Ask HN: posted startup jobs at github, 37sigs, and only 6 resumes? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: posted startup jobs at github, 37sigs, and only 6 resumes?

We posted our startup jobs (pretty great jobs I'd say, exciting startup, well paid) in the best places we could think of:

* 37sigs: http://bit.ly/g24KTD

* Stackoverflow: http://bit.ly/gchGuU

* Github: http://bit.ly/dSzOvu

* and our blog of course http://blog.getgush.com/

Only 6 resumes in a week. Half of them worthless. Is this typical? I would have expected quite a few more applications, these job postings are fairly expensive. How have others faired with these job boards? Is there something wrong with/missing in our job posting?

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Your posting is too generic. You don't mention what you're working on or why I should be excited to work with you guys. You also make it sound like you use every major programing language/framework out there. Java, javascript, groovy, ruby, python, scala, ios, android, windows mobile its all there plus a bunch of frameworks and other tools. It all makes me have no idea what I would be applying for or to expect, so I personally wouldn't waste my time writing you a story about myself, which you are requesting.

Thanks, that's good feedback.

There's no indication of salary apart from "competitive".

"Working remotely is possible." How remote? Would I have to live in Canada? Is USA ok? Further afield? Would you want me to come into the office at least once a week? Once a month? Is "never" ok?

You should be in Canada or move there. Salary is competitive means we tend to pay people more than they ask for. I guess you're saying it's too vague?

I'm based in Toronto but I'll give it a shot nonetheless.

Toronto is fine, please talk to us :)

Terribly sorry but I have accepted a job offer. I do appreciate the opportunity to talk to you guys though. Good luck finding someone!

Too vague, yes.

The rewrite is a lot better, and specifying Canada was important (dang, I'm job-hunting now and can't apply because of that).

They have flexible immigration policies. Just apply :)

It sounds really interesting, but if we have to move for a job my wife would rather move somewhere warmer than the northeast, not colder!

Do keep in mind a lot of the boards are US-centric, which might also change the response rates.

Fair enough :)

Location. Location. Location.

I mentioned this in an article I wrote last week: http://blog.coderstack.co.uk/lean-vs-vc-how-were-taking-on-s...

But essentially it comes down to one of the biggest complaints about the job boards you've mentioned is that they charge the same price whichever city your in. Even if they only have a tiny handful of developers who would consider working in your city.

Your best bet is to use a specialist local job board if one exists or otherwise reach out through the local startup community.

What do you do? I care significantly more about that than I do about what technology you use.

We're pre-alpha, so I don't really want to tell the world yet, although I'll tell you all about that in an interview.

Does not saying what we do reduce the chances that you'd apply?

Well, I can only speak for myself, but I care much more about the problems I'll be solving than I do about the tech I'll be using. CRUD is CRUD whether it's written in FORTRAN or Lisp. It's kind of the bartonfink corollary to Turing-completeness. You can theoretically solve any kind of problem with any language, so unless you want me to write in something that would add no value to my resume (e.g. COBOL) I'm going to consider what you're doing much more than how you're doing it.

You say that you've got reasons for not telling the world, and I understand that. However, right now your ad seems to say "Hey, we're using a bunch of new technology to do something. Send us a resume!" Even changing the first paragraph to end "... to design scalable, distributed applications for robotic dental hygiene" gives me an idea about what I'd be working on (robots with floss) and hopefully doesn't give away too much of your stealth edge.

As for my application, I am expecting a baby in a little under two months and don't plan on switching jobs at the moment. I am always looking for interesting "5 to 9" work to complement my "9 to 5" and if you can accommodate that I'd love to talk to you. All that is to say that there are other factors at work besides your ad that keep me from applying at the moment.

Does not saying what we do reduce the chances that you'd apply?

Reduce? Try "eliminate." I would never bother applying to a company where I don't even know what they're building.

If you're that alpha/stealth, you'll probably fare better recruiting locally through referrals from friends / colleagues / former co-workers / local user groups / etc.

Really? I'll happily spill the beans during an interview, I just don't want to post it out there just yet (we're barely getting started). Maybe I should reconsider that?

Really?

Yes.

I'll happily spill the beans during an interview,

That's nice, but what's the incentive for people to come interview with you, just to find out what you're doing? Like others have said, you don't have to give away deep, deep details, but you need to at least give an abstract description of what you're doing.

I just don't want to post it out there just yet (we're barely getting started).

I think you're worrying about this WAY too much. It's not like there's a gaggle of idea-starved hackers sitting around watching your job postings, just waiting for a chance to jump on your brilliant idea, execute it better than you, and steal your market from you. Somebody - I'm thinking Steve Blank, but don't quote me on this - said something like "If your idea is any good, you'll have to beat people over the head to get them to go along with it." I'd take that to heart if it were me. <shrug />

But if you really want to stay stealth, why not stick to recruiting locally through trusted connections? What you're trying to do here seems almost like a fundamental contradiction. "Advertise widely, but keep everything a secret." I'm having a hard time seeing how that's going to work.

Fair enough, and good feedback.

We've updated the job postings with a little more info. We're basically in the photo space, but NOT another mobile photo sharing app.

Cool, that looks reasonable.

Clickables: http://blog.getgush.com/ http://bit.ly/g24KTD http://bit.ly/gchGuU http://bit.ly/dSzOvu

ps: based on the feedback, we're editing the job description to be more practical and say more about the product:

http://jobs.github.com/positions/45d7614a-4f24-11e0-9e2f-43f...

Just out of curiosity, why did you hide the other URLs behind bit.ly but not your own?

The other were horrendous insults to good url design (even Stackoverflow's). The only one that was reasonable was 37sigs. I didn't really give it any thought, ours would only have been like 2 chars shorter. Or perhaps it was self-promotional instinct :)

You can also shorten the StackOverflow one:

http://careers.stackoverflow.com/jobs/10660

Also a note, HN automatically truncates overly-long URLs so you don't usually need to worry about pre-shortening.

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