Simply Hired is shutting down June 26 • Hacker News Board

Re: Simply Hired is shutting down June 26

#41

Post by dctoedt » Tue, May 31, 2016, 10:28 PM UTC

therealgimli wrote: post #34

throwaway59511 wrote: post #18

Throwaway to share my experience with them: I applied in mid-2014 to a software eng position based on encouragement from a recruiter. I went to two onsites with five people in total, each of which passed me to the next round. They had me come in for a third onsite(!) to meet with CEO James Beriker and some head of engineering. I had admitted to being let go for underperformance to the position I held two jobs ago (wa…

there's an interviewing technique among senior execs to take on an aggressive, rude tone to interviewees to "see how they respond under pressure." One way to spot it is if they respond in a contrary way to everything and generally try to pick on you to find chinks in your armor. the first time I experienced it I was pretty shaken up. either that or the person you spoke with is just an asshole.

> there's an interviewing technique among senior execs to take on an aggressive, rude tone to interviewees to "see how they respond under pressure."

Sounds like wannabes trying to imitate Admiral Rickover's interview style for the Navy's nuclear-propulsion program [0]. Forty-plus years on I can still recite my interview with the Kindly Old Gentleman [sic] practically verbatim.

[0] E.g., http://the-military-guide.com/sea-story-the-admiral-rickover...

Re: Simply Hired is shutting down June 26

#42

Post by 808statetaway » Tue, May 31, 2016, 10:32 PM UTC

throwaway59511 wrote: post #26

eganist wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hah, I didn't expect my implied criticism (elsewhere in this thread) of a Yahoo VP being hired as their CEO to be so damningly validated by personal experience.

I don't understand. What about Yahoo VPs would lead you to expect the experience I had?

Good rule of thumb is that people from Yahoo or Sun are extremely nonproductive and tend to spend most of their time preparing powerpoint presentations for internal use.

Re: Simply Hired is shutting down June 26

#43

Post by mathattack » Tue, May 31, 2016, 10:41 PM UTC

yeukhon wrote: post #32

lukasm wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why did you say you were fired for underperformance? Why didn't you say it was a bad fit? Usually, that's the root cause.

Another reason I wouldn't not tell the truth is maybe the interviewer knows my ex-colleagues.

It also shows courage to fess up to getting fired. As long as there's a good story around it, and some learnings, silicon valley is generally forgiving of short tenures.

Re: Simply Hired is shutting down June 26

#44

Post by praneshp » Tue, May 31, 2016, 10:41 PM UTC

eganist wrote: post #22

throwaway59511 wrote: post #18

Throwaway to share my experience with them: I applied in mid-2014 to a software eng position based on encouragement from a recruiter. I went to two onsites with five people in total, each of which passed me to the next round. They had me come in for a third onsite(!) to meet with CEO James Beriker and some head of engineering. I had admitted to being let go for underperformance to the position I held two jobs ago (wa…

Hah, I didn't expect my implied criticism (elsewhere in this thread) of a Yahoo VP being hired as their CEO to be so damningly validated by personal experience.

He was at Yahoo for barely a year and a half.

Re: Simply Hired is shutting down June 26

#45

Post by [deleted] » Tue, May 31, 2016, 10:52 PM UTC

therealgimli wrote: post #34

throwaway59511 wrote: post #18

Throwaway to share my experience with them: I applied in mid-2014 to a software eng position based on encouragement from a recruiter. I went to two onsites with five people in total, each of which passed me to the next round. They had me come in for a third onsite(!) to meet with CEO James Beriker and some head of engineering. I had admitted to being let go for underperformance to the position I held two jobs ago (wa…

there's an interviewing technique among senior execs to take on an aggressive, rude tone to interviewees to "see how they respond under pressure." One way to spot it is if they respond in a contrary way to everything and generally try to pick on you to find chinks in your armor. the first time I experienced it I was pretty shaken up. either that or the person you spoke with is just an asshole.

