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Ask HN: Are YC startups *actually* hiring?

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Re: Ask HN: Are YC startups *actually* hiring?

#71

Post by themanmaran »

heurist wrote: post #58
TheGamerUncle wrote: post #7

I would like to assume that I am a good candidate I usually get calls back from even LinkedIn posts or even indeed, but after well applying to more than two hundred offerings on the who is hiring posts in this place, and only having had been called twice. I can assure you that the ones here usually are not hiring and at best just want a rooster of possible replacements for their current employees. Most notable offend…

Not a YC startup, but jobs I've posted recently had over a thousand applicants in the first few weeks. I post multiple places, including HN. There's a huge culling process to find the 20-30 most applicable candidates, then to narrow down from there to the 1-2 that fit best. The best way to stand out (for me) is a real application not written with AI. Everyone uses AI now and it all sounds the same. Express your hones…

Agreed on the "no AI messaging". And keep it incredibly short. Like 140 characters short. The messages that stand out look a lot more like tweets than they do cover letters.

AI messages are always 500 words of rehashing the JD, so your goal is to not look like that.

Re: Ask HN: Are YC startups *actually* hiring?

#72

Post by logotype »

ceroxylon wrote: post #9

It is a complicated scene right now. Bots are taking over on both ends, both in creating and interpreting resumes. Companies can have ulterior motives for posting job ads in many directions, including just scraping data. My latest job search made me want to create a startup that addresses this, by vetting both posters and users. The largest hurdle is that adding money to the scenario opens a whole new can of worms fo…

Exactly! The system is flawed right now because it’s automated on both sides, for often the wrong reasons

Re: Ask HN: Are YC startups *actually* hiring?

#73

Post by no_wizard »

themanmaran wrote: post #42

As a YC company that is currently hiring, yes! And all of the YC companies I know are also struggling to find engineers. But the job listings (HN, WorkAtAStartup) practically never bring in good candidates. A few big problems: 1. AI Spam. I categorized the inbound we got the other day from a job post. Out of 172 daily applicants, we got 22 that looked reasonably like a person, and 150 that were primarily AI generated…

Interesting to me that 'working with AI' is using OpenAI's API.

Thats really working with someone elses AI, no?

FWIW I have used it quite a bit, but its not really the same thing as developing AI

(nevermind my usual rant that we shouldn't call any of this AI, but I digress)

Re: Ask HN: Are YC startups *actually* hiring?

#74

Post by ryandrake »

mikhael28 wrote: post #66
Pedro_Ribeiro wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe HN is a high quality forum that enforces high quality standards, there is no reason this shouldn't be a thing. Companies that advertise here should be held accountable.

Maybe a startup could work on this problem - HN has two moderators, I’m not sure it’s realistic to ask them to track more than what they already do. How would they even track and verify such hearsay anyway?

I'm mostly just spitballing un-implementable ideas. At the end of the day, the HN "Who's Hiring" tradition relies on people acting in good faith, which cannot be assumed anymore. There is nothing to stop a "hiring" company from lying about every last thing in their job ad.

Re: Ask HN: Are YC startups *actually* hiring?

#75

Post by themanmaran »

WD-42 wrote: post #70
themanmaran wrote: post #42

As a YC company that is currently hiring, yes! And all of the YC companies I know are also struggling to find engineers. But the job listings (HN, WorkAtAStartup) practically never bring in good candidates. A few big problems: 1. AI Spam. I categorized the inbound we got the other day from a job post. Out of 172 daily applicants, we got 22 that looked reasonably like a person, and 150 that were primarily AI generated…

The irony of an AI company’s hiring woes due to too much AI.

Hey we process unstructured data so we're trying not to make things worse :')

Re: Ask HN: Are YC startups *actually* hiring?

#76

Post by aimazon »

jjice wrote: post #51

I work for a small YC startup and we have recently wanted to hire another engineer. Our CTO posted a listing on WorkAtAStartup and within two or so days, got over 200 applicants. Apparently, WorkAtAStartup (which I've used successfully in the past) allows you to bulk send applications. He went through and found that almost all the applications he was able to go through were absolute nonsense. He then screened some pe…

Yes, you need to get better at filtering. Yes, it has always been like this. Public job listings have always attracted mostly junk.

