How many resumes does it take to make an intern? | Hacker News Reader

How many resumes does it take to make an intern?

blog.fogcreek.com

73 pointsbuzzcut10 comments

The sample size is so small that drawing any conclusions from this data seems suspect.

Percentage comparisons (hired/applied): 6% JoS fans 4.3% of Columbia job fair 2% Princeton job fair 1.7% of web search and 0% of everything else

well, if the people who are rejecting you are doing it to go work for Google or Facebook, you've done a good job with the image of your company.

I don't understand, are you being sarcastic and implying Google and Facebook are really bad places to work?

I read it as: much of the top talent today is going to Google and Facebook. If the same people who are applying to Google and Facebook are applying to your small company, you are doing much better than most people in recruitment.

I think what's really remarkable is that Fog Creek does it with products that, honestly, don't seem to have that much "cool" factor. No disrespect intended to Joel or the employees, but I'm somewhat amazed that a bug tracker and a wrapper around Mercurial garner as much excitement from the developers as they do.

What's valuable in this article: The applicants should know you before you even start looking for new interns. Having a long-term presence in their consciousness is invaluable.

I don't think it's surprising that department emails generated no hires. People who take internship opportunities from emails they receive are usually too lazy to look themselves, which probably shows a lack of drive. I say usually, because this isn't always true.

I love these stats though... Would make great presentation material on the importance of being active in a job search. Especially the part about what times to apply... if it's a rolling recruiting basis (which I'm assuming almost every company does), those would probably be advantageous times.

> People who take internship opportunities from emails they receive are usually too lazy to look themselves, which probably shows a lack of drive. I say usually, because this isn't always true.

that's a ridiculous line of thinking.

emails are sent to department heads because outsiders typically deal with them often and don't have a relationship with the students. the emails are then passed along as a service to everybody.

what would a student with "drive" do differently to find an internship? walk door-to-door carrying 100lbs of stones in a backpack to submit applications?

Harumph. Can't believe they didn't split out "From HN" on the results chart.

That is a terrible font.

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