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Ask HN: Who's Hiring?

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Re: Ask HN: Who's Hiring?

#41

Post by kschrader »

sokoloff wrote: post #27

Here's a related question: I'll posit that there is a higher density of "very desirable" top-notch hackers being thrown into the job market than at any other time in my 15-year career. You know the people: the ones that rarely hit the normal job market because with one or two emails, they can line up their next gig in an afternoon throught their network or friends-of-friends. For those of us who are hiring, what stra…

Get out and meet them (and their friends) in person. Nothing beats networking. I personally only work through my network when I'm searching for a job.

The other key is to move fast. If you want one of these people, don't waste their time with phone interviews and things like that, just get them scheduled to come in as soon as possible.

At my last two companies we would bring people in for an afternoon of interviews and have an offer ready for them at the end of the day if things worked out. That's the kind of process you need to have to snag people like this.

As a simple case study, the last time I decided to get a job I had 3 offers within two weeks. All through my network.

Currently, I left my last startup in the middle of last week. I haven't started actively looking for something else to do yet, and I've already had one offer through my network.

Re: Ask HN: Who's Hiring?

#42

Post by icky »

sokoloff wrote: post #27

Here's a related question: I'll posit that there is a higher density of "very desirable" top-notch hackers being thrown into the job market than at any other time in my 15-year career. You know the people: the ones that rarely hit the normal job market because with one or two emails, they can line up their next gig in an afternoon throught their network or friends-of-friends. For those of us who are hiring, what stra…

Start with simple and fast screens, then progress to more fine-grained tests.

A simple programming question will filter out a huge chunk of the candidates (i.e., those not smart enough to code or to cheat), then email screen, phone screen, and then an in-person interview.

You should also figure out _exactly_ what qualities are most important in a candidate, and which ones you're willing to overlook.

Generally, I test for: (1) can they think? (2) can they code? and (3) can they learn?

You'd be amazed how much chaff you have to sift through to get even that much grain.

Re: Ask HN: Who's Hiring?

#46

Post by LukeG »

sokoloff wrote: post #27

Here's a related question: I'll posit that there is a higher density of "very desirable" top-notch hackers being thrown into the job market than at any other time in my 15-year career. You know the people: the ones that rarely hit the normal job market because with one or two emails, they can line up their next gig in an afternoon throught their network or friends-of-friends. For those of us who are hiring, what stra…

from all of the tech companies that we've talked to, hiring preference curves seem pretty consistent:

> immediate personal + professional networks > existing customers/users > extended network > recruiters & job boards

From our perspective, that means we can create value by helping people leverage their networks (http://startuply.com/Apps/Overview.aspx), gain access to existing high-quality networks (http://jobsyndicate.com, coming soon), and by making job sites that are focused on the communities and companies themselves (e.g. http://www.startuply.com

Re: Ask HN: Who's Hiring?

#47

Post by LukeG »

icky wrote: post #42
sokoloff wrote: post #27

Here's a related question: I'll posit that there is a higher density of "very desirable" top-notch hackers being thrown into the job market than at any other time in my 15-year career. You know the people: the ones that rarely hit the normal job market because with one or two emails, they can line up their next gig in an afternoon throught their network or friends-of-friends. For those of us who are hiring, what stra…

Start with simple and fast screens, then progress to more fine-grained tests. A simple programming question will filter out a huge chunk of the candidates (i.e., those not smart enough to code or to cheat), then email screen, phone screen, and then an in-person interview. You should also figure out _exactly_ what qualities are most important in a candidate, and which ones you're willing to overlook. Generally, I test…

We'd love to talk to companies that use coding tests in the hiring process. Do they work? How well? Any insight into the design of good filters screens?

Re: Ask HN: Who's Hiring?

#48

Post by sokoloff »

kschrader wrote: post #41
sokoloff wrote: post #27

Here's a related question: I'll posit that there is a higher density of "very desirable" top-notch hackers being thrown into the job market than at any other time in my 15-year career. You know the people: the ones that rarely hit the normal job market because with one or two emails, they can line up their next gig in an afternoon throught their network or friends-of-friends. For those of us who are hiring, what stra…

Get out and meet them (and their friends) in person. Nothing beats networking. I personally only work through my network when I'm searching for a job. The other key is to move fast. If you want one of these people, don't waste their time with phone interviews and things like that, just get them scheduled to come in as soon as possible. At my last two companies we would bring people in for an afternoon of interviews a…

Followup question: How do I know I have "one of these people" such that I can not waste their time with phone interviews, etc? Letting in a lot of chaff in hopes of not turning away wheat is not scalable, and if I already knew who the good ones were without phone screening them, I could probably cut down on the interviewing as well.

I'll grant you that true networked hires may have earned a skip-the-phone stage, though I'd still rather answer THEIR questions on the phone than find a no-fit after 3 hours in-office.

Be able to move fast is always good advice though!

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