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Comment by alexwolfe | Hacker News Reader

I think most would view this as some kind of joke or scam. Knowing that anyone can create a line graph and a gmail account I would have no reason at all to think this is a real company.

Anyone growing that fast shouldn't be afraid to post a real email address, just doesn't add up for me.

If this is some kind of style or joke I think it is better served to save that for when your having coffee. As laid back as our industry is, most would like to consider themselves professionals. This job posting doesn't seem very professional on any level.

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Considering that the only companies allowed to post job ads here are YC alumni, you can trust that they are a real company. If I saw an ad like that posted anywhere else, however, I'd have the same reaction.

Doubts of their existence aside, I still agree with the OP; ads like this make me think that I'd hate working for the founder posting them. If he wants me to try to prove my worth as a candidate, I want to know that its even worth my time to send him a portfolio/resume/cover letter.

I don't think he was doubting their existence, but was just doubting whether or not the traffic graph was real -- it might have been a joke.

no reason at all to think this is a real company

That said, I definitely have no faith that the graphs are real or even loosely based on reality.

I wouldn't be so quick to assume that. It's yc funded, and they say music-related. It could be earbits, which I read is doing something like 12,000,000 users a month.

It could easily be somebody else as well. 4,000,000 uniques isn't a ton of users if you're somebody like Grooveshark, Spotify, Rdio, etc.

I acknowledge that they could indeed be that successful, but I still maintain that I have no reason to believe their claims until they provide me with something more solid than that ad.

So you think that a YC-funded company posting a job posting on news.ycombinator.com is... _lying_?

Perhaps I have more faith in PG's judgement than I ought, but that strikes me as excessively cynical.

I'm guessing you didn't like the post (note, it's not really an 'ad' as you stated) for some reason and are coloring the entirety of their claims with the same brush.

I'm guessing that, bravado aside (and I didn't personally find anything particularly braggadocious in the post to take offense to,) I would wager real money that their claims were at least truthful.

So you think that a YC-funded company posting a job posting on news.ycombinator.com is... _lying_?

No. Rather, I have no information that I trust to convince me one way or the other as to their honesty, so I choose to ignore that data.

I had not, however, considered that they have already been vetted by PG and YC. Perhaps I have a small reason to trust their claims. Even so, I'd give it the same weight in decision making as known hyperbole, at best. I'll only completely trust the claim if I have verifiable sources.

I didn't know that only YC Alumni can post jobs and I'm guessing I'm not the only one, thanks for pointing that out.

I think we both agree this job posting is not very appealing especially considering the amount of positions currently available for developers. Most good developers I know do just as much if not more screening than the companies hiring them. I know a number of companies in need of good developers that have great working environments. I think its important for people hiring to be respectful and kind if they are serious about attracting good talent.

Indeed. I myself only put faith in the personality of a company if I know and trust somebody who works there (or in the case of larger ones, in the department of interest.)

Right, I think the issue at hand is the pendulum has swung too far the other way. People are going so far out of the way to display that they are not just another corp gig that the message can come off as unprofessional, amateur and even suspect of deceit.

I look at these post as the rock-star and ninja posts that used to have flooding the boards a few years ago. Me personally, if I was going to post an ad, I would post one explaining why we love the technology we use and some highlights about how team members where empowered to do great things. Something along the line of "Jim joined us and built out an entire REST facade in Node", "We like Node because it is event driven", "if you know Node we would love to talk to you". Give people a personal connection with the company and the people they will be involved with, most else comes off as corporate, gimmicky, or worst yet arrogant.

only actual YC participants can post these job postings.

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