Ask HN: How did you find your company & job? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How did you find your company & job?

44 pointsvrikhter78 comments

So this may seem like a simple question, but how did you find the company you are working at now? I've been using: crunchbase, linkedin, reading techcrunch, etc as well as a ton of coffees, beers, 'career advice' meetings. Every time I find a company I go through an extensive search of who works there, what they do, what the demand is for their product, etc. This helps for discovery, but of course will inevitably help during the interview.

I know there are many companies that I am still missing. Is there a service out there (not recruiters) that can play matchmaker with the characteristics that I am looking for in a company?

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I was waiting in line for an iPhone 3G when someone called out "I need a web developer, who's interested?". We talked for a few minutes in line, then I did an interview the next day.

I'm still working with them now.

Ha, best story yet!

I got my job at Apple from the 37signals job board. Today is my last day, but it was a great experience. (Wish me luck with my new startup!)

The employment inquiries and offers I've received from startups in the past have mostly come through meetups and events I've attended or organized. Figure out where the smart people are congregating and go have some beers with them.

Good luck! I hope it works out for you!

As another former Apple employee that left for a startup, I feel compelled to say congratulations and good luck.

Hope you enjoy your new life!

(on topic) Meetups and events are perfect ways to find job opportunities, as long as you're willing to put in some effort. Any time you can show off your skills, some app you wrote, or provide advice for someone else, you are impressing people and proving your worth.

Congratulations! I just gave my two-weeks at Big Fruit, moving on to something very exciting. All my friends who have left have told me it's been a great decision for them.

As to how I got my job at Apple, started interning after meeting an engineering manager at a school event, and turned that into a fulltime position after graduation.

New job was through a friend of a friend.

Researched the top companies all over the US and then researched how the top people in the industry present themselves and what their portfolios look like. There's a lot of random browsing involved in that, but also just knowing who's good by having followed the industry over time. Job boards are also a good starting point.

Then I built the best portfolio site possible based on the research. It was slightly customized per company, for examples with a simple "Welcome Company X" which (I think) made a good impression.

Then, sent out the links via email to around 20 companies and tried to follow up as much as possible without seeming pushy. Some people responded after two weeks, some didn't. My current company responded within a day. Within 3 days, they had sent me a test, I finished it and sent it back, we had negotiations and I had accepted their offer. Two weeks later I moved from San Diego to NYC. Their responsiveness and professionalism was a big plus.

I've been reviewing portfolios for years, but have had terrible experiences with recruiters. They do a great job at hyping people up, only to let you down when you look at the actual work done. So we're posting a lot on industry forums, Twitter, etc and also asking for recommendations through employees and friends to find new people.

HN "Who's hiring", linkedin jobs, even craigslist.

My personal experience with recruiters has not been as good as I would have liked. The recruiters I dealt with mostly did keyword searches on technologies and experience (e.g C++ dev with 3 yrs of experience) ignoring the other skills (teamwork, passion, how excited the person is about the company, etc.) Most recruiters use means that the companies themselves could use(LinkedIn, job boards, etc.) If the founders of the startup are not willing to invest time to find the talent and rather pay hefty fees to the recruiters, not sure if I would want to work for that startup anyway.

The ideal company would be one that you just "come across" than go out looking. For example, a product you heard about somewhere that got you really excited, or an idea that you had and while searching for who is working in that space, you find a company that was doing something very similar.

I agree with you on the recruiters point, heck most searching through resumes today is keyword based. Wouldn't it make sense to have something similar to match.com for employers and employees?

I agree that it's all keyword based. I think it's because machines can only capture the objective factors of a job search. Things like : "will you get along with the team", do you like the people you'd be working with, etc are very subjective and not easily captured by computers.

Meeting people at events, getting recommendations from other people you trust allow one to evaluate the position at a much more subjective level and make an estimation of the human-elements of working at the startup.

Shortly after moving to the bay area – knowing exactly zero people for a hundred miles – someone linked to freebase on reddit. I found what they were doing so compelling that I volunteered on their message board[1]. They saw that I was local and invited me down for lunch.

