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Ask HN: Has anyone ever been hired from “Who wants to be hired?” threads?

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Re: Ask HN: Has anyone ever been hired from “Who wants to be hired?” threads?

#211

Post by Graham24 »

Aromasin wrote: post #183
lostlogin wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where in the world is this and how many people at your workplace cycle? That’s a very depressing story.

South of England. The town is also known as the worst place for cycle commutes outside London, which probably will single it out. We've probably got about 2k people across design, HR, head office and the factory floor, but of that I don't see more than maybe 50 people cycle, and of that only 20 or so regulars (mainly because it's just too dangerous). I bet you can imagine how fun that is with everyone trying to get o…

Pompey?

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone ever been hired from “Who wants to be hired?” threads?

#212

Post by detroitcoder1 »

I was in the middle of a harsh bout of unemployment after the startup that hired me out of school folded unexpectedly (literally in a week's time). I was going from contracting gig to contracting gig but got tired of chasing people for money.

On a whim, I responded to just one such thread on HN. I got no recruiter spam, but rather an email from a company (I won't say which for privacy reasons) that totally changed my life. Great recruiting process, interesting and challenging interview gamut, and they made me an excellent offer contingent upon relocation, which I was hoping to do anyway.

So, the answer to the question is YES those threads work IF you work them. Stay on top of your emails, follow up, be diligent, study hard. It's so so worth it.

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone ever been hired from “Who wants to be hired?” threads?

#213

Post by detroitcoder1 »

jader201 wrote: post #75

I started the "Who wants to be hired?" threads over 5 years ago [1] after dang giving his blessing on it [2], and was super excited that it led to the job [3] that I still happily hold today. I really wish these threads were more active -- and received more upvotes -- relative to the "Who's hiring" threads, as it seems like the signal to noise is so much better, and also seems like the success rate would be quite a b…

I was hired into a life-changing job as a result of one of your threads. It seems I owe you a debt of gratitude. So thank you!!

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone ever been hired from “Who wants to be hired?” threads?

#214

Post by jefe78 »

I posted once from an old account but never received any responses. Most of the jobs at the time were for web developers in the US. I'm a devops/systems engineer (AWS/Security/Scaling so whatever the new title is for that) so my skills don't seem to be in very much demand.

It would be nice if we could maybe break up the threads into different types of roles perhaps?

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone ever been hired from “Who wants to be hired?” threads?

#216

Post by ldoughty »

toyg wrote: post #5
souprock wrote: post #4

I've tried to find people that way, but usually there is nobody. Let's see, searching for "assembly" and "assembler" and "embedded"... 1. I already asked. He wants Rust and probably won't leave Albuquerque. Bummer. He'd be perfect. 2. Argentina... nope. 3. Barcelona... nope. 4. One might work. I probably already asked, but don't remember. 5. Remote only... nope. 6. Lisbon... nope. 7. Paris... nope. 8. I already asked…

Seems to me like the actual problem is staring you right in the face, though: you are not in a tech cluster and you don't want to countenance remote working. That instantaneously removes 90% of the pool - or rather 99%, since no city on Earth has 75m people in commuting distance. No wonder you struggle to find people, particularly for a hard skill like assembler.

I did remote work for a while, but honestly, I prefer going into an office.

Even with a home office, my family or dogs and up demanding a lot of my attention through the day, and it's difficult/frustrating since it takes me out of my mental zone/thought process.

That was a while ago.. now, as a manager, I could try some remote employees, but I honestly prefer having face time with my employees... Most remote workers never want to use webcams (in my experience with 5 remote working peers over my career), which severely impact my communication capabilities (I can't get facial ques or body language from the interaction).

I also delt with a supervisor that hid a work impacting personal problem in his remote working... Over 2 years he did less work and supervising, was hard to reach most of the time, and would (eventually) only communicate by email. If he came into the office, people might have seen that HR needed to provide assistance sooner.

So I think issues like these make the idea of remote work scary to employers... What interview questions can you ask to very "dedicated remote workers" from "easy paycheck remote workers"? How to you improve performance in remote workers if they consistently perform much slower than in office workers?

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone ever been hired from “Who wants to be hired?” threads?

#217

Post by throwayEngineer »

wayoutthere wrote: post #207

Nope; my big problem is that people are looking for senior positions with 10+ years experience, yet are paying entry level salaries...

I see this in my industry as well.

I only see these positions interesting if it's a small business and I can transform it.

Last time, it was a company with less than 50 people, only 1 engineer. I was concerned I would not be around engineers. Paid 40k less than the job I took.

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone ever been hired from “Who wants to be hired?” threads?

#218

Post by Aromasin »

faceplanted wrote: post #184
Aromasin wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Strongly disagree, depending how your commute is. In my office and on the factory floor we've had 3 major cycling accidents just in the last year - the latest guy was put into a coma for 2 weeks. I cycled for 6 months before I could afford a car, and counted 11 separate incidents that could have ended with me hospitalized if it weren't for some adrenalin fuelled swerves. Had one accident where someone failed to indic…

Judging by your language here and the fact you couldn't already drive, I'm guessing you're British, was this London? Because cycling has gotten a lot better in London in the last few years and I'm interested what your route is.

No, but it was in the South. I have cycled around London and it's much, much more friendly for it. It's improved substantially in recent years. I think part of that is culture - people cycle in London, so drivers/pedestrians pay attention for cyclists - and part of it is that there are substantially more designated areas for cyclists. In my current location, you're damned to end up under a car if you cycle on the road, and you're damned to get fined by the police for cycling on the footpath.

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone ever been hired from “Who wants to be hired?” threads?

#219

Post by auiya »

jader201 wrote: post #75

I started the "Who wants to be hired?" threads over 5 years ago [1] after dang giving his blessing on it [2], and was super excited that it led to the job [3] that I still happily hold today. I really wish these threads were more active -- and received more upvotes -- relative to the "Who's hiring" threads, as it seems like the signal to noise is so much better, and also seems like the success rate would be quite a b…

I think they would be more active if there were more variety in the type of work sought? Almost every post is seeking the same thing: full-stack dev, dev ops, and ops eng. If you're seeking something outside those constraints (i.e. pentesting, threat intel, risk management, compliance, etc) there's not much there. And although this is getting better, so many companies are still stuck on location-specific hiring constraints. HN has a global audience, posting here and constraining yourself to Nowheresville, Nebraska does you and your company a huge disservice.

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone ever been hired from “Who wants to be hired?” threads?

#220

Post by epage »

jader201 wrote: post #75

I started the "Who wants to be hired?" threads over 5 years ago [1] after dang giving his blessing on it [2], and was super excited that it led to the job [3] that I still happily hold today. I really wish these threads were more active -- and received more upvotes -- relative to the "Who's hiring" threads, as it seems like the signal to noise is so much better, and also seems like the success rate would be quite a b…

I've thought about it and my concern with using the thread if I were job hunting is that if a coworker saw me on it, it might come out that I'm looking elsewhere when I'm not wanting that out yet.

The Who's Hiring Thread would help me keep my search more private.

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