Yes, they are. I’ve gone through multiple rounds with multiple YC companies a few months ago before ultimately starting my own venture.
Ask HN: Are YC startups *actually* hiring?
41–50 of 142 posts
Re: Ask HN: Are YC startups *actually* hiring?
#42As a YC company that is currently hiring, yes! And all of the YC companies I know are also struggling to find engineers. But the job listings (HN, WorkAtAStartup) practically never bring in good candidates.
A few big problems:
1. AI Spam. I categorized the inbound we got the other day from a job post. Out of 172 daily applicants, we got 22 that looked reasonably like a person, and 150 that were primarily AI generated messages. Which are pretty easy to spot because they're 500 words of tech jargon and rehashing the job description.
2. Purely automated applications. There are a lot of "Apply to 1000 jobs with AI" startups out there that just spam job boards [1][2][3].
3. Qualifications. There is a shocking number of engineers applying to work at an AI company who have never made a single API request to OpenAI. After three years of hearing about AI every day if you've never tested a single inference API then why are you applying to an AI startup.
The signal to noise ratio is so bad that it's better to just do outbound. At this point the job listing is mostly there so we can share it with candidates that we reach out to.
[3]https://www.reddit.com/r/GetEmployed/comments/1eo8uyp/i_used...
Re: Ask HN: Are YC startups *actually* hiring?
#43I think we need to turn hiring on its head. I think candidates should post their resumes in a centralized place instead of applying for each company. I'm running https://customizedresumes.com/ as my side project and it shows how applicants can now basically spam job applications. It's only going to get worse for hiring managers.
Don't you think part of the reason companies prefer that you reach out to them is that they want people specifically interested in them? Though it could be the case that the job spam is so fucked that that no longer works as an accurate cutoff.
Re: Ask HN: Are YC startups *actually* hiring?
#44Sorry you've had that experience. My 2 cents is that unless they've done a "big" (> 5 million) seed or series A they probably don't have the money or appetite for much hiring. So target later stage if you aren't already.
Re: Ask HN: Are YC startups *actually* hiring?
#45The smaller the company, the less likely the hiring process is a well-oiled machine, from responses to inbounds to true-ing up the JDs currently advertised on the site; compounding that, smaller companies get fewer inbound applicants and can end up holding out for a unicorn fit for a role for a long time. I wouldn't read much into no-response from a startup (totally reasonable to be irritated about it, but it's always a numbers game regardless, so you might not want to be hanging on a response from any one company).
Re: Ask HN: Are YC startups *actually* hiring?
#46The reality is that the vast majority of startup hires are referrals. For hiring managers, having someone you trust tell you that they've worked with a candidate and vouch for them is invaluable, especially when the company is at a stage that you don't have good performance oversight. The cost of a bad hire is immense. My advice: never do a cold application. Find ways to hustle to get a warm intro.
> the vast majority of startup hires are referrals.
> Find ways to hustle to get a warm intro.
OP's process is actually that of a spring chicken by not realizing this reality.
I still don't understand why people, especially "experienced hires," expect more from passive applications.
Re: Ask HN: Are YC startups *actually* hiring?
#47I would like to assume that I am a good candidate I usually get calls back from even LinkedIn posts or even indeed, but after well applying to more than two hundred offerings on the who is hiring posts in this place, and only having had been called twice. I can assure you that the ones here usually are not hiring and at best just want a rooster of possible replacements for their current employees. Most notable offend…
Some companies are just very selective, i.e: they're hiring the right people not the best candidate. Most of us get jobs because companies need to fill a role and we're the best candidate of a bad bunch... most of us (whether we have 22 years and a fancy title or not) would not get a job at a company that hires carefully because we're probably not a good fit for their very niche view of what a good hire is.
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Re: Ask HN: Are YC startups *actually* hiring?
#48There's a lot of coping here. These YC startups only hire a few applicants. If they have hundred of applications (which is low) then the interview rate will likely be less than 5%.
Re: Ask HN: Are YC startups *actually* hiring?
#49I think we need to turn hiring on its head. I think candidates should post their resumes in a centralized place instead of applying for each company. I'm running https://customizedresumes.com/ as my side project and it shows how applicants can now basically spam job applications. It's only going to get worse for hiring managers.
> I think candidates should post their resumes in a centralized place instead of applying for each company.
That already exists, and had for some two decades now - it's called LinkedIn.
It works the way it works. Whatever the reasons (which are most certainly related to running a two-sided marketplace and trying to squeeze both ends of it), any such project will end up in a similar spot.
Re: Ask HN: Are YC startups *actually* hiring?
#50As a YC company that is currently hiring, yes! And all of the YC companies I know are also struggling to find engineers. But the job listings (HN, WorkAtAStartup) practically never bring in good candidates. A few big problems: 1. AI Spam. I categorized the inbound we got the other day from a job post. Out of 172 daily applicants, we got 22 that looked reasonably like a person, and 150 that were primarily AI generated…
Adding to this: we mostly focus on outbound, mostly using WorkAtAStartup or LinkedIn as a source.