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Systems like "jobvite or whatever" are at odds with this approach, which, for lack of a better term, I'll call the "What Color Is My Parachute"† (WCIMP) Technique.

In the WCIMP mindset, you make a shortlist of specific companies you'd like to work for. You brainstorm a pitch about how you believe you'd like to add value to their company. Then, treating every step of the hiring process up to "interview with decision maker" as an obstacle, you run the ropes course for each company.

Jobvites and Resumorps and Interfleebs are all obstacles. Is there a system you know about that truly accepts the fact that HR is an obstacle between engaged hiring managers and engaged candidates? I don't know about it. For the most part, these tools all seem geared towards reducing the cost for companies of maintaining their existing obstacle courses.

And that's fine, because most people don't take the WCIMP approach to job hunting. Instead, they have a role in mind, and their overall goal is to hunt for a satisfactory place to practice that role. Those people are never going to think about your company and put you on a shortlist and devise a sales pitch, but are only marginally less likely to be awesome as the WCIMP candidates. Your job is only partly one of attracting candidates; it's also to filter them.

Personally, I don't see WCIMP tactics as evidence of the failure of obstacle course hiring; rather, they're just particularly graceful ways of navigating the course.

† Not endorsing the book, it's just the first one of its kind that I read, 15 years ago.

"What i'm seeing here, is that traditional recruiting practices are failing in some way because priority is achieved by a) making it to the hn frontpage which b) gets pg to vouch for you. Which is basically no better (or efficient) than the traditional method of hiring folks that you've networked with via friends/school/etc or what have you."

Well, yeah. The purpose of jobvite isn't to get the candidate attention, and these "resume 2.0" (ew...I already hate myself for writing that) shiny, whizzy, attention-getting things aren't scalable. If everyone did this, it wouldn't work. It would just raise the noise level.

Also, keep in mind that you're focusing your attention on the wrong side of the problem: it's always possible that this guy could show up for an on-site and stink the place up, because there are plenty of people out there who have lots of enthusiasm and a smattering of ability, but aren't qualified to write code for a big website. So this kind of thing is great for personal marketing, but it's not a solution to the core problem of recruiting from a company's perspective (namely: lots of mouth-breathers are applying, and we need to filter them from the tiny stream of good applicants).

> shiny, whizzy, attention-getting things aren't scalable. If everyone did this, it wouldn't work. It would just raise the noise level.

Unclear. In many ways, this is simply a logical extension of the well written cover letter, and if those work, why can't these?

I think that in many ways, this is more like printing a resume on neon-yellow construction paper.

Escalation. Once everybody is doing a shiny, whizzy attention-getting thing, then folks will start competing by being more shiny, more whizzy and more attention-getting than everyone else. Instead of a nicely-designed colourful scrolling webpage people are submitting half-hour semi-interactive animated feature films in which the ghost of Ghandi rises from the grave to tell you all about the advantages of hiring so-and-so while you fight off lizard men and can-can girls.

At which point, understated elegance will become the new rage.

Exactly. I'm ahead of the curve. Here's my cover letter. It's in twelve-point Times, motherfuckers!

As soon as you said that, the phrase "unfashionably early" came to mind. I didn't immediately post it because I figured it would be interpreted negatively/argumentatively. That's not really my intent. I am just thinking of your remarks in terms of "fashion trends": Looking back historically, hemlines go up and down again, ties get fatter then skinnier again and so on.

I don't personally read any big significance into the possibility that this is part of a trend towards over-the-top, bling-bling, excessively flashy job-hunting techniques. Maybe it is but I think the value in this particular post/microsite is that he seems to be genuinely interested in this company and that he made the webpage and posted it here rather than sending it directly to the company. So it got notice because other people already vetted it for him so to speak. I think sincere interest in a particular company is always something of value for that company. I remember reading a story where a recruiter at IBM said he would hire the next person who knew what the letters "IBM" stood for because he was so sick of interviewing people who had zero idea what the company did. Most folks who are job-hunting are just looking for a paycheck. There is limited value in that from the perspective of the company.

That's not to point fingers at anyone. I am as guilty of that as anyone and that is part of why I am still stuck in an entry level job in an industry I never had any interest in. I'm a former homemaker who was going through a divorce and I needed a paycheck. I did try to apply to jobs in the field I was training for/had relevant education for but I never completed my bachelor's and ultimately took the first job offered me, having nothing to do with any of that. I am envious of Loren for having a clear idea what he wants to do and being in a position to go after it. In terms of career, I have not ever been in that situation: I either knew and wasn't qualified or didn't know (and also had other significant obstacles). I sincerely wish him all the best. (If his site somehow ends up promoting over-the-top, bling-bling horrors in the future, may he find absolution for this small sin.)

My cover letter doesn't even specify a font. It's ASCII text.

> If everyone did this, it wouldn't work. It would just raise the noise level.

Actually I think it would continue to work rather well -- it is a lot easier to judge based on this style of resume than a plain piece of paper with bullet points.

And a lot of the current noise level is just incapable of producing this type of resume. From the resumes I've seen just producing a properly targeted cover letter (not one where you've just search & replaced the company name) would put you in the top 10% of applicants.

If everyone did this, it wouldn't work. It would just raise the noise level.

That's the beauty if it. Everyone can't do this, because it takes work. It's customized for the specific company, and that's the only reason they work. It's like a cover letter on crack. If he made one that didn't find AirBnb's visual style, that didn't include specific information about what makes him special for AirBnb, it wouldn't succeed.

Proof of work. No way to automate that.

You've missed the point: The fact that someone did "work" doesn't mean that they're qualified. It just means that they're enthusiastic enough to make a website for a single employer. And that's great, but it's just the start of the whole hiring process. Once you get noticed, you also need to prove that you're a good engineer, employable, a culture fit, etc.

The OP was (vaguely) implying that the success of this guy's effort indicates that everyone else is somehow Doing it Wrong, because we're using jobvite, passing around resumes, etc. But what this guy did is the digital equivalent of those dudes who pay for a billboard on the freeway that says "Hire Me". It's a clever trick that may work for the first few people who try it, but it won't work consistently. The rest of us are still going to need a resume, recommendations, etc.

> Once you get noticed, you also need to prove that you're a good engineer, employable, a culture fit, etc.

I agree, but doesn't all this effort show that the candidate is willing (and able) to go over the top for this particular company?

The billboard shows you got money. This website shows you got skills and time to "sacrifice" for this company.

"On HN we've been seeing a bunch of these hyper-targeted reverse resumes in the past year because I suspect people have gotten tired of submitting waves of resumes and hearing nothing back within a reasonable timeframe"

Perhaps. But another point of view is that "standard" job application / resume submission techniques are fine for ordinary people, but that extraordinary people will always find a better, or at least different way. I strongly get the impression that Loren wouldn't be happy/satisfied at the sort of marginally creative middle management job that you land by using American Typewriter instead of Times New ROman for the heading font on your Microsoft Word template #3 reume to "stand out"...