B) AirBnB for oil tankers Is it just me or does this actually sound quite interesting?
One of these days someone is going to make a parody "X for Y" site that randomly generates similar such things. * AirBnB for oil tankers * Dropbox for cars * Uber for soft drinks * Exec for music * Github for food * Twitter for fashion
Developer Auction raises $2.7M for exactly what you’d think
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Re: Developer Auction raises $2.7M for exactly what you’d think
#32A friendly warning to fellow developers. While Dev Auction is a great idea, there's no way to ensure that your current employer doesn't know you're on the site. I wasn't given the option of returning to my job after my employers found out i was on Dev Auction. Matt was pretty callous about it ultimately ignoring my emails.
[reposted from disqus comments]
Re: Developer Auction raises $2.7M for exactly what you’d think
#33B) AirBnB for oil tankers Is it just me or does this actually sound quite interesting?
You could do it for cargo ships of all kinds. Something astounding like 35% of the Maersk fleet sits idle at any given time.
Re: Developer Auction raises $2.7M for exactly what you’d think
#34What's crazy is that this reminds me of how slaves used to be sold. Round up a few folks who can do hard work, put them on a podium and then sell them to the highest bidder. Not a perfect analogy by any stretch, although it is interesting.
That's ridiculous. It's a resemblance in name only. The format is actually a tremendous shift of power towards the employee and the developer gets a portion of the total recruitment fee.
And obviously no one is literally auctioned off, employees and employers both have a say in the matter.
Also what slaves got auctioned off to make six figures in loft offices of hip cities?
Re: Developer Auction raises $2.7M for exactly what you’d think
#35What's crazy is that this reminds me of how slaves used to be sold. Round up a few folks who can do hard work, put them on a podium and then sell them to the highest bidder. Not a perfect analogy by any stretch, although it is interesting.
A key difference is that the slaves didn't have a choice about which bids to accepts, they just went to the highest bidder, nor did they keep the proceeds.
With this, they aren't really bids in the strictest sense, they're non-binding offers of an interview.
Re: Developer Auction raises $2.7M for exactly what you’d think
#36If I call any recruiting agency in the Bay Area, I will be offered interviews with at least 3 companies, along with promises that I would be offered a salary of 20% above market. The interviews would be conducted in the recruiter's offices and the salary figures will quickly decline once actually speaking to a company representative.
I feel like I'm still not seeing the additional value that Developer Auction brings to the table. Am I missing something or are they just offering an air of exclusivity?
Re: Developer Auction raises $2.7M for exactly what you’d think
#37The FAQ says "Our primary focus is the SF Bay Area, LA and NYC. We accept great engineers from Seattle, Boston, Boulder/Denver, Chicago and Washington DC as well." Does this mean that DeveloperAuction will only accept developers residing in these specific cities? What about non-US residents (e.g. Canada)?
> Does this mean that DeveloperAuction will only accept developers residing in these specific cities?
They probably only accept developers who want to work in one of those specific areas. Those are probably the only cities where they have connections with enough companies to get bids. The whole thing would be pointless if no one was bidding. I would imagine that if they are successful, they will expand to other areas.
Re: Developer Auction raises $2.7M for exactly what you’d think
#38B) AirBnB for oil tankers Is it just me or does this actually sound quite interesting?
One of these days someone is going to make a parody "X for Y" site that randomly generates similar such things. * AirBnB for oil tankers * Dropbox for cars * Uber for soft drinks * Exec for music * Github for food * Twitter for fashion
Re: Developer Auction raises $2.7M for exactly what you’d think
#39Co-founder of Work for Pie (the other company mentioned in the article) here. I will say I'm glad that these guys expanded from their original, pretty elitist degree and/or experience requirements.
There are companies that do it right--like Github and Etsy--and there are companies that do it wrong. The big problem is that doing it right probably takes more time. Supporting the local developer ecosystem, presenting at conferences and meetups, mentoring others, open sourcing projects, writing blogs that help others, etc. are all great recruiting strategies (and just darn nice things to do overall), but they all take a lot of time (and none are guaranteed to bring you new employees).
I think the fact that these guys are successful tells me that a fair number of companies are saying "my time is more valuable than $xx." I'm not sure how I feel about that. I completely understand it--especially when you're a part of a super-small team--but I still kinda wish it didn't have to be that way. And fwiw I'm not sure how well cultural fit is addressed by this platform, but maybe the companies figure all that out in interviews.
I'm biased, but I think giving developers the chance to discover the one company (among as many options as possible) that fits them best is the way to really improve recruiting. That forces companies to actually be worth a damn--not just have deep pockets--to recruit successfully.
..and now for the shameless plug. It's free to set up a company page on Work for Pie, and you can post up to two jobs for free too. Tell our thousands of developers how awesome you are: https://workforpie.com/companies/join/
Re: Developer Auction raises $2.7M for exactly what you’d think
#40I was a developer in the most recent auction and it was a great experience. As a developer it appeared the only required field for employers was salary. Often equity, vacation days and perks were listed but sometimes they were listed as negotiable. All but one of the offers I received were for significant raises above my previous salary. And the offers included some from high profile companies. Once you receive an of…
Sounds like you had a great experience.
Thank you for sharing your story.
You mentioned you declined 3 of the 6 offers but did you end up accepting one?