of dhh's slides at the meeting where he saw his presentation.

Re: Hire Family People

#87

Post by DaniFong »

jrockway wrote: post #85
DaniFong wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Laws or not, in the startup world there's a lot of discrimination when it comes to hiring decisions.

And the laws are kind of weird. If you say you discriminate, but don't, you've committed a crime. If you say you don't discriminate, but do, it's not a crime. (I think the reality is that everyone discriminates in favor of "people they like" anyway. It is somewhat scary that we have so many thought crimes now.)

There are certain examples of hiring discrimination which are pretty clear cut. I am not sure if the cases have been tested in court, however.

See for example http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/pto-20030430-000001....

The paper is "Implicit Discrimination." Marianne Bertrand, Dolly Chugh and Sendhil Mullainathan; American Economic Review, 2005, 95(2), pp. 94-98.

if you have access. Unfortunately, I don't at this time.

The basic results are that a resume with a 'black' name versus a 'white' name (and no other difference) are far less likely to fetch callbacks. Further, there's no appreciable difference in callbacks for black candidates with increasing skills, whereas there's a drastic increase for white candidates.

There are many other studies, and then there's my own, personal experience, which I'm not about to get into.

Re: Hire Family People

#88

Post by run4yourlives »

rms wrote: post #84
run4yourlives wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Holy geeze you even joined HN! Just want to say that was a great talk (watched the video) last week. Also, I saw you in Vancouver (Fuck You!) a while back and was impressed with your speaking ability then as well. Keep up the good work man.

Fuck You?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/planetargon/127984254/

Re: Hire Family People

#89

Post by azsromej »

rms wrote: post #84
run4yourlives wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Holy geeze you even joined HN! Just want to say that was a great talk (watched the video) last week. Also, I saw you in Vancouver (Fuck You!) a while back and was impressed with your speaking ability then as well. Keep up the good work man.

Fuck You?

That original comment is hilarious in this context

Re: Hire Family People

#90

Post by joshwa »

pg wrote: post #33
mosburger wrote: post #23

Thank you so much, 37signals guys. I've always found pg's essays to be motivational and inspring, but there are two things that always turn me off; 1.) I don't live in San Fransisco, and probably never will, and 2.) I have a family. I often feel dismissed by PG and his disciples. DHH's stuff gives me hope that there's still a chance for "fogeys" (cripes, I'm only 33!) like me. I have a feeling that, if I ever applied…

I have a feeling that, if I ever applied to YCombinator, my application would end up in the wastebasket the moment they caught a whiff of the fact that I have a wife and kids. We don't ask on the application form if people have kids, nor as far as I can recall have we asked anyone in an interview. The reason most of the people we fund don't have kids is simply that most of the people who apply don't have kids.

It's also a selection bias-- $5000+5000n effectively rules out most people who are farther along in life.
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