Lowest “Who is hiring?” Post Count in 30 Months • Hacker News Board

Re: Lowest “Who is hiring?” Post Count in 30 Months

#11

Post by randomdata » Tue, Oct 04, 2022, 5:20 PM UTC

angrais wrote: post #9

minimaxir wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's a chart from the thread I linked above: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13yGlJzFpVzZ-WNHAOsdo... EDIT: I generated a new sheet for the chart with up-to-date data and fixed a data issue noted below.

Does anyone have any idea _why_ there's a peak in Q1 2020?

Things that used to be done in person suddenly went online and everyone was in a rush to make that transition happen quickly and smoothly.

Re: Lowest “Who is hiring?” Post Count in 30 Months

#12

Post by tyingq » Tue, Oct 04, 2022, 5:21 PM UTC

angrais wrote: post #9

minimaxir wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's a chart from the thread I linked above: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13yGlJzFpVzZ-WNHAOsdo... EDIT: I generated a new sheet for the chart with up-to-date data and fixed a data issue noted below.

Does anyone have any idea _why_ there's a peak in Q1 2020?

Covid opening up more companies to the idea of remote workers? Or forcing development to fill gaps of processes that used to happen offline?

Re: Lowest “Who is hiring?” Post Count in 30 Months

#13

Post by rspoerri » Tue, Oct 04, 2022, 5:23 PM UTC

So you're saying that the economy was worse in 2016 than it is now? That is the only possible direct conclusion I can read from your research.

Re: Lowest “Who is hiring?” Post Count in 30 Months

#14

Post by minimaxir » Tue, Oct 04, 2022, 5:24 PM UTC

angrais wrote: post #9

minimaxir wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's a chart from the thread I linked above: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13yGlJzFpVzZ-WNHAOsdo... EDIT: I generated a new sheet for the chart with up-to-date data and fixed a data issue noted below.

Does anyone have any idea _why_ there's a peak in Q1 2020?

So that appears to be a fun edge case with that quick SQL query!

The spike was in March which was the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States/shelter-in-place, which was a time of odd behavior and so a spike wouldn't be too weird.

It turns out that dang posted a special whoishiring soon after which was massively popular: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22665398

I thought I filtered out nonstandard threads in the query:

   WITH whoishiring_threads AS (
      SELECT id FROM `bigquery-public-data.hacker_news.full`
      WHERE `by` = "whoishiring" 
      AND REGEXP_CONTAINS(title, "Ask HN: Who is hiring?")
    )

...but that filter is a regex, and in a regex the `?` is a modifier character and not a literal. So the query will combine the counts of both the top-level comments of that thread and the original one.

Data science is fun like that, and surprisingly not the first time I've made that particular query mistake.

Re: Lowest “Who is hiring?” Post Count in 30 Months

#15

Post by andyjsong » Tue, Oct 04, 2022, 5:26 PM UTC

My theory, YC software team has been building features like https://www.workatastartup.com/ and so YC companies are posting less on HN.

Re: Lowest “Who is hiring?” Post Count in 30 Months

#16

Post by cahoot_bird » Tue, Oct 04, 2022, 5:27 PM UTC

On past who is hiring threads I seen posts throughout the month, but in September it seems it only lasted about the first week before new posts stopped.

Perhaps the posts were restricted to a certain time frame, or coincidence?

Re: Lowest “Who is hiring?” Post Count in 30 Months

#17

Post by ericskiff » Tue, Oct 04, 2022, 5:27 PM UTC

angrais wrote: post #9

minimaxir wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's a chart from the thread I linked above: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13yGlJzFpVzZ-WNHAOsdo... EDIT: I generated a new sheet for the chart with up-to-date data and fixed a data issue noted below.

Does anyone have any idea _why_ there's a peak in Q1 2020?

I can reflect that we saw this happening in real life hiring. Remote hiring competition got FIERCE from the beginning of the pandemic and really through most of 2021. It has since settled out quite a bit.

There was a combination of large companies needing programmers to enable remote work or process changes due to the pandemic, stimulus funds causing a lot of VC funding to hit startups, hiring binges at FAANG companies, and everyone suddenly being remote-friendly.

Re: Lowest “Who is hiring?” Post Count in 30 Months

#18

Post by jibe » Tue, Oct 04, 2022, 5:31 PM UTC

andyjsong wrote: post #15

My theory, YC software team has been building features like https://www.workatastartup.com/ and so YC companies are posting less on HN.

Or companies are cutting spending in anticipation of a recession.

Re: Lowest “Who is hiring?” Post Count in 30 Months

#19

Post by JohnJamesRambo » Tue, Oct 04, 2022, 5:32 PM UTC

Can we get a "Who is firing?" post going?

Re: Lowest “Who is hiring?” Post Count in 30 Months

#20

Post by mountainriver » Tue, Oct 04, 2022, 5:33 PM UTC

jibe wrote: post #18

andyjsong wrote: post #15

My theory, YC software team has been building features like https://www.workatastartup.com/ and so YC companies are posting less on HN.

Or companies are cutting spending in anticipation of a recession.

This is the obvious answer