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Launch HN: Manara (YC W21) – Connect Middle East engineers with global companies

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Re: Launch HN: Manara (YC W21) – Connect Middle East engineers with global companies

#51
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least in Italy everyone would just think of the illustrator.

Oh man that's too bad! We have one partner in Italy so far (Bending Spoons) and they didn't mention this to us though... maybe that's a good sign, or maybe they were too embarrassed!

They've a reputation for being a good place to work for (if a bit too SV-wannabe), especially in the context of Italy.

They probably didn't want to embarass you (and this isn't really a problem here, but it might be a serious issue SEO-wise).

Re: Launch HN: Manara (YC W21) – Connect Middle East engineers with global companies

#52
post #4

Hi, Laila. Congratulations on the launch. I'll share this (Algiers, Algeria). One of the problems people here have is getting paid from companies abroad. I think it would be good to conduct interviews with people who may be having the same problem, and either offer a solution or explain it on the website. Many people work as freelancers, and the way they get their money is Herculean. Also, many, especially here, neit…

"Also, many, especially here, neither are Arab nor identify as such." Came here to say the same -- I grew up in the US, but my family is Kabyle and you definitely don't want to call my father Arab!

out of curiosity, how would he define himself?

Re: Launch HN: Manara (YC W21) – Connect Middle East engineers with global companies

#53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Also, many, especially here, neither are Arab nor identify as such." Came here to say the same -- I grew up in the US, but my family is Kabyle and you definitely don't want to call my father Arab!

out of curiosity, how would he define himself?

I believe it would be Kabyle, like myself.

Re: Launch HN: Manara (YC W21) – Connect Middle East engineers with global companies

#54
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh man that's too bad! We have one partner in Italy so far (Bending Spoons) and they didn't mention this to us though... maybe that's a good sign, or maybe they were too embarrassed!

They've a reputation for being a good place to work for (if a bit too SV-wannabe), especially in the context of Italy. They probably didn't want to embarass you (and this isn't really a problem here, but it might be a serious issue SEO-wise).

They (the co-founder Francesco Patarnello to be precise) were really wonderful to speak with & work with. They seem to have done a lot to grow the entrepreneurship & developer ecosystem in Italy, and are growing fast enough to need to hire from abroad now. They also have a really high bar for who they hire. Their process starts off with a logic test (nothing related to coding) which takes more than a day to complete.

(Curious about that by the way, since we have only seen one other company - Klarna - start with a logic test. Do you know if this is common? Is it an effective screening approach? In the USA people are sometimes wary of how standardized tests of this type may impact untraditional candidates in particular)

But back to your point - that name issue is really disappointing. We'll have to put some more thought into it but my first reaction is to do a little more polling to see how widespread this association is in our primary markets (MENA and countries that do a lot of hiring of software engineers, so mainly USA, Germany, Poland, Sweden, UK, Canada, Australia, etc)

Re: Launch HN: Manara (YC W21) – Connect Middle East engineers with global companies

#55
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh man that's too bad! We have one partner in Italy so far (Bending Spoons) and they didn't mention this to us though... maybe that's a good sign, or maybe they were too embarrassed!

They've a reputation for being a good place to work for (if a bit too SV-wannabe), especially in the context of Italy. They probably didn't want to embarass you (and this isn't really a problem here, but it might be a serious issue SEO-wise).

And yes, we'll need to think more about the SEO strategy! What terms do you think people would use to search for us? When we explored this before choosing the name (and we were unaware of the association so we didn't even notice the first result) we figured that someone would enter "Manara developers" or "Manara engineers" if they didn't find us immediately when searching "Manara"

Re: Launch HN: Manara (YC W21) – Connect Middle East engineers with global companies

#57

It seems like there is correlation between patriarchal societies and having more women developers. I wonder why, maybe because anyway the society is patriarchal so there is not much difference between this field to others unlike in the west where all misogynist white males concentrate in this profession and all the good guys go to law or acting or wherever there are many women and everything is equal and rosy. But th…

Hi! What other societies have you seen with a high percentage of women developers?

Re: Launch HN: Manara (YC W21) – Connect Middle East engineers with global companies

#58
post #42
post #38

Congrats on the launch, Laila and Iliana! Quick question: why are the companies with on-site jobs restricted to Europe and Canada (if they are in fact restricted)? Thanks!

Ah, that's not our restriction, that's the reality of visas for people from these countries. It's almost impossible for a junior engineer to get a visa to the United States. One of our candidates had a job offer at Amazon in the USA but couldn't get the visa. So he ended up at a startup in Germany instead. So far our participants have ended up primarily in Germany and Poland, and we're seeing possibilities in Sweden,…

We're also wondering if some other countries like Australia might be an option

Re: Launch HN: Manara (YC W21) – Connect Middle East engineers with global companies

#59
post #21

Oh man, the name is unfortunate. It's slang for "babe" (for girls) in Greek. Also the last name of one of the most famous erotic comic artists (Milo Manara). Fun times!

oh yeah, we've heard about that recently from a Greek friend! Thankfully it seems like the Greek language is the only one in which our name has a weird meaning (at least so far), and hopefully it’s not offensive? Manara means “lighthouse” in Arabic. We did lots of user testing with various name options and this one was most positively perceived in Europe, North America, and MENA. Now we just need to get really great…

The Greek is probably not a problem, nobody really uses that word any more (it's as dated as "groovy" is in English). Hell, the artist is the first thing that came to my mind, aloukissas is just an old-fashioned elderly gentleman.

Re: Launch HN: Manara (YC W21) – Connect Middle East engineers with global companies

#60
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They've a reputation for being a good place to work for (if a bit too SV-wannabe), especially in the context of Italy. They probably didn't want to embarass you (and this isn't really a problem here, but it might be a serious issue SEO-wise).

They (the co-founder Francesco Patarnello to be precise) were really wonderful to speak with & work with. They seem to have done a lot to grow the entrepreneurship & developer ecosystem in Italy, and are growing fast enough to need to hire from abroad now. They also have a really high bar for who they hire. Their process starts off with a logic test (nothing related to coding) which takes more than a day to complete.…

Regarding the logic test: here it's not common at all (especially outside of programming roles, it could be argued that most programming questions are logic tests), but apparently there are recruiting firms that employ them along with other even more dubious tools like psychometric questions to gauge the ability work in teams.

Italy isn't a major source of software engineering positions and has systemic issues with companies being too small and unwilling to invest / partner with others / grow. My (non-quantitative) opinion is that that sort of approach doesn't work that well - hiring is far from a solved problem - but is likely less discriminatory than whatever hunch-based interview processes would otherwise be in place. I'd describe it as progressive-in-context.

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