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Programmer search engine

joelonsoftware.com

21–30 of 89 posts

Re: Programmer search engine

#21
This is interesting Joel is just now discovering this.

As the co-founding CTO of Hotjobs.com, we provided this functionality on the very first version of Hotjobs in 1996, and subsequently ended up purchasing Resumix to provide a very in depth technical solution to allow employers this exact functionality you're describing.

Of course, we had tens of millions of resumes in every possible industry imaginable all searchable through a very robust search interface that did all sorts of fancy lexical analysis and data extraction from random resume formats.

Over the last 13 years, thousands upon thousands of people have been hired through the exact mechanism you're describing.

Re: Programmer search engine

#22
post #9
post #3

So these are people who are unemployed or risking getting fired by looking for a job in public? Isn't it better to find people who already have a job they like and try to convince them that they would be even happier in your company?

I'm not sure I understand your first sentence. Is being unemployed a bad thing? Well, yes it generally is for the unemployed person but it doesn't mean that they're a bad hire. Sure, one could say that if they were really good, they would be busy with multiple projects at the same time, or have people waiting for them as soon as their current job ends for a reason or another. But it sounds a little bit condescending…

Good points but ...

It just often isn't appropriate to have a single, world viewable resume. Job search is a delicate dance. Personnel departments and higher management may want to filter job seekers out an arbitrary criteria ("we want a backend/frontend programmer") while a job seeker may wants to make contact with the project lead and show they he/she is good fit for their process in particular. This kind of thing makes "spinning" your resume important and perfectly legitimate. If just exposing everything worked for programmers, Google would already be a great way to find programmers.

Re: Programmer search engine

#23
post #14
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Posting you resume on a jobs site does not necessarily mean you are actively looking for a job. And I highly doubt an employer would fire someone just for having their resume publicly posted. Besides, if you’re employer is that fickle, maybe you should have your resume out there, just in case.

What would you think if you saw that one of your employees recently started paying money to receive offers for a new job?

I would think it's time to have a conversation. If they're worth keeping, find out how. If not, wish them luck.

Re: Programmer search engine

#24
post #8
post #3

So these are people who are unemployed or risking getting fired by looking for a job in public? Isn't it better to find people who already have a job they like and try to convince them that they would be even happier in your company?

You can set your CV to private and only searchable by employers. Unless your employer is signed up for SO Careers I don't think you'll have a problem. Anyways, it can simply be thought of as your personal resume. You don't have to actively be seeking a job to fill out a CV.

I think LinkedIn is viewed in a similar fashion. While it's sole purpose is not job seeking, it's clear that it can be very useful for that.

Re: Programmer search engine

#25
post #21

This is interesting Joel is just now discovering this. As the co-founding CTO of Hotjobs.com, we provided this functionality on the very first version of Hotjobs in 1996, and subsequently ended up purchasing Resumix to provide a very in depth technical solution to allow employers this exact functionality you're describing. Of course, we had tens of millions of resumes in every possible industry imaginable all searcha…

Not to take anything away from hotjobs, but I would argue that the real value Stack overflow careers offers is the fact that an employer can not only see your CV, but at least somewhat determine your level of expertise through your stack overflow account/reputation.

I imagine Joel believes this has more value then just the data extracted from a resume.

Re: Programmer search engine

#26
post #21

This is interesting Joel is just now discovering this. As the co-founding CTO of Hotjobs.com, we provided this functionality on the very first version of Hotjobs in 1996, and subsequently ended up purchasing Resumix to provide a very in depth technical solution to allow employers this exact functionality you're describing. Of course, we had tens of millions of resumes in every possible industry imaginable all searcha…

I think Joel's post's only point was to talk again about the Careers option on StackOverflow, not necessarily that it was new. Well, it was presented as a new thing to show his product under a good light.

Re: Programmer search engine

#27

He says, "It would show you CVs right away", but I can't find a way to search candidates without signing up. Am I missing something?

It's implied by the last paragraph (the bit about test-driving) that you have to sign up to see the actual CVs.

Re: Programmer search engine

#28
In the spirit of XKCD Explained:

Joel Spolsky thinks we should all hire people who regularly use his software. He thinks those people are cool and he really likes how their time, effort and reputation on his site are something they can sell to recruiters for additional revenue. This is literally his dream come true.

Re: Programmer search engine

#29

In the spirit of XKCD Explained: Joel Spolsky thinks we should all hire people who regularly use his software. He thinks those people are cool and he really likes how their time, effort and reputation on his site are something they can sell to recruiters for additional revenue. This is literally his dream come true.

You're right. I wonder if this was part of the plan for stack overflow from the beginning. This is an ingenious way to monetize its existing user base while creating incentives for stack overflow users to keep creating valuable content for free.
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