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Ask HN: What do developers look for in a job listing?

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Re: Ask HN: What do developers look for in a job listing?

#2
I look for technologies I like to work with and for technologies I don't like to work with (for a negative filter). I also look for dead-end stuff and tech that's not used anywhere else, as those have negative value (time I invest in mastering them is time taken away from mastering whatever makes me a good fit for [next cool project]).

Re: Ask HN: What do developers look for in a job listing?

#5
If it has anything like "build cool stuff", "rockstar" or anything like that, I'm not interested.

I'm most interested in a place that gives a shit about their employees. Work life balance is huge. Pay scale is huge. Rewarding hard working employees is huge. If the description looks like something that would entice a 22 year old college grad, I'm probably not interested.

Re: Ask HN: What do developers look for in a job listing?

#6

If it has anything like "build cool stuff", "rockstar" or anything like that, I'm not interested. I'm most interested in a place that gives a shit about their employees. Work life balance is huge. Pay scale is huge. Rewarding hard working employees is huge. If the description looks like something that would entice a 22 year old college grad, I'm probably not interested.

I strongly agree with the work-life balance. When the add explicitly states where the office is, the expected the work hours, the number of holiday days, the career development support, etc I'm much more excited to apply. There is nothing worse than applying to a job that is going to be a transit commute to the middle of nowhere. Also when they offer things like relocation support and visa lawyers, its pretty wonderful.

Re: Ask HN: What do developers look for in a job listing?

#7
A concrete description of the product being developed. Bonus points if I can actually get a demo copy of it to play around with before applying. I'm amazed at the number of job listings filled with a lot of verbose abstract language that never gets down to the meat of what it is they'll expect you to be making.

Other than that, any mention of good coding practices (automated testing, continuous integration) or technologies that show the company is keeping up in the field and not getting too bogged down in a lot of legacy code.

Re: Ask HN: What do developers look for in a job listing?

#8
post #2

I look for technologies I like to work with and for technologies I don't like to work with (for a negative filter). I also look for dead-end stuff and tech that's not used anywhere else, as those have negative value (time I invest in mastering them is time taken away from mastering whatever makes me a good fit for [next cool project]).

Would you mind sharing how much experience you have? I think it'll help me tailor the job listing a little better

Re: Ask HN: What do developers look for in a job listing?

#9
post #7

A concrete description of the product being developed. Bonus points if I can actually get a demo copy of it to play around with before applying. I'm amazed at the number of job listings filled with a lot of verbose abstract language that never gets down to the meat of what it is they'll expect you to be making. Other than that, any mention of good coding practices (automated testing, continuous integration) or techno…

Thanks for the input! Would you mind sharing how much experience you have? I think it'll help me tailor the job listing a little better.

Re: Ask HN: What do developers look for in a job listing?

#10

If it has anything like "build cool stuff", "rockstar" or anything like that, I'm not interested. I'm most interested in a place that gives a shit about their employees. Work life balance is huge. Pay scale is huge. Rewarding hard working employees is huge. If the description looks like something that would entice a 22 year old college grad, I'm probably not interested.

Would you mind sharing how much experience you have? It'd be helpful for targeting developers with differing levels of work experience
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