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Dear HN "Who's Hiring" responders

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Re: Dear HN "Who's Hiring" responders

#141

Post by wololo »

niggler wrote: post #48
ig1 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who's recruited heavily at the entry level, you're mistaken. Even substantial number of computer science graduates lack the capability of basic coding (i.e. "here's the detailed specification of this function; go implement it"). There is substantially more demand than available talent. SF, New York, London, Amsterdam, Berlin, etc. all have huge talent shortages. Even developer markets that were relatively…

"Even substantial number of computer science graduates lack the capability of basic coding" You misread my statement. A competent mechanical engineer graduate attending college in the past 5 to 10 years has more CS experience and coding ability than most CS graduates. The talent shortage, as it were, comes from restricting your view to the CS and CE fields. To review, this is what i wrote (emphasis added): "Many peop…

> A competent mechanical engineer graduate attending college in the past 5 to 10 years has more CS experience and coding ability than most CS graduates

what fractions of ME and CS graduates would you say are competent, out of curiosity?

Re: Dear HN "Who's Hiring" responders

#142

Post by vacri »

mootothemax wrote: post #129
lawnchair_larry wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I discard any employer that requires a cover letter. Cover letters don't tell you anything. If you think they do, you don't know how most people write them, and you probably miss a lot of good candidates. It's an unreasonable demand. You're not the only place that I am applying. Either I send all fifteen of you a generic cover letter (which is likely no better than not sending one), or I customize it for each of you,…

You're doing it wrong. I just want a quick note explaining briefly who you are and why you're applying. It shouldn't take more than five minutes. Seriously, try hiring someone, the influx of irrelevant applicants and those who won't take even thirty seconds to read your ad is truly dispiriting. If you make even the tiniest effort with your application, you will stand out, guaranteed.

Seriously, try hiring someone, the influx of irrelevant applicants and those who won't take even thirty seconds to read your ad is truly dispiriting.

The average time of inspection of a resume is 15 seconds, so it seems it's a two-way street.

Re: Dear HN "Who's Hiring" responders

#143

Post by anthonyb »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #127
anoncow wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>taking a dump in a thousand baskets also leads to no eggs While the quote is very funny and I give you that, the analogy doesn't fit. A more apt analogy would be - throwing your eggs without care in a thousand baskets, chances are most eggs will break.

That strategy requires that you have brass eggs.

I think if you have "brass eggs" you go start a start up.

Re: Dear HN "Who's Hiring" responders

#144

Post by anthonyb »

anoncow wrote: post #120
anthonyb wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Don't put all your eggs in one basket" seems appropriate. Of course, the counter to that is that taking a dump in a thousand baskets also leads to no eggs.

>taking a dump in a thousand baskets also leads to no eggs While the quote is very funny and I give you that, the analogy doesn't fit. A more apt analogy would be - throwing your eggs without care in a thousand baskets, chances are most eggs will break.

Well, you are assuming that the candidates have eggs to start with.

How would you describe emailing a hiring manager/developer with something like "lol, give job pls?" Not very egg-like at all...

Re: Dear HN "Who's Hiring" responders

#145

Post by vacri »

lessnonymous wrote: post #116
joonix wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cover letters are useless. Really, try to have some empathy for people trying to get jobs in a tough market (I guess this doesn't apply to the currently employed or developers...). You have to apply to a LOT of stuff, and employers almost never give the courtesy of a confirmation or any sort of response/rejection. It takes a LOT of time to put contact info into Word, change around your cover letter template, save, an…

They're not useless. I discard any application I get that doesn't have a cover letter. I'm WAY more interested in your cover letter than your resume as it tells me a lot more about you than your dot-point-resume will ever tell me. To be fair, the job ads I place specifically tell you what to put in a cover letter. So if you reply without one, then it's a super quick filter to see that you didn't even read the ad. If…

You can combine the two. I learned a trick from a friend - for your employment history, have a prose section that describes what you did. At the bottom of that, put the skills used in a box. The checklisters can look at the box, and the people who want to know more can scan the prose.

Re: Dear HN "Who's Hiring" responders

#146

Post by vacri »

jacques_chester wrote: post #57
softbuilder wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I came to roughly the same conclusion from the emails I received from my "How to Hire Me" post. People make all of the mistakes there that they make with online dating. From an abstract point of view it is the exact same problem.

Right, with similar failure modes. For example: people firing copypasta emails to reduce the writing cost per-application / per-message. When I have an OKC account, my strategy is just to write the first half-funny sentence or two that come to mind, shoot off the message, and move on. Even when I apply for jobs and write a cover letter, what do I do? A dating site message with a funny accent. Dear Companyboss, I writ…

Absolutely - you need a minimum of a cover letter to indicate which job you're going for and where you saw it. The resume should then do the talking for you - if it's nothing but a dot-point list of skills, it needs rework.

Re: Dear HN "Who's Hiring" responders

#147

Post by sravfeyn »

sravfeyn wrote: post #125

I should probably post a "Dear HN 'Who's hiring' posters". And put following content. With the same token that you say HN is not a CraigsList, when an HN-responder puts an effort in going through their product and writing a personal note inquiring about a possible opportunity at their company, posters should have the courtesy to respond to the responder acknowledging that in-spite of their good/bad profile they can't…

Well I have posted this on HN! https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5478064

Re: Dear HN "Who's Hiring" responders

#148

Post by koide »

lsiebert wrote: post #130
Maven911 wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Replying so that i can go back to this and understand it one day

Mark, when you come back to this, this might be helpful for you. https://github.com/gryftir/recursivereverse

Thanks! Sorry for asking this, but why the strange (to me) indent?

Re: Dear HN "Who's Hiring" responders

#149

Post by asveikau »

anthonyb wrote: post #99
alxndr wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should see the kind of messages I get from recruiters.

"Dear Anthony, Thankyou 4 ure notes in LinkedIn about contacting u - much easier to know that you're approached all the time. U r too experienced for my role, but if you know of any mid level Python / Linux developers happy 2 discuss referral $$if I can place them:) Happy Friday!" (Actual recruiter message on LinkedIn - I keep it around to remind me why I don't talk to recruiters)

I had a good laugh at that quote, but now I'm thinking: is it legit to cite one or more persons doing their job poorly to dismiss the entire profession? Do you keep around bad code to remind you why you don't talk to programmers? Examples of quack medicine to remind you why you don't talk to doctors?

Re: Dear HN "Who's Hiring" responders

#150

Post by xiaoma »

ig1 wrote: post #40
niggler wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is absolutely a hirers' market if the market is for a low-level coder. Many people, especially coming from an engineering background, have the requisite programming and computer science experience to do what you need. It's a hirees' market at the rockstar level, as always.

As someone who's recruited heavily at the entry level, you're mistaken. Even substantial number of computer science graduates lack the capability of basic coding (i.e. "here's the detailed specification of this function; go implement it"). There is substantially more demand than available talent. SF, New York, London, Amsterdam, Berlin, etc. all have huge talent shortages. Even developer markets that were relatively…

That's excellent news. I'm close to graduation at the most intense hacker school in SF and definitely have a solid grasp of the fundamentals and domain expertise in JavaScript.

I'd be very appreciative of any leads you could offer to top tier companies (FB, Google, Amazon, MS, mid-sized YC companies). My contact info is in my profile.

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