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Ask HN: How do small companies do recruitment?

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Re: Ask HN: How do small companies do recruitment?

#131

Post by hutzlibu »

lb1lf wrote: post #72
celroid wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you not hire remotely from the entirety of the European Union? Would you consider hiring a web developer with 4 years of experience, of which 2.5 is backend and 1.5 is full stack (HTML, CSS, JS within a CMS)? I am asking because that reflects my situation and I am having a difficult time interviewing with most people expecting 3+ year exclusively in frontend. I have been trying to make a switch from backend to fro…

-We're at the other end of the stack, I'm afraid - Siemens S7 PLCs for the most part; whenever I code I basically write assembly code like it's 1979 - and it will never, ever be exposed to the web if I've got any say in the matter.

Ah well, you can use (allmost) all the web technologies completely offline and even interfacing with low level hardware.

So you could have javascript and html to power your devices, but you probably do not want to.

Re: Ask HN: How do small companies do recruitment?

#132

Post by confusus »

azangru wrote: post #20

As a developer, I frequently wonder about the exact opposite question: where does one learn about companies in need of developers, and about what these companies do and how they do it. For example, if I were a frontend web developer looking for a company that builds their product(s) as a progressive web app using web components, where would I look? It's easy to find job boards filled with ads from recruiters; but har…

Are you looking for a job where you can work with web components and build PWAs? :)

Re: Ask HN: How do small companies do recruitment?

#133

Post by TT-392 »

Lots of job postings I have seen online look like challenges to say as little as possible with as many words as possible about the actual job. I kinda feel like you could stand out quite a bit just by clearly explaining in your job posting what the job actually entails.

Re: Ask HN: How do small companies do recruitment?

#134

Post by azangru »

confusus wrote: post #132
azangru wrote: post #20

As a developer, I frequently wonder about the exact opposite question: where does one learn about companies in need of developers, and about what these companies do and how they do it. For example, if I were a frontend web developer looking for a company that builds their product(s) as a progressive web app using web components, where would I look? It's easy to find job boards filled with ads from recruiters; but har…

Are you looking for a job where you can work with web components and build PWAs? :)

I mean, I have a job, but I am always on the lookout :-)

Re: Ask HN: How do small companies do recruitment?

#136

Post by BurningFrog »

e-pelaza wrote: post #92
BurningFrog wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're talking about changing it, but AFAIK, you can still get a pretty automatic visa for Sweden if an employer wants to hire you.

How is the view towards self taught in Sweden?

Legally, you just need a job offer. There are no degree requirements.

Re: Ask HN: How do small companies do recruitment?

#137

Post by PiedPiper1337 »

e4e78a06 wrote: post #109
jakub_g wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also: think about all the candidates you implicitly reject and others reject. They are an opportunity. Hire people that no one else wants (for wrong reasons). Go to universities and hire motivated juniors. Offer paid internships etc. Highly recommend to follow https://twitter.com/gergelyorosz

The vast majority of candidates are applying because they got bounced around and have to apply everywhere due to not being qualified. If you're a no-name firm paying merely around market rate you're not even going to see the high performers because they've already been snapped up by bigger or higher paying players. I don't know a single person from my college days who I'd describe as a strong performer that would hav…

There are diamonds in the rough especially at university. I wouldn't consider myself as a "high-performer" but I did consistently get decent grades and I myself worked for below "merely" market-rate as we didn't have alot of big companies in my country. Now days I work at one of the most "prestigious" tech companies in the world that alot of people want to get into. So I wouldn't be jumping straight to the conclusion that all good tech talent is immediately already in the "amazing" companies as soon as they graduate.

Re: Ask HN: How do small companies do recruitment?

#138

Post by e4e78a06 »

PiedPiper1337 wrote: post #137
e4e78a06 wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The vast majority of candidates are applying because they got bounced around and have to apply everywhere due to not being qualified. If you're a no-name firm paying merely around market rate you're not even going to see the high performers because they've already been snapped up by bigger or higher paying players. I don't know a single person from my college days who I'd describe as a strong performer that would hav…

There are diamonds in the rough especially at university. I wouldn't consider myself as a "high-performer" but I did consistently get decent grades and I myself worked for below "merely" market-rate as we didn't have alot of big companies in my country. Now days I work at one of the most "prestigious" tech companies in the world that alot of people want to get into. So I wouldn't be jumping straight to the conclusion…

> we didn't have alot of big companies in my country

I mean yeah, you were operating in a different talent market. If you are a U.S. based company it's going to be very hard to get high quality talent out of university as a rando company with median pay. If you are in Europe then it's a lot easier because there is less competition.

> all good tech talent is immediately already in the "amazing" companies as soon as they graduate

Yes, there are going to be missed gems, but if you're looking to hire without going through a couple hundred bad candidates (not even an exaggeration) to find gems you need to stand out as a company.

If you think about this from the employer perspective, there's no signal to go on to find these gems: people with decent, but not incredible grades, no prior internship history, bog standard side projects, etc. Now imagine those resumes are mixed in with a bunch of people with 0 side projects or work experience, subpar grades in core CS classes, etc. What do you filter on? What's your signal for hiring?

Re: Ask HN: How do small companies do recruitment?

#139

Post by nnoitra »

e4e78a06 wrote: post #138
PiedPiper1337 wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are diamonds in the rough especially at university. I wouldn't consider myself as a "high-performer" but I did consistently get decent grades and I myself worked for below "merely" market-rate as we didn't have alot of big companies in my country. Now days I work at one of the most "prestigious" tech companies in the world that alot of people want to get into. So I wouldn't be jumping straight to the conclusion…

> we didn't have alot of big companies in my country I mean yeah, you were operating in a different talent market. If you are a U.S. based company it's going to be very hard to get high quality talent out of university as a rando company with median pay. If you are in Europe then it's a lot easier because there is less competition. > all good tech talent is immediately already in the "amazing" companies as soon as th…

You filter on the number of projects on their GitHub?

Re: Ask HN: How do small companies do recruitment?

#140

Post by muzani »

Nextgrid wrote: post #15
jakub_g wrote: post #11

Where are the places that developers show up? On HN and Twitter. Do something to spread awareness of your company. It will be a long journey, but if you don't have $$$ to throw at a problem, you need to find alternatives: - There's a monthly "Who is hiring" thread on HN every 1st day of a month. - Create a technical blog. When it gets popular and people see that it's high quality, brand awareness will increase. It ta…

> No one likes this dance of "do they want seniors at half my current rate?". This is the reason I don't even bother with permanent roles in startups anymore. Every time the budget ends up being disappointing and about half my current income. Even worse when they approach me on a platform where they can see my profile & history and infer very well what I currently make and still proceed to pitch me their terrible rol…

Also there's no point going through 3 weeks of interviews to get lowballed in the end. If they don't mention salary range by the first interview, I squeeze it out of them or turn the job down.
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