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YC founder asks desperate job seekers to tattoo themselves for an interview

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Re: YC founder asks desperate job seekers to tattoo themselves for an interview

#51

Post by EA-3167 »

fragmede wrote: post #26
ls-a wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

absolutely contrary. You are who you surround yourself with. These people have a private social network called bookface. Hidden from the rest of the world

It sounds sinister when you say it like that, but I've got private group chats with my friends that are "hidden from the rest of the world" and someone shares pictures of their dog or music they liked. I think tattooing people with a company logo for an interview is fucked up, but let's not pull out the guillotines just because certain people are having secret encrypted private conversations with each other.

If you're advertising that you're going to permanently mark your almost certainly transient brand on desperate people for the promise of just an interview, I think it's fair to wonder what you'd prefer to keep hidden. In your case it's all puppies and rainbows, but presumably your public face is also quite a bit milder than, "Sure get the tattoo and maybe I'll see if you can make it to the next round of interviews, hope you're ready to work 7-day weeks if you make it!"

Re: YC founder asks desperate job seekers to tattoo themselves for an interview

#54

Post by chomp »

janalsncm wrote: post #34

> We are bold, we take risks, and we do things that haven’t been done before. This is a very annoying line. Risk for the sake of risk is self-destructive. The risk-reward profile is what matters, and people respect risk taking with large upside. Having your company’s logo tattooed on a bunch of random people is zero or negative upside.

Tattooing company logos has already been done https://www.huffpost.com/entry/billy-gibby-aka-hostgator_n_2...

So really, they are just boring and derivative. Probably an analog to be drawn here for modern SV.

Re: YC founder asks desperate job seekers to tattoo themselves for an interview

#57

Post by cutterl6 »

oatmeal1 wrote: post #50
dpark wrote: post #11

I could imagine how a potential interviewee might say something like “I’d tattoo myself with your logo for a chance at a job” and a CEO might respond “Hell, yeah! That’s the kind of energy I’m looking for.” What I can’t understand is how in a whole executive team, no one thought bringing a tattoo artist to tattoo potential interviewees with was a stupid idea. This wasn’t an accident, or surprise, like a tattoo artist…

They didn't think it was a bad idea because they don't have a sense of right and wrong. If something is potentially profitable and technically legal they will do it. This is what YC screens for.

[dead]

Re: YC founder asks desperate job seekers to tattoo themselves for an interview

#58

Post by harshalizee »

The fantasy series, Farseer trilogy, and beyond (great read) has "Map-Faces". People subjugated to slavery, wearing their current owner's crest on their cheeks so everyone immediately knows who they belong to. Of course, when traded/sold to another, means yet another "map".

Seems like the valley is getting there and dropping all pretense pretty rapidly.

Re: YC founder asks desperate job seekers to tattoo themselves for an interview

#59

Post by gfat »

ajross wrote: post #3

Ew. At what point do we just decide that this whole community has eaten itself? Remember when a "YC founder" was a diligent nerd just trying to make something people want and get to ramen-profitable before the runway from their tiny seed check ran out? Now being a founder is such a valuable status that it's attracting people who thinking that ghoulish worshipful body art (on the bodies of people afflicted with the sa…

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48538229

Re: YC founder asks desperate job seekers to tattoo themselves for an interview

#60

Post by thephyber »

danans wrote: post #33
dpark wrote: post #11

I could imagine how a potential interviewee might say something like “I’d tattoo myself with your logo for a chance at a job” and a CEO might respond “Hell, yeah! That’s the kind of energy I’m looking for.” What I can’t understand is how in a whole executive team, no one thought bringing a tattoo artist to tattoo potential interviewees with was a stupid idea. This wasn’t an accident, or surprise, like a tattoo artist…

> I could imagine how a potential interviewee might say something like “I’d tattoo myself with your logo for a chance at a job” and a CEO might respond “Hell, yeah! That’s the kind of energy I’m looking for.” If I were that CEO I'd avoid that person because of their very poor judgement, lack of boundaries, and questionable self respect. That you think it's even on the edge of normal describes the current balance of p…

There's hundreds of thousands of programmers out of work from recent layoffs. Getting a small tattoo to stand out in a crowd doesn't necessarily signal bad judgement. It's more likely to be a calculated sacrifice due to desperation. Other people might have a beer, talk with the artist while they are getting inked, then enjoy having a stupid story to tell others. I wouldn't do it in my current situation, but I don't know what I would do if I was homeless and hungry.

Also, you did the counterfactual wrong. You can't simply say "if I were that CEO" and then change the ethics of the situation and of the person and who has agency in the situation.

Don't get me wrong. I wouldn't want to work for this guy. But that doesn't mean I'm going to shit on people who would consider it, even if they have to do something I would consider degrading.

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