Wanted: Software Engineers. Reward: $12,000

If you made the link from the http://www.seomoz.org/refer-an-engineer page using your email address, we actually would track it back to you (cool feature of Jobvite - you can set it up to tweet/FB share/email links w/ your tracking code).

But, of course, much appreciated. :-)

I can definitely do that. As of 2 hours after the post, we've had a good number of referrals and 3 applicants. Jobvite's system does a good job of storing lots of interesting data, so hopefully I can share metrics in a follow-up.

That might go on our dev blog (rather than the main blog) - http://devblog.seomoz.org/

Generates buzz for your startup, costs less and doesn't involve recruiters. Sounds like a lot of positive. I'd also like to hear about SEOmoz's experience after they fill the positions.

I don't claim to fully understand the challenges of a startup hiring the right folks, but recruiters just leave a bad taste in my mouth. Often they use questionable tactics and you know they are costing the startup a lot of money.

In a vacum ignorant of the realities of the real world, I wish there was a way to rate engineers and startups on all the key factors. For a startup: compensation, prestige, work environment, meeting/working with great people and for engineers: quality of work, ability to get things done, working well with others, etc. The problem of course is that getting a truthful and accurate value for each these factors is almost impossible.

Recruiters raise signal to noise ratio? All I ever hear is how they horribly fudge resumes and job posts in order to make applicant and company interested in each other and get their fee.

At Fairfax Digital we frequently use bounties for positions like search marketers, UX people or mobile app devs. $5K + an iPad works really well. We've had tremendous success from internal referrals via this method. It makes most sense when hiring in industries with a low average tenure but trying to fill more esoteric roles.

That would create a disincentive for people to correctly report referrers.

Ask a close friend to do it and get both 12k minus a bonus for your friend.

Part of the post-mortem that I'd love to read about this is whether ANYONE comes in without a referral. It's kinda dishonest for someone to "invent" a referral when the person didn't actually refer them, but $12k is a big incentive.

From the post, it looks like the candidate gets $12k too.

No TNs?

They do say "One more note: Candidates must be eligible to work in the US (citizenship, green card, visa, etc)"

"visa" does seem to suggest some possibility.