Ask HN: Has anyone been hired from the “Who wants to be hired” threads? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Has anyone been hired from the “Who wants to be hired” threads?

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I took a look at the monthly “AskHN: Who wants to be hired?”[1] thread, and noticed that not a single comment had a reply from someone who’s looking to hire.

That would appear to show that nobody is actually getting hired from these threads, unless some other means of communication is being used.

Has anyone actually been hired by a company as a result of these threads?

If so, did you do something to stand out, or how did the process work for you?

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30515748

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My personal experience with those listing is below average. SRE/Net related.

1. YC_company1 - about month back and for to confirm that position is indeed open. Tech interviews were not about that we agreed and not in the language I preferred, but in the language interviewer knew. No offer.

2. YC_company2 - quick interview turnover, very generic questions, interviewer looked distracted/tired. No offer.

3. Company3 - nice tech interviews with test. Completed all of them, 100% test pass. Interview with HR about 'what are the important qualities of the engineer'. No offer.

4. Company4 - very hard tech interviews. After about only one hour after the last round email - no hire.

5. CompaniesN - no replies after couple of email exchanges, miss-scheduled calls and ghosting.

Also need to mention, salary ranges were not spectacular at all, slightly above of that the marked pays locally where I live.

A couple years ago, I needed a front end developer to implement the work of our designer in a way the team could maintain. Not having a network in front end, I combed through the past 3 months of "Who wants to be hired" and freelancer threads, shortlisted 7 with the right skillset, got a quote from each, discussed their portfolios internally with the team, and hired the one we agreed on. The site is still up today. That was probably the fastest hiring cycle I've ever done, from start to payment in about a week or two.

I will browse the thread as a hiring manager but it is fairly rare that what I am looking for has relevant candidates. It is easier to advertise in Who's Hiring and get many qualified applicants with a much higher conversion rate than any channel except recommendations by existing employees.

Similarly, I found more relevant people faster in Who Wants to be Hired than on the regular sites for promoting one's design portfolio which felt a bit like browsing LinkedIn.

I actually just got hired off last month's thread.

I received 7 inbound emails, some more personalized than others. 1 Twitter DM.

Surprisingly, I even received emails into the last week of February.

For context, I'd call myself an intermediate full stack JavaScript developer. I don't think I did anything special; here was my comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30173273

It worked really well for me and I'm one of those people without an American work permit. The people who contacted me were nice & respectful, people I'd be happy to work with, people who pay well. I'd say it's the best source if you're looking for a job.

Fun story was I actually applied for one of those companies through a job site and they ghosted it. But a manager from the company contacted me through HN and pushed that application through. So the hit rate is also very high.

You might have to adjust your post format a little to be appealing though. The first time I tried, nobody contacted me, but the replies came rolling in on the second month.

Me!

The CEO of my current company (craftworks) first reached out to me per email. I already had them in my crosshairs from earlier but took this as a sign to apply.

It took some time before I actually started working because of immigration and covid, but they were really supportive and helped me through the process

Would highly recommend, always looking for more colleagues ;) Especially if you're in Europe / Vienna

https://www.craftworks.ai/careers

If I post there with an e-mail address, I sometimes get incoming, usually (not always) relevant interest, sometimes not. I set up a one-off account for yesterday's and got three relevant incoming messages, although I only want to talk to one of the companies.

I also say e-mail me for my resume, which might mean less responses than if I could post my resume and go into my work more. If I wasn't employed currently I would link to my resume, but I am employed.

I did get hired for a short consulting gig off a who wants to be hired thread a few years ago (They wanted an FTE relocation, but I was not sure it would work out, so I suggested I consult for a short period before a FTE relocation and - it did not work out. Probably more my fault than theirs.)

I look at some of these threads and see people says "Technologies: Java, Python, JavaScript, Ruby, C++, C". I don't know if this works or not, my posting is pretty focused. Most people I interview who just list Java programmer have difficulty answering slightly advanced questions about Java, I don't know what someone listing all those languages would know.