One of the best things that's ever happened to me.

1] http://lists.freebase.com/pipermail/developers/2007-Septembe...

One time, I decided I wanted a software job in a specific remote area. I connected with numerous recruiters to maximize my interviews per plane trip to the area. The ultimate win came from watching for jobs in the area through craigslist that did not obviously come from some generic recruiting farm. It took me two plane trips' worth of interviews in five months, and I landed that craigslist job.

If I were to do it all again, I realize now that the most powerful tool for all this is to make use of connections. I do not mean the feel-good stuff you get from LinkedIn. I mean actual communication with people via phone, email, whatever. User groups, conferences, whatever... Network well, and the job hunt becomes a lot easier.

The other thing about networking is that you can get an idea of WHO you want to work with. Usually that is more important than the actual kinds of work in our field.

Lacking the network, I would look for ways to bypass having to communicate with HR... or just venture forth on my own.

Technical mailing lists. Almost all have an accompanying job list and often the most interesting jobs get filled from there.

Craigslist is a good place to start, but you need to be discerning. Find one that has realistic expectations for the job they are asking, and generally it's a good thing when they don't give you a price tag right up front because that means they will pay you based on what you're worth and not some arbitrary number.

My job asked a simple question, what was the title of the book written by 37signals, which reveals a lot about their perspectives. They also included enough information in the Craigslist ad that convinced me they were a technically strong company.

I actually haven't used craigslist as much. Will check it out some more.

But this still goes back to my point that craigslist, like monster and all others is a basic listing service of available opportunities. Is there anything out there, like a match.com for employers and employees?

I'm not sure but I think what you are looking for is a network of reliable professionals who you can work for and rely on for support. Something like this, I suspect, you could try to get rolling through a service geared towards professionals, like LinkedIn, but the real answer I think would be to find your own network, or find someone who has a network and tap into them, you know, IRL :)

I met a guy through RAC last year who has projects come up every few months and knows a lot of people and it's been a great professional relationship for both of us. He's the only person in my network, and I definitely couldn't make a living from it, but it's a good start.

I guess the key to what I'm trying to say is meet people and when you find good ones hold on to them!

It wouldn't necessarily have to be geared for individuals. I think there are a ton of companies out there in the 20-50 employees that are doing well, not getting a lot of publicity, but have a tough time finding great people. As I do finding them. This is where a service like this makes sense to me.

I got my current job through Craigslist as well. Their job posting was well thought out, and obviously created by a developer, not a random HR person. From start to hire, it was a 1.5 week process for me.

From an ad on Craig's List. My wife showed it to me on a Sunday morning. I said "yeah, I know who these guys are, but I don't know them". They had originally written the software where I worked at the time, but had quit and moved on to form a start-up. I had never met them.

So I sent my resume and a cover letter on a Sunday morning. 27 minutes later I got a phone call. 2 hours later I was interviewing. Longer story short: I became employee #8 including the founders, we were purchased by a Fortune 200 company a year later. Still there after 5 years.

I got my 2nd job on IRC, and hired for the current job (4th) by a former colleague from the 2nd one. Got an offer in a channel as well.

All those hours on IRC did pay off!

Through a friend / former co-worker. We've worked together at university and at two companies and almost two other companies.

At the first company, I just happened to let him know I was looking for a job at the right moment. His group needed someone right away and I was a great fit. Unfortunately that company started to come apart 2 years later.

He moved on first, to what became my current company. He pitched hiring me and I went to lunch with his new boss and some other guys a couple times. When they finally needed another person, I was an easy sell. I've been there for a number of years now, through some rough times and an acquisition.

I tried to follow the same guy to two other companies when times were tough where I was. The new companies were ready to hire me, but the first one ran out of money and the second one just couldn't afford me.

I don't think we'll try again unless we finally start our own thing. We've tried twice in the past, but at this point in our careers we can't really tolerate a "ramen" profitability period.

tl;dr version: I've always found jobs through my personal network: friends or friends of friends. I've never really used a recruiter or searched a job board.

