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Ask HN: For those trying to hire how hard is it to find people currently?

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Re: Ask HN: For those trying to hire how hard is it to find people currently?

#101

Post by Wowfunhappy »

filoleg wrote: post #83
JTBooth wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cover letters that just say how much you love the company are pretty useless. Cover letters that provide additional information about why you're a good use of the company's interviewer's time are useful. I've submitted letters about, say, how I think one project on my resume is specifically applicable to a problem the company has. This both shows I researched the company, which is proof of investment from me, and pro…

Exactly. Competent recruiters and hiring managers at companies that I actually considered working for even explicitly told me to not waste my time on the cover letter (which was optional for their applications), unless I am a PhD with a long list of publications and specialized experience that would be too much to explain on my resume (or any other non-traditional type of an applicant that cannot easily relay their r…

...did you reply to the wrong post?

Re: Ask HN: For those trying to hire how hard is it to find people currently?

#102

Post by greydius »

drdunce wrote: post #96

It's incredibly easy to find people, there's a huge surplus of talent and very few opportunities going. You can scoop up top engineers laid off from big tech companies for small change right now.

"Top engineers" aren't the tech workers that are getting laid off.

Re: Ask HN: For those trying to hire how hard is it to find people currently?

#103

Post by pg_1234 »

JohnFen wrote: post #33

We've had two positions open on my team for months. Filling them has been a struggle. There's no lack of applicants, but none of them have the needed kind/amount of experience. Pay isn't the issue. I think there's three reasons why this is the case: we need genuine senior-level people, web/internet stack technology experience isn't relevant, and there's a requirement to work in the office. I mention that second one b…

Pay is ALWAYS an issue.

As long as there are any people out there who meet your other requirements (seeking work or not), if you pay enough you can poach them from where they are.

Re: Ask HN: For those trying to hire how hard is it to find people currently?

#104

Post by sys_64738 »

tester756 wrote: post #98
sys_64738 wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's because it's likely a HW embedded position so web language people don't have a grasp of the fundamentals and low level experience.

What fundamentals and low level things do you mean? Bit manipulation? proficiency in hex notation? firmware frameworks (e.g UEFI)?

Understanding of FPGAs, I2C devices, SPI devices, MCUs, etc. The list is endless.

Re: Ask HN: For those trying to hire how hard is it to find people currently?

#105

Post by janalsncm »

I interview ML engineers for our team. Juniors are relatively easy to hire. If you know some fundamentals and can do leetcode you’re in.

For seniors the bar is much higher because they will be expected to provide leadership and strategic guidance.

Re: Ask HN: For those trying to hire how hard is it to find people currently?

#106

Post by drdunce »

greydius wrote: post #102
drdunce wrote: post #96

It's incredibly easy to find people, there's a huge surplus of talent and very few opportunities going. You can scoop up top engineers laid off from big tech companies for small change right now.

"Top engineers" aren't the tech workers that are getting laid off.

Ok, fair enough, "top" has been redefined in our field. PhD research scientists with decades of software dev experience are going cheap. It might not be the exact candidate you want, but they're not really mediocre. If it was any other field, decades of experience and a PhD would be considered a "top" player.

Re: Ask HN: For those trying to hire how hard is it to find people currently?

#107

Post by pg_1234 »

Mountain_Skies wrote: post #56

Hiring pipeline have been extended to absurd lengths and now are extremely successful at achieving their true purpose: avoiding hiring anyone. There's no good reason for the current state other than pathological laziness and extreme fear of ever having a "bad" hire where bad means anyone who can't be productive their first day in the office with whatever weird frankenstack the company has implemented. There's no shor…

If your HR department is not delivering you viable candidates, firing the entire HR department and repurposing their budget to hire a few engineers almost at random is, on average, going to deliver better value. And, since the hires are funded by the ex-HR budget, they're basically free/zero risk.

Re: Ask HN: For those trying to hire how hard is it to find people currently?

#108

Post by janalsncm »

JTBooth wrote: post #51
andrewstuart wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This need for a cover letter is essentially asking candidates to tell you how much they love the company and how much they want the job. Why is this important beyond making the company feel loved? As a job applicant I’m not going to invest a minute in your company until you’ve read my resume and expressed an interest. Theres hundreds of companies out there employing who want your time but give nothing back. I know ne…

Cover letters that just say how much you love the company are pretty useless. Cover letters that provide additional information about why you're a good use of the company's interviewer's time are useful. I've submitted letters about, say, how I think one project on my resume is specifically applicable to a problem the company has. This both shows I researched the company, which is proof of investment from me, and pro…

The problem is that many job descriptions are too vague for me to be able to decide if I will be a good fit. The story I’d like to be able to tell is I did X at company X, I can do X+delta at company Y but your job description doesn’t give me any information about the thing you want me to accomplish. Simply put, it’s not a description of the job, it’s a description of your HR filters.

I’m not going to write a cover letter about how good of a fit I am for your job if you don’t give me enough information to understand what your job is. Most job descriptions are 90% useless. What I need to know is, what is the problem you need me to solve, and what resources will I have to solve it. If you as a recruiter do not know that, you’re not the right person to write a job description.

Re: Ask HN: For those trying to hire how hard is it to find people currently?

#109

Post by vunderba »

throwaway5959 wrote: post #90
vlod wrote: post #20

For freelancers, I am occasionally seeing extremely low hourly rates (linkedin), targeted at (I assume) Latin America. i.e. $15-$20 is the lowest, but sometimes $35ph. (Pretty shocking, but if it works out for everyone, good luck to them). I know companies that are only hiring from that region, where previously they were hiring Americans. Generally, I'm seeing hourly rates 40%-60% lower than a year ago (for senior ro…

Work from home advocates clearly didn’t think through the fact that there are extremely talented devs in LatAm in the same time zone as them that can live like royalty on half their salary.

Lol. Time zones differences are the least of an employers concerns if they're interested in hiring internationally. Taxes / liability / language differences are far more of an issue. This is why you see tons of positions that state "Remote US only".

Re: Ask HN: For those trying to hire how hard is it to find people currently?

#110

Post by rawgabbit »

sirspacey wrote: post #46
timeagain wrote: post #28

I think the “hard on both sides” nature of tech hiring is the desired end result of the “hiring industry” (indeed, freelance recruiters, leetcode, HR bureaucracy, etc.) the incentives are just like any other intermediary: make their services ubiquitous, unavoidable, and in constant need. These services, like most others, sell something that cannot be bought. Namely, high quality candidates delivered to the hiring man…

Having worked in the recruiting industry, these are the three top barriers to hiring: 1. The CEO/Board/Leaders ignore clear signals from candidates on what they want in a job (hybrid/remote being most common issue) 2. Hiring managers refused to learn the basics on how to attract & vet quality candidates. They are unreliable, capricious, and generally run hot/cold during the process 3. Recruiters have given up on addr…

In your opinion what are the basics, hiring managers should do to attract the best candidates?
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