Ask HN: Did anybody get a job from "Who is hiring"? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Did anybody get a job from "Who is hiring"?

22 pointsvdfs28 comments

Yes. I think if you have a nice portfolio and attitude the Who's Hiring and Who wants to be hired are top resources for finding a job in tech (dev/sales/design/etc). Even if you don't get hired, you find a lot of interesting companies and meet a lot of genuine people

Not entirely answering your question, but from the other side. About a year ago, I made a post, we hired somebody, and then after like 3 months they decided it wasn't a good fit and moved on. Since then we haven't really looked for new hires, so we haven't tried again

Just wondering, do you think it would have helped your situation if it were the cultural norm to "try before you buy" for both parties? Obviously it takes time to get up to speed and productivity, but it seems better and more productive for you not to have an unhappy employee in the long-term.

I get that any kind of turnover is tough to manage especially if you're a small team. But if we all (employers, employees, customers/clients/users) were to became a little more prepared for a certain amount (within a short period of time after hiring), it would simply become the expectation. As it stands, companies are now afraid to hire and employees are afraid to seek due to the ever more byzantine hiring process.

It may not exactly seem intuitive, but I believe if either firing or quitting (at least within some type of trial period) became a little less stigmatized on both sides, we would all live in less fear and end up much more productive in the longer term.

There's already a cultural norm of hiring contractors and for them to become full-time when mutually desired.

Exactly and IMO we would all be better served if F/T employees were treated more as "temp to hire". Contractors would still be contractors in terms of taxes, benefits, expectation of where/how services are rendered, etc