I have gotten a few offers - sadly the company I chose to go with pulled my signed employment agreement (arguably illegally given the jurisdiction but I don't want to force someone to hire me/fight for damages) when someone internal complained that they were discriminated against or somehow not considered in the job search.

Why not?

Startup community in the area they're based is much smaller than any of the US markets I've worked in and the previous business I started services a number of companies run by people tight with the founders. I don't want to cause trouble for my former team by making a stink, I'll find something else pretty quickly.

I would say the response rate is amazing and much more personal touch than applying through those forms in web.

As a European however I found the salaries to be on the lower on for the few EU companies I talked to and so never did go further in the process.

I've never looked at the "Who wants to be hired" thread until this month's post and I have gotten a low response rate. It's kind of turned me off from looking again.

I look very carefully at the person's comment and resume before emailing. Are they happy working in our time zone? Do they have experience in our tech stack? Do they have any preferences we can accommodate? If the role does not meet their hard requirements I do not email at all, and if we don't meet any of their soft requirements I call those out in my email.

Despite this only 20% of the people I've emailed have even responded. One person responded that they thought it was a good fit, and one person did not mention the role at all but asked me for my opinion on their resume. Most people did not respond at all. I don't understand that.

If I posted in that thread looking for a job and got spam I would ignore it but if someone personally wrote an email that met all my requirements I would feel obliged for some sort of response.

I think most responses are going to be sent to the email listed I the CV, not comment replies.

This is just a guess. I don't bother posting there because I'm not that interested in working for most startups due to family responsibilities and the fact that my area doesn't have a lot of good IT options (remotes not a great fit for me when coming up to speed, and relocating is not an option).

I do not know for actual employment but the freelance thread works quite well for contracting jobs. I also had positive experience contacting commenters directly when they mention a project they are working on and/or that they may need help.

(of course, don't just spam people commenting, only contact the person if you feel there is an opportunity for a genuine work relationship)

> noticed that not a single comment had a reply from someone who’s looking to hire.

People are usually contacted on their email, not openly in the thread. Do you also look at the “who is hiring” thread and think that nobody is applying to those jobs because they don’t have any responses in the thread?

I am not a developer, but I am into security, and I was pinged by four companies after a post there.

* The first one doesn't hire me after several interviews because they are looking someone more skilled in the cloud security.

* The second one offered me a consulting job, but I cannot accept due to my actual work contract

* The third one offered me a job, but I am going to refuse for several reasons (taxes, geopolitical situation, etc.).

* Another one contacted me, asking to submit the resume on their website, but they never call me back.

Yes, I actually got hired from HN. Stayed with the company for 9 months before parting amicably. The CEO reached out to me directly via email. Life is great sometimes, thank God.

I am a hiring manager. Earlier today I reached out to somebody who replied in that thread who seems to have fitting background to the role I am hiring.

Yeah, I got my current job by posting on a "Who wants to be hired" thread a couple of years ago.

To be fair, though, I was only contacted by that one company (and like 2-3 spam emails) so I wouldn't really count on HN as my main strategy.

On the other hand, I'm Mexican and HN is very Silicon Valley centric, so maybe people from the Bay Area get more replies?

I have, got 2 leads from it that were ready to hire me.

I mostly just posted in the same format as everyone else. And posted my rate.

FWIW, I am hiring manager and reached out to 3 candidates from this month's thread.

I've had interviews with some interesting companies (think tiny, bootstrapped, making serious cash), but I didn't end up pursuing the opportunities further.

Most folks will email/DM you for a chat about what you're looking for.

I had several interviews years ago and was hired for one of the companies. Much better experience on average that other job boards.

Wonder what's the percent of those applied were actually hired; I guess it's harder to find?

No, but I found the best job of my career through "Who's hiring?"

I have. Twice.

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