61–70 of 116 posts
I love Stripe. Huge fan. But if I get an email from someone, anyone, at a company who wants to 'grab lunch' and talk about me working for company XYZ, I'll pass. I mean, he says this is what has been the most effective for them, so I can't argue that point. But the reality is I personally wouldn't ever take anyone up on this. Actually, now that I think about it, I would probably only respond if it was an email actual…
> Always have the ping come from a non-recruiter. I got an email a few days ago from the CEO of a startup in SF. In the email, he followed all of the rules in this email, including trying to get face-to-face chat by offering to get coffee. I'm not really looking for a job but I am open to new opportunities, so I replied and agreed to get coffee. The response comes from a recruiter. What? The CEO sends me an email and…
> YOU contacted me, not the other way around. You have the burden of proof of attracting me to your company. You should be the one jumping through hoops, not me. Yes. I get contacted by a headhunter that says they know of a company looking for engineers. I go on an interview and someone at the company asks me very officiously, "Why do you want to work for this company?" I respond, "I don't know that I do want to work…
To overgeneralize, though not by much, SF startups suck ass at recruiting; the standard assumption is the whole world is chomping at the bit to work there, and it's a privilege to do so. (Though I do wonder how they get that worldview to comport with endless bitching about the lack of engineers.)
And you hit the nail on the head with the lack of consideration of recruitees' time. Take linkedin. I interviewed there a couple years ago when I was living in sf. They wanted me to come in 10 - 3, so basically an entire day of vacation (read ~$300-$400 I won't get paid out when I quit.) So I had a nontrivial amount of skin in the game. I also had to borrow a car to drive there, since I didn't own one. The interviews went really well, and they where pushy about continuing -- I was privileged to be able to come in a second day between 10 and 1, ie a second 1/2 day of vacation and go rent a car again! Fuck that; I bounced. But no doubt they're telling congress they just can't hire locally and need more h1b allotment.
> Always have the ping come from a non-recruiter. I got an email a few days ago from the CEO of a startup in SF. In the email, he followed all of the rules in this email, including trying to get face-to-face chat by offering to get coffee. I'm not really looking for a job but I am open to new opportunities, so I replied and agreed to get coffee. The response comes from a recruiter. What? The CEO sends me an email and…
You can of course achieve the same "the top guys at this growing company are sufficiently interested in me for this not to be an HR-lead timewaste" effect with a senior non-recruiter email that's actually honest, more along the lines of My colleague Bob was impressed by your [personalised details]. I've asked Bob to look for people with X and our stack is based entirely on Y which I understand you're very familiar wi…
> Always have the ping come from a non-recruiter. I got an email a few days ago from the CEO of a startup in SF. In the email, he followed all of the rules in this email, including trying to get face-to-face chat by offering to get coffee. I'm not really looking for a job but I am open to new opportunities, so I replied and agreed to get coffee. The response comes from a recruiter. What? The CEO sends me an email and…
I suspect that they're using the CEO to get your attention. I'd be very surprised if the original email came from him. As can be seen here it's kind of nuts to do all this work only to pass off ot someone else when there is a bite.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
You should call the CEO directly and ask him when he'd like to meet for the coffee he wanted to have. CEO's can be interesting to talk with, they have unique and fascinating perspectives.
Yeah, this. If I were to do a dumb dick move like this, I'd much rather have the candidate call me out on it than blow me off. I'd be really excited to meet a candidate whose first real interaction with me is to tell me I'm being an asshole and be right about it.
> Always have the ping come from a non-recruiter. I got an email a few days ago from the CEO of a startup in SF. In the email, he followed all of the rules in this email, including trying to get face-to-face chat by offering to get coffee. I'm not really looking for a job but I am open to new opportunities, so I replied and agreed to get coffee. The response comes from a recruiter. What? The CEO sends me an email and…
> YOU contacted me, not the other way around. You have the burden of proof of attracting me to your company. You should be the one jumping through hoops, not me. Yes. I get contacted by a headhunter that says they know of a company looking for engineers. I go on an interview and someone at the company asks me very officiously, "Why do you want to work for this company?" I respond, "I don't know that I do want to work…
Anyway, yeah, I agree with you completely.
(And by the way, keep pushing on the unit test thing. It's something worth arguing for. Or next time, build in unit tests into the project estimate instead of setting it aside as a separate project. Good luck.)
> Always have the ping come from a non-recruiter. I got an email a few days ago from the CEO of a startup in SF. In the email, he followed all of the rules in this email, including trying to get face-to-face chat by offering to get coffee. I'm not really looking for a job but I am open to new opportunities, so I replied and agreed to get coffee. The response comes from a recruiter. What? The CEO sends me an email and…
> Always have the ping come from a non-recruiter. I had the complete opposite thing happen. There is a dude I went to school with, I know him personally. We are connections on linkedin. He started a company a few years back. I get an email from a recruiter telling me the founders at Company X (his company) felt that I would be a good fit for their team. I am convinced that she just searched for some skill sets and ma…
As someone on the receiving end of these emails, the point about demonstrating some knowledge of who I am or what I've done in the opening of the email is essential. It's almost guaranteed a reply, even if the opportunity doesn't seem immediately interesting. It's amazing how virtually none of the recruiting emails I've received do that.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, this. If I were to do a dumb dick move like this, I'd much rather have the candidate call me out on it than blow me off. I'd be really excited to meet a candidate whose first real interaction with me is to tell me I'm being an asshole and be right about it.
I actually CC'd the CEO on my reply, wherein I basically implied that the previous email was misleading and that I was expecting a less formal mode of communication. But like someone else said, I don't think the CEO actually sent that first email. I suspect the recruiter sent it on his behalf.
Hey gdb, I have made thousands of posts on Hacker News, Twitter, and my own blog. Every time someone emails me about one of my posts and tells me about how it affected them or reminded them of something, it makes my day. So thank you! I'm not interested in working for anyone I don't already know. But no worries, I'm an easy person to get to know and with all this great technology, you don't even have to meet me in re…
Hey edw519, Thanks for the thoughtful reply! This certainly isn't intended to promote insincerity: the most important point is a proof-of-work. People tend to be pretty discerning, and can tell if you're just fishing for a throwaway comment because a blog post told you, or if you have something genuinely thoughtful to say. The purpose of these emails generally is pretty transparent, and it's certainly fine if people…
1. People are more interested in themselves than anything else. 2. People can detect insincerity very easily.
So the trick to "win friends and influence people" is, basically, be sincerely interested in other people.