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Launch HN: Hatchways (YC S19) – Internships Instead of Interviews

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Re: Launch HN: Hatchways (YC S19) – Internships Instead of Interviews

#41

As someone who has been a non-traditional candidate in the past, and also leveraged non-traditional candidates as an employer, this is amazing. Thank you for doing it! I would have used this myself in the past, and I'm confident that both sides of your market will find huge value in this!

Really appreciate that you, as a non-traditional candidate, promote non-traditional hiring now that you are an employer!

Re: Launch HN: Hatchways (YC S19) – Internships Instead of Interviews

#42

Glad you're working on this! I'm an experienced developer from a more traditional background - do you ever foresee the internship serving as a _mutual_ vetting process? I'd love to be able to experience a company from the inside before jumping from candidate to full-time employee.

I do think there is huge value in internship/ trial employment at all levels. We've personally hired a senior engineer this way-- she was working full-time and trialed with us for a few hours a week so she could get a better sense of our environment and team, while we could also assess her skills and fit. It worked out great, and hope more employers/candidates can view this process as a mutually beneficial vetting process.

Re: Launch HN: Hatchways (YC S19) – Internships Instead of Interviews

#45

This is such a great idea! Thank for you doing this :) I also came into tech from a non-traditional background and I struggled at the beginning to get my foot in the door. I studied math and econ in school, and even though my passion was writing software, it was hard to start applying without any projects or connections in the field. To find a job, I spent money on a coding bootcamp post-graduation from college. This…

Thanks for sharing your story. I hope your career transition has been rewarding since!

Re: Launch HN: Hatchways (YC S19) – Internships Instead of Interviews

#46
This is great - what you guys are doing particularly hits home for me.

I graduated out of UC Riverside, with a degree in Accounting, and if any of you are Asian-American in California, you'd know it's infamous nickname: University of Chinese Rejects. I'm willing to bet that my GPA was even lower than yours Jaclyn.

I managed to finagle my way into a UX/UI position at a major consulting firm and before that STRUGGLED to get nearly anybody to take me seriously. There's a lot of parallels to draw with Design to Engineering, most employers there are already making hiring decisions based on portfolio and aptitude, rather than grades. But still, the same platitudes of: great undergrad/masters, brand name companies, extroverts, etc all ring true. You're often focused on gaming the interview process and saying the right things, rather than being assessed as a measurement of your actual work output.

Anyway, the only way I got noticed was doing what you guys are offering as a much more legitimized service. I had to create major projects for myself that would demonstrate I had some literacy in how work would actually be done in the field, cold email + network with a bunch of companies just to get a foot in the door, create a portfolio without any help.

I think I'm one of the few that got extremely lucky in the end, but it really warms my heart that you guys are providing a service that really formalizes the career shifting process. I'll be rooting for your guys' success.

Re: Launch HN: Hatchways (YC S19) – Internships Instead of Interviews

#48

This is wonderful! Do you match with employers that offer visas to potential migrants? I feel like not enough platforms focus on this.

In some cases employers we work with are very open to offering visas for potential migrants, but because we mainly focus on startups at the moment this isn't super common (yet!)

Re: Launch HN: Hatchways (YC S19) – Internships Instead of Interviews

#49
Hello Jaclyn!

Hatchways sounds awesome. I hope you don't mind, but I sent you a message on LinkedIn regarding utilizing Hatchways. I could not PM you on here and my question revolves around a story that I would prefer to be kept private. Huge shoutout to everyone posting their non-traditional stories in this thread, by the way!

I hope to hear back from you, Thanks, and keep doing great!

Re: Launch HN: Hatchways (YC S19) – Internships Instead of Interviews

#50
post #49

Hello Jaclyn! Hatchways sounds awesome. I hope you don't mind, but I sent you a message on LinkedIn regarding utilizing Hatchways. I could not PM you on here and my question revolves around a story that I would prefer to be kept private. Huge shoutout to everyone posting their non-traditional stories in this thread, by the way! I hope to hear back from you, Thanks, and keep doing great!

Thank you for your note on LinkedIn. I hope one day you'll come back and share your non-traditional story as well!
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