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Jobstart – Personalized, expert guidance to land your next software job

jobstart.co

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Re: Jobstart – Personalized, expert guidance to land your next software job

#21

Post by ztratar »

thirdtruck wrote: post #20
ztratar wrote: post #2

Woah -- wasn't expecting the quick upvotes! :) Creator here (shamefully submitted myself, haha). Happy to answer any/all questions or ramble on and on about the problem. We basically think there needs to be a legitimately trustworthy service out there. Something that acts more like a a career coach instead of a position spammer. Something that understands your needs and specific situation. Along the lines of "doing t…

Are you hiring? While I'm hunting for tech work in NY even now, but have had a frustrating enough experience that I'm open to just tackling the problem directly.

Email me -> zach@jobstart.co and we'll talk.

Re: Jobstart – Personalized, expert guidance to land your next software job

#22

Post by rickr »

Interesting idea!

Some UI feedback - the 'I agree/disagree' buttons on your mission component are kind of weird. I clicked on both just to see what would happen.

I think the CTA to sign up as an expert was a bit hard to find - perhaps due to the colors?

I'm also not sure why I would want to become an 'expert'. What's in it for me?

Re: Jobstart – Personalized, expert guidance to land your next software job

#23

Post by ztratar »

felipegalvao wrote: post #18

Are you guys willing to coach job seekers from other countries (if they have the right skills, of course)? Or is this US exclusive?

We're not against it, but by the looks of it we're going to prioritize people who are either 1) citizens or 2) can get work visas already.

Re: Jobstart – Personalized, expert guidance to land your next software job

#24

Post by mtrn »

ztratar wrote: post #2

Woah -- wasn't expecting the quick upvotes! :) Creator here (shamefully submitted myself, haha). Happy to answer any/all questions or ramble on and on about the problem. We basically think there needs to be a legitimately trustworthy service out there. Something that acts more like a a career coach instead of a position spammer. Something that understands your needs and specific situation. Along the lines of "doing t…

I'm in Europe - are you US-only?

Re: Jobstart – Personalized, expert guidance to land your next software job

#25

Post by ztratar »

rickr wrote: post #22

Interesting idea! Some UI feedback - the 'I agree/disagree' buttons on your mission component are kind of weird. I clicked on both just to see what would happen. I think the CTA to sign up as an expert was a bit hard to find - perhaps due to the colors? I'm also not sure why I would want to become an 'expert'. What's in it for me?

Thanks for the feedback, Rick!

The "what's in it for me" question is a good one. While very unintuitive, we've had no problem signing people up who are simply helpful types. There's a large population out there of talented people who enjoy helping others and this is the most impactful, time efficient way to do it.

At first we were thinking about offering money, but the economics of the model don't really work out. No matter what we do, since we're not guaranteed money, we can't guarantee experts money. Under that situation, we could offer them on average less than $60 an hour... at which point 1) it feels like work and 2) the people who become experts usually make 3x that.

After we worked on this for months, it turned out the best system was simply a volunteer system. Strange, eh?

Re: Jobstart – Personalized, expert guidance to land your next software job

#26

Post by aquadrop »

ztratar wrote: post #16
ztratar wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We have experts in other cities, but are admittedly going to take an SF-first approach for the next couple months. Solid question.

Coaching remotely works for us!

What about remote jobs? Do any companies in your pool do that?

Re: Jobstart – Personalized, expert guidance to land your next software job

#27

Post by edw519 »

ztratar wrote: post #2

Woah -- wasn't expecting the quick upvotes! :) Creator here (shamefully submitted myself, haha). Happy to answer any/all questions or ramble on and on about the problem. We basically think there needs to be a legitimately trustworthy service out there. Something that acts more like a a career coach instead of a position spammer. Something that understands your needs and specific situation. Along the lines of "doing t…

Thanks Zach for doing this (both starting the company and coming here to Hacker News to answer questions).

Based upon what you're seeing:

1. Please rank these in order of importance:

  - technical skill in one (or few) technologies
  - broad technical skills
  - years of experience
  - raw smarts & ability to learn
  - user/customer domain knowledge
  - soft skills (project mgmt, systems analysis, etc.)
  - cultural fit
  - attitude & determination
2. What % of opportunities are in large companies vs. start-ups?

3. What % of a "typical" programmer's energy should be spent presenting themselves better vs. actually getting better?

4. What makes your coaches/experts so special? Do they have last names?

Nice concept. Best wishes to you and all your candidates.

Re: Jobstart – Personalized, expert guidance to land your next software job

#30

Post by ztratar »

edw519 wrote: post #27
ztratar wrote: post #2

Woah -- wasn't expecting the quick upvotes! :) Creator here (shamefully submitted myself, haha). Happy to answer any/all questions or ramble on and on about the problem. We basically think there needs to be a legitimately trustworthy service out there. Something that acts more like a a career coach instead of a position spammer. Something that understands your needs and specific situation. Along the lines of "doing t…

Thanks Zach for doing this (both starting the company and coming here to Hacker News to answer questions). Based upon what you're seeing: 1. Please rank these in order of importance: - technical skill in one (or few) technologies - broad technical skills - years of experience - raw smarts & ability to learn - user/customer domain knowledge - soft skills (project mgmt, systems analysis, etc.) - cultural fit - attitude…

1. The importance there depends on the company. This is why we take a human-oriented approach, instead of just building a marketplace. We can understand the nuances of what different employers want better. Data models will follow, but we're hand picking the points to start.

2. Remember we're open to helping you get anywhere. We've placed people at both startups and large companies already, but most of our contracts are with startups. Large companies don't do recruiting deals unless you're pumping them huge numbers or giving some crazy insightful data.

3. This depends on the programmer. I think, unfortunately, a lot of getting the right job is knowing how to present yourself better. In addition, I think most programmers already know how to get better at programming, but few learn the tricks to land more interviews and get more offers.

4. The status quo is pretty terrible. I like what some of the new companies are doing (Triplebyte for example), but recruiters are still the predominant factor in hiring. Some of them are good, but most of them... nope. Our coaches are all engineers. Our experts are all engineers. Our coaches have a full-time job -- that job is to understand the job market, understand the candidates they work with, and help them out however they see fit.

I'll also mention that since we're still only 3 people, we, the founders are also doing a large portion of the coaching. Gotta love startup life!

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