Microsoft 2003-2007: I was attending WWDC on a student scholarship and ran into a Lead Program Manager I'd known during my internship the previous summer. He was working on Visual Studio and needed a UI-focused person.

Skytap 2007-2009: My girlfriend at the time had an old boss who was looking for Program Managers at his new company (amusingly, he's working on recruiting me for his current employer).

Dibspace 2009-May 2010: Started it with a friend.

Contracting work May 2010-Now: I have two in-flight contracts for Rails and iPhone work. The iPhone project came about because I knew a guy whose company might need one and I cold-called him about it. The Rails project was a friend-of-a-friend thing. I'm putting together a proposal for another iPhone app contract right now (to start later this summer). I heard about that one through another FOAF.

Found my position at CollegeHumor through techcrunch (crunchboard) about 4 years ago. We are hiring... http://www.crunchboard.com/opening/detailjob.php?jid=8209

My personal experience has been primarily through introduction in my network. The majority of my network I met at meetups and events. I have tried getting work through recruiters, but never actually excepted a job they set me up with. Most of the companies they sent me to were uninteresting and very generic.

I think the best way to find a job is the reverse approach. Don't wait for listings that 2000 other people are applying to. Put together a list of the companies you like/want to work for and start contacting the right people there. Take apart company directories, break email codes and get your resume to the right people. Even if its the wrong person they will often forward it to the right person (or ask them to).

(Edited)

So do you think a service that helps you narrow down the list of companies for you to work would be helpful?

Possibly. As a developer who wants to make a difference and work on interesting projects. I have to go to a number of different sites to get all the current job posts. That doesn't bother me, plus you have companies like indeed that aggregate it all together for you. My problem is lack of good companies/positions and information being posted to begin with. "Hot" startups usually don't need to blast their job post all over the boards, I bet they get plenty of traffic to their /jobs page or people who send in their resume at random. My second issue is that most job postings are by recruiters on tech boards. That means all these "great" sounding listings have no company name to go with it and you have to then deal with a recruiter who doesn't care where you work as long as he places you quickly and takes their cut. So I'm not positive what a service that narrows down the listings would do? I'm unhappy because job boards are fundamentally broken to begin with.

My first job as a programmer came as a suggestion from a friend who convinced me to apply and interview for a startup where he was working (Cayen Systems, http://www.cayen.net). At the time, they were doing MS Access applications. (They've since grown much - I was employee number 4 or 5, now they've got 20 or 30, and they deal much more extensively with Web Apps than with Access).

I left after a few years to start my own startup, even though that original idea never materialized, and I contracted for 4 years (including to my former employer) before starting a different startup (and the one I currently work on).

And while I only had one official job as a programmer employee, it was awesome working there, and a great experience. Best boss I could have hoped to have had. He wasn't a programmer, and he trusted his programmers to make technical decisions.

tl;dr: Friend worked there.

I'm probably an outlier here, but I work for a major defense contractor. I found my job by applying, having the right (albeit obscure) skill set, and being willing to learn. That said, I take it you're not looking for the typical cubical desk job. :)

I'd start with your personal network. I moved to a new position within the company recently; one that I shouldn't have been able to apply for. The only reason I was even considered was because my new manager (read: single meeting, first impressions) saw that I wanted to do the job, and was passionate about it.

She called the hiring manager and a week later I was in an interview. The following day I had an offer.

Your network is the fastest way in. If you don't have one, grow one. Contribute to open source, attend user groups, get out in the world -- and always have a business card.

I was contacted by a contingent staffing company (I think they found me on Monster) about contract work at Microsoft. This intrigued me at the time, so I took a 6-month contract, during which I earned respect and made friends. They extended the contract a couple of times, and then I was encouraged to apply for a full time position. I still had to do a regular interview loop, but I think their perception was colored by the fact that they had already seen a lot of my production code, and thought it was good.

This was perfect for me, because due to the way my mind works, I would much, much rather "interview" by doing a few months of real software development, than by floundering around on the spot with clever questions about manhole covers, weighing billiard balls, egg drops, etc.