[deleted]

Re: Simply Hired is shutting down June 26

#46

Post by notahacker » Tue, May 31, 2016, 10:55 PM UTC

therealgimli wrote: post #34

throwaway59511 wrote: post #18

Throwaway to share my experience with them: I applied in mid-2014 to a software eng position based on encouragement from a recruiter. I went to two onsites with five people in total, each of which passed me to the next round. They had me come in for a third onsite(!) to meet with CEO James Beriker and some head of engineering. I had admitted to being let go for underperformance to the position I held two jobs ago (wa…

there's an interviewing technique among senior execs to take on an aggressive, rude tone to interviewees to "see how they respond under pressure." One way to spot it is if they respond in a contrary way to everything and generally try to pick on you to find chinks in your armor. the first time I experienced it I was pretty shaken up. either that or the person you spoke with is just an asshole.

If you were to compile a list of "bad ways to conduct an interview", this would be near the top of the list. Sure, exceptions can be made for a later stage of a sales interview process after first impressions have been made, especially if it's a role play. But if "copes well with rude managers" is a hiring criteria for software developers... well they probably have the option for working for a company that doesn't see that as an essential skill.

Senior execs that do this belong a long way from the interview process (and probably a long way from a senior exec role, because if they haven't figured out that interviews are a two-way process and unnecessary rudeness isn't a good first impression to leave they're not really management material)

Re: Simply Hired is shutting down June 26

#47

Post by throwaway59511 » Tue, May 31, 2016, 10:57 PM UTC

lukasm wrote: post #28

throwaway59511 wrote: post #18

Throwaway to share my experience with them: I applied in mid-2014 to a software eng position based on encouragement from a recruiter. I went to two onsites with five people in total, each of which passed me to the next round. They had me come in for a third onsite(!) to meet with CEO James Beriker and some head of engineering. I had admitted to being let go for underperformance to the position I held two jobs ago (wa…

Why did you say you were fired for underperformance? Why didn't you say it was a bad fit? Usually, that's the root cause.

Because a) that is how it was represented to me, albeit with very high standards, and b) I don't feel comfortable massaging the truth like that. If and when I go into detail I can explain things that I think go in and against my favor.

Also, mathattack's answer: https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=mathattack

Re: Simply Hired is shutting down June 26

#48

Post by [deleted] » Tue, May 31, 2016, 10:59 PM UTC

therealgimli wrote: post #34

throwaway59511 wrote: post #18

Throwaway to share my experience with them: I applied in mid-2014 to a software eng position based on encouragement from a recruiter. I went to two onsites with five people in total, each of which passed me to the next round. They had me come in for a third onsite(!) to meet with CEO James Beriker and some head of engineering. I had admitted to being let go for underperformance to the position I held two jobs ago (wa…

there's an interviewing technique among senior execs to take on an aggressive, rude tone to interviewees to "see how they respond under pressure." One way to spot it is if they respond in a contrary way to everything and generally try to pick on you to find chinks in your armor. the first time I experienced it I was pretty shaken up. either that or the person you spoke with is just an asshole.

[deleted]

Re: Simply Hired is shutting down June 26

#49

Post by choward » Tue, May 31, 2016, 11:00 PM UTC

matmann2001 wrote: post #23

eganist wrote: post #3

"part-acquisition" So in conclusion, someone bought up the scraps at rock-bottom prices just before a potential bankruptcy. Ouch. I suppose it shouldn't be a surprise. They brought on a former Yahoo VP as CEO four years ago. As the article and one of the comments therein pointed out: it seems they didn't have much in the way of new technological or algorithmic advantages to build on and didn't have much in the way of…

They were acquired ...by the bank.

To be sold to patent trolls.

Re: Simply Hired is shutting down June 26

#50

Post by adevine » Tue, May 31, 2016, 11:04 PM UTC

yeukhon wrote: post #33

downandout wrote: post #14

It seems that with 30M monthly users, they could have somehow made enough money to keep things going, even if they had to lay some people off. Why on earth do you just shut down a site that has 1M valuable active users every day? Simply slapping some Adsense on a site with this kind of traffic would have generated enough to keep the doors open. Even if they are getting acquired, this seems like an insane move for the…

Yeah. Indeed.com has the worst user experience and yet it is still running strong, simply because Indeed.com is everywhere!

(Disclosure - I'm friends with some folks at Indeed.) I'm also curious to what you dislike about the UX. Indeed certainly isn't going to win any beauty contests, but I think they have excellent laser focus on exactly what they want to do: the site is very fast, simple, and has a minimal set of features that are useful without a bunch of extra BS.