It's hard for founders to find a job | Hacker News Reader

It's hard for founders to find a job

twitter.com

23 pointstosh18 comments

> 4/ As CEO of a Series A startup, I learned a lot of different skills that make me good at other jobs. But my resume would be 8 pgs long if I listed them. Instead, it says "raised X from Y"/"built a team of Z people"/"had these customers." All irrelevant to most hiring managers.

This just sounds pretty arrogant. Change your resume then, and list the skills you think may benefit getting hired. I mean that's just basic sales.

Also what's with the middle finger on the profile pic. The whole thread makes you come off as both entitled and a victim, which is a weird combination, but definitely not attractive for hiring.

Yeah, many people don't realize that the resume is a test of your ability to concisely convey relevant information. Obviously no one can be completely summed up on a single page, but it shouldn't take too much real estate to show that you understand what the job you're applying for is, you understand what the key skills necessary for a candidate are, and that you possess a good portion of those skills. This is what it means to be a good communicator.

While I agree with his premise I can’t help but think his profile picture is hinting at a larger problem. Maybe he’s not getting hired because he come off as a douche? I definitely would avoid working with him.

In theory the advantage to consulting or starting a business is the rich set of contacts that can vouch for your awesomeness.

They can also vouch for your not awesomeness.

Calling yourself a founder, 'serial entrepreneur' or CEO at every possible instance would be a red flag also, along with the self-perceived lefty heroism.

Yeah if you weren't hiring him to be one of those roles... why would you hire him?

I'd worry he'd jump the moment he had a shot at one of those / not work out.

I agree about the profile picture. If I were hiring, that would be a pretty big red flag regarding his maturity and professionalism.

Yup, I read the 2nd tweet and then the profile pic of him flipping me off caught my eye...I filed him in the "smug tech knowitall" category as I closed the tab.

I have worked at a string of tiny startups and I doubt many large companies would be very impressed. But one thing that has always helped me get some kind of contract or find the next startup has been to find something like requirements specifications and build a few demos.

But now the specs or things like specs are on a handful of freelancing sites that lock you in to accepting 10-15% fees and usually require screen-spying.

What I am trying to get is just another part-time job to replace the current startup that's wrapping up so that I can use the rest of the week for my computer vision learning experiments etc.

So a couple of days ago I made a site, https://postaspec.com. So far everyone ignored it. I am going to put my own spec for a little pet project on there, just so at least it's not empty.

When I look at those freelancing sites, the descriptions of what potential clients want are so short and vague, I don't understand how the freelancers who immediately give specific (and often very low) quotes can do so.

Exactly. Most people just spam them with some completely arbitrary low-ball bid. If someone was actually checking the project descriptions and bids to make sure they had some minimal amount of quality, it would work a lot better. Or at least filter out people who were unwilling or unable to put in a minimum effort at the beginning.

That's one reason why I think my idea might have a chance. If anyone ever actually uses the site.

But on freelancing sites, there are actionable descriptions (a little bit like specs) on a few of them. You just have to go through a lot to find those.

I've occasionally seen a job which had something like "please include the word banana in your bid so I know you at least read my description". And sure enough, some of the bids don't include the word banana.

So, it's just hard to get a fucking job. Probably being founder of a company doesn't really hurt, but maybe it does if you walk around with a t-shirt that says founder on it. Kind of tired of hearing about people who call themselves CEOs complaining about ppl not loving them enough for their success

Is it harder compared to how hard it is for most people to get a job?

For many people it is a pretty horrible experience.

>There end up being a lot of people who can speak to your character, but only a handful who can speak to your work.

Sounds like that would apply to anyone who works in a small company / start ups...

If a founder is looking for a job that would make that founder a failure. Of course that founder will struggle to find a job.

Reminds me of the HomeBrew creator not being hired by Apple.

Maybe you mean this (which was about Max Howell and Google, not Apple):

https://twitter.com/mxcl/status/608682016205344768?lang=en

My bad misremembered

Reply on news.ycombinator.com