I worked for him out of high school; building the add-on to his house... Then in his factory building the product we sell for 2 years (very hard work, bending metal around a bender 3-4k times a day) ~ then he helped me land my first computer gig (ebay lister). I did that for 2 years then came back to the company as the only IT person.

Have since basically doubled internet revenue.

My answer; networking... one of my old friends worked in the factory and knew the guy needed some odd end help building a add-on to his house. Currently he is building me a new office onto our new building... I still feel the need to go independent though; cause of stupid office politics.

You are correct, networking is most always the best course of action. Nothing beats sitting face-to-face with someone.

I work at my own consulting company. 5 colleagues were tired of "working for the man", we rented an office and started calling other colleagues. Now (3 years later) we're down to 3, have full-time work and are fairly happy.

They found me listed at the "DevelopersForHire" wiki page:

http://code.djangoproject.com/wiki/DevelopersForHire

I was contacted via LinkedIn by the CTO at my current job. I'm friends with one of the other developers here who is well thought of. I wouldn't have ever come across this job otherwise. I'm horrible about doing research about companies I want to work for.

I did a few things before starting though like checking page load efficiency and seeing if implementing css spriting would help load time. I mostly did that so I'd have more information about how the site worked before I started.

I was also recruited via LinkedIn for my current job.

I'm working for the family business currently - it was a good opportunity for me the learn the ropes of running a business right out of college and it gave me a chance to help my father out with some issues he was having in my area of expertise. I'm working on starting my own startup as an extra-curricular project, but the lessons I've learned from working here have been fantastic and I keep learning new ones every day.

I've been in students club of computer science, meet many people from older and younger years that were interested in programming. We were doing hobby projects and starting in team programming competitions.

At the last year of studying I've mailed one of friends from that club (he was working in one of a few big software companies in my city) asking if they would want me. I've been interviewed and got a job.

I was recommended to my job by a former co-worker. We were both miserable at a previous company. He started here and brought me on.

I've actually helped friends lately look for jobs. As a tech person in NYC, I'm constantly meeting people in startups who are looking for great people. It's an easy intro e-mail and then my work is done!

Do your friends know you're looking for work?

I found my current job on the Stackoverflow job board. That same week, I received an offer from another great company that I found via HN.

I got my job by using Facebook. I first went to job sites, found a job I wanted and then searched the company on facebook to see employees who listed they worked there. Then I looked through all listed employees for a mutual connection between our networks to get referral, interview & job. Took me two weeks to land my current gig doing this.

Good luck.

When I decided I was ready to move on from my last job, I went over to the library (2 blocks away) to update my resume during my lunch hour. I saw that the library had an opening for a programmer, so I applied. I was called for an interview two days later, and they hired me the day after that. I didn't even have time to send out any other resumes.

I got my first job after college through a posting on efinancialcareers.com that turned out to be a recruiter. I got my current (and second job) at a startup through a posting on LinkedIn.

I recommend going to meetups through meetup.com and checking the message boards and email lists for those meetups. Plenty of quality leads through Meetup.

Became friendly with the organizer of the Silicon Valley New Tech meetup, mentioned to him I was looking for a Python job, he put me in touch with the director of engineering at my current company. Networking _works_ -- but I should point out that I didn't get to know the organizer to try to get something out of him.

I was discussing doing some contracting work with someone, which I mentioned to a friend of mine, who told me not to sign anything before talking to him. A few days later I asked if that meant he was looking for contractors, I was working with them within a week.

tl;dr: I knew someone who had his own company.

I work at Red Hat. I heard about the company ever since I heard about linux, but I didn't realize they have an office in my city before a colleague from my previous employer went there.

When I started looking for a different job, I knew a bit more about them and they were the first company I looked at.

37 signals job board, desperately seeking a Ruby job in NYC after building and selling a small Rails app created with a friend in our spare time. The specialized job boards seem to have worked pretty well for me, the interviews (the good ones at least) are all about what you have done passionately.

I got my current job through Twitter.

I can't exactly remember how we ended up following each other but I know it's because we are both Django guys.

I met up with him for coffee once and when there was a job opening where he works, he tweeted about it. I replied to him and sent my resume.

