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Show HN: Our alternative to recruiter spam

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Re: Show HN: Our alternative to recruiter spam

#81

Post by Peroni »

bitsweet wrote: post #69
liberatus wrote: post #61

Our solution to recruiter spam: Become a recruiter. I'm sorry but how is your business model any different from that of a recruiter? (Other than claims of human or AI filtered quality.) I just don't see how you will not run into the exact same problems that existing recruiters run into. What makes you different than a normal recruiter building profiles of companies and employers and soliciting both? This just looks v…

There are a few things I dislike about recruiters that we aim to fix: * They nearly all are technically incompetent, e.g. thinking Java is the cool word for Javascript and such. We know the difference between interfaces and inheritance, being developers ourselves, we are better at understanding the needs of companies and matching that to the desires of developers. * Recruiters hide information, almost always. We're f…

Whilst I don't agree with the practice, the reason most recruiters are cagey about disclosing too much info on the company they represent is because they don't want the candidate to go to the company directly and saving the company $25k. How do you deal with that challenge?

Look, I'm incredibly vocal about the need to disrupt the recruitment industry but from what I understand based on the discussion here, the difference between Pitchbox and agencies is that you're developers not recruiters and you charge a flat fee. Am I missing something?

Re: Show HN: Our alternative to recruiter spam

#82

Post by recursive »

bitsweet wrote: post #60
xauronx wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, that's pretty steep. Maybe that's just a west coast thing. Where I live (Ohio) that's 50% of the salary of a developer with 5 years of experience. I signed up for your service but... that seems like a good chunk of change I'd prefer to have in my pocket :)

Wow, that's pretty steep. Maybe that's just a west coast thing. I don't think most developers realize how much recruiters are getting paid for placements. 25% is pretty standard across US, we're less then that with our flat rate. Where I live (Ohio) that's 50% of the salary of a developer with 5 years of experience. This is why we built this product - assuming you are even remotely decent at programming and write cod…

> a dev with 5 years of exp can easily be making more then 80K+.

Are you assuming west-coast? Generally speaking, "easily" sounds like a stretch to me.

Re: Show HN: Our alternative to recruiter spam

#83

Post by markhelo »

bitsweet wrote: post #40
mrbird wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How much does it cost? I assume this is going to be fee-based on the employer side? I'd feel more comfortable participating if the nature of the transaction were more transparent.

We'll be creating a FAQ from this HN discussion. We intend to be very transparent. It is free for the developer. Even though it is different, we found it easiest when employers pay us similar to how they pay contingency recruiters, placement fees. Typically recruiters charge 25-35% of your first year salary, we charge a flat 25K fee to the employer that hires you. We also have a unique offering for startups where the…

As someone who is hiring, my problem is to also find developers who are not actively looking. Sometimes those are the best because they are talented but have an inertia to move anywhere and may not even be aware of interesting challenges in other areas that their skills are applicable to, such as Healthcare etc.

Also for a 80K salary, 25K is just too steep, given that we do not know how your screening process works.

Re: Show HN: Our alternative to recruiter spam

#84

Post by bitsweet »

derwiki wrote: post #73

This reminds me a lot of Developer Auction ( http://www.developerauction.com/ ).

They are doing something also interesting, albeit different. They timebox the offers which is clever but the "Auction Price" that is non-binding is confusing and people I've talked to felt it was sorta gimmicky for that reason.

We feel compensation is very important but so are the problems you'll be working on, who you'll be working with, and the culture fit.

Re: Show HN: Our alternative to recruiter spam

#85

Post by brown9-2 »

I think the signup flow could use more handholding as far as telling the prospective developer why you need the information you are asking for and what you plan to do with it (i.e. how it will help you find them a good opportunity).

As an example, I got as far as the second part of the form where I am asked for my name, current company, location and title, and became hesitant because I have zero idea what you are going to use this information for specifically.

Re: Show HN: Our alternative to recruiter spam

#86

Post by bitsweet »

brown9-2 wrote: post #85

I think the signup flow could use more handholding as far as telling the prospective developer why you need the information you are asking for and what you plan to do with it (i.e. how it will help you find them a good opportunity). As an example, I got as far as the second part of the form where I am asked for my name, current company, location and title, and became hesitant because I have zero idea what you are goi…

Thanks for the feedback. We'll certainly to address that and be more clear.

Re: Show HN: Our alternative to recruiter spam

#88

Post by vog »

xxpor wrote: post #62
navyrain wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good work! However, there is no mention of telecommuting/remote positions. Even as a US worker, I prefer remote work, and it baffles me that us "internet folk" are not working hard to fight the industrial-era assumption that software has to be written in a central office.

> it baffles me that us "internet folk" are not working hard to fight the industrial-era assumption that software has to be written in a central office Have you considered that some of us LIKE working in an office?

-1 for the strawman argument. The OP didn't dispute that some of us like the office. They only pointed out that some (others) of us don't like the office, and that the site didn't take this into account.

Re: Show HN: Our alternative to recruiter spam

#89

Post by skeletonjelly »

bitsweet wrote: post #45
hnwh wrote: post #32

A little sketched out about putting my real name on here.. how do I know my current employer won't see it?

Every single developer is reviewed by a human before we begin any matchmaking and we also screen every employer (this means names are in a predictable format).

Ah this clarifies something for me. I was just wanting to try it out but didn't want to put my details, can't go to the next step, but down the bottom it says "stay anonymous".

Re: Show HN: Our alternative to recruiter spam

#90

Post by tych0 »

bitsweet wrote: post #52
tych0 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, very! What about amending our profiles? I just signed up and have a github profile, but not a resume that's particularly up to date. Is there some way I can add it if I brought it up to date?

Yes. If you just signed up, you'll get an initial email package soon. We're full service though...so you can email us anytime with questions or updates, like a new resume, at support@trypitchbox.com and we'll do the updating for you. Whichever is easiest.

Very cool. I'll look forward to the email!
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