The typical good candidate becomes a good candidate through years of experience. The years of a good candidate's experience has exposed them to many people, many people who would love to work with the good candidate again. And so when the good candidate is looking for a new opportunity, or even when they're not looking, there's a bunch of people waiting in the wings, longing for the opportunity to hire them. A good candidate is probably not going to end up trawling job listings. A bad candidate probably is.

Public job listings aren't all bad as they can bring in candidates that you might not have otherwise encountered... and these can be very influential and beneficial hires, but in general, public job listings are for the people who couldn't find a job otherwise. You're looking for a diamond in the rough.

Your company is doing the right thing by pausing the search, it is a very bad use of time. Find people through the founder's and employee's personal networks. A vouched-for candidate in the hand is worth 1,000 applications in the bush. If personal networks aren't an option, the alternative is to do what candidates hate: keep your applications open without the goal to fill a specific role by a specific date but rather to wait for the right candidate to come along.

Re: Ask HN: Are YC startups *actually* hiring?

#77

Post by logotype »

awkward wrote: post #30

In my career I've split time between startups, fintech, and consulting. Last year I've had a few interviews with VC funded startups that went to second and third rounds, where I would be told outright that developers who worked at larger companies weren't as "Velocity Focused" as what they were looking for. I think there's some active memes in the startup community about not hiring people from finance specifically.

interesting! I haven’t heard about this, thanks for sharing.

Re: Ask HN: Are YC startups *actually* hiring?

#78

Post by daemonologist »

doctorpangloss wrote: post #60
themanmaran wrote: post #42

As a YC company that is currently hiring, yes! And all of the YC companies I know are also struggling to find engineers. But the job listings (HN, WorkAtAStartup) practically never bring in good candidates. A few big problems: 1. AI Spam. I categorized the inbound we got the other day from a job post. Out of 172 daily applicants, we got 22 that looked reasonably like a person, and 150 that were primarily AI generated…

The unspoken problem is that most people want way too much fucking money.

I don't think demand for engineers is necessarily that elastic - even if candidates were willing to accept less money, it would take a long time for companies to respond by hiring more and they might never match supply.

I've personally applied to several jobs offering less than $80k TC (government, nonprofits, startups) and heard nothing back. That's a small sample size because I'm currently employed and only looking at particularly interesting positions, but I'm also only applying to good fits, writing an individualized resume/cover letter, etc.

Anyways, I agree with GP that there seems to have been a breakdown of the old post job -> cold submit resume pipeline. You have to have some kind of an in these days.

Re: Ask HN: Are YC startups *actually* hiring?

#79

Post by ryandrake »

kdamica wrote: post #54
caminante wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the vast majority of startup hires are referrals. > Find ways to hustle to get a warm intro. OP's process is actually that of a spring chicken by not realizing this reality. I still don't understand why people, especially "experienced hires," expect more from passive applications.

I also think people don't appreciate the sheer volume of online applications that a desirable startup gets. There have been times were I would literally get hundreds of applications per week, with none of them standing out in any way. You want to give unknowns a chance but when it's a waste of time 99% of the time, you learn to reject quickly.

Then why even play make-believe and have public job postings? If everyone's just ignoring them, most companies should just take them down and stop wasting everyone else's time. Just state for real on your web site "We hire through nepostism and friends-of-friends only" and make it clear and easy for everyone.

Re: Ask HN: Are YC startups *actually* hiring?

#80

Post by bambax »

kdamica wrote: post #24

The reality is that the vast majority of startup hires are referrals. For hiring managers, having someone you trust tell you that they've worked with a candidate and vouch for them is invaluable, especially when the company is at a stage that you don't have good performance oversight. The cost of a bad hire is immense. My advice: never do a cold application. Find ways to hustle to get a warm intro.

Yeah ok sure, this is common sense. But then what's really the point of advertising open positions? The only certain result for companies who do this, is they'll be inundated with pointless random candidacies...?
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