I got my current job via Dice, and the last two via Monster. I wish it weren't the case, but it is true.

I first always look through friends and on smaller job boards, but haven't had much success getting full-time work this way (although it has been very successful for contract work).

I did research to find tech companies in my area, picked a dozen that looked like a reasonably good fit, and sent them a cover letter. Marketable skills should get you a few bites -- some people may call/meet you even if they aren't hiring, which can help you gather information.

My best job options have always come from investors and ceos of startups. The best thing you can do is do your own startup and even if it doesn't work out, impress vcs and mentors along the way. You'll have your pick of options waiting for you on the other end.

My current manager visited my school for a brown bag lunch talk. I asked her questions during and after the lunch. I continued the discussion over email and eventually that turned into an internship. After the Bar, it turned into a job and the rest is history!

2x Through former co-workers and clients who had moved on to new companies.

2x From cold calls - "Hi, I noticed some issues with your website/app, here are some specific recommendations..."

1x Started my own company, carried over all my connections.

I've only had two jobs in the industry. The first was found in a local paper. I was hired entry level and moved up from there and the experience was invaluable.

Current job was found through monster.com and is also proving to be well worth my time.

Through a local python user group. I introduced myself at the beginning and said I was looking for a job. Over pizza and a beer afterwards, somebody mentioned an open position. I applied, interviewed, and that's where I am now.

I found my last two jobs in the same way: a recruiter placed an ad in comp.arch.embedded and I followed up on it.

Dunno if this still works: I've been here for over 10 years and haven't looked at Usenet in about that long.

I always got jobs through tips from friends, I don't like recruiters and such to be honest.

I always feel they don't care for my jobhappyness, while friends won't advice a bad job (or at least not on purpose).

My girlfriends boss introduced me to a former colleague of hers. Later I called him up and asked if he was hiring. He said no, but to keep in touch. So I did and one day he called and offered me a job.

I got my first job through a family connection, but in general you should not shy away from recruiters. A good recruiter can get your foot in the door and have opportunities that you might not know about.

First job out of college (2005) I was contacted when I posted my resume on Monster.com. Second job was at a startup which I got through a headhunter. Last one I made for myself! It's the best way =)

I got my job because I did a speaking engagement with my old employer, and my current employer (then competitor) was also speaking. Several months later, I got offered a job there.

I was at an open house at TechShop. We were going around the room introducing ourselves, and on person described where he worked. I immediately asked "are you hiring?" He was.

I founded my company with two former co-workers and zero money. Hey, isn't this the expected answer here on HN?

+1, haha

Found them on the local Ruby meetup mailing lists. It's a pretty good place to look, at least for Rails jobs.

I got my job through facebook, a friend from university was looking for developers for his startup.

Craigs List.

If you're willing to sift through the noise you'll find something worthwhile and people that will respect you for the work you do. Craigslist isn't my first choice, but it is reliable; lots of people use it everyday.

I also landed my current job via Craigslist. Some companies post there directly, and it's pretty easy to spot and weed out recruiters.

craigslist. It's easy to search and narrow down results. Also really like indeed.com.

Current position was looking for someone way more senior. But I was nearly an exact match for what they needed and it's worked out great.

Following a Twitter feed that posts tech jobs in the Dallas area.

Nice to see activity in Dallas :) I lived there for 3 years and left this past January. Good people down there.

Met the founders of the company at a local entrepreneurs event.

Craigslist every time.

I got my current job through my school career services.

Oddly enough, responding to a newspaper ad.

For what type of a job?

I got all the jobs I've ever held responding to newspaper ads. (using job boards is not that common yet over here in Uruguay)

I can tell you, though, that it's not the way to high-paying jobs.

I've gotten decent enough to get job offers from friends recently :) (though I declined as it wasn't a good fit)

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My girlfriend set up an informational interview for me in December 2007 with my future boss. I was not shy about saying I was willing to take a job, but wasn't pushing too hard or selling. We just had a straight conversation and by February 2008 I met some others within the company and started in March 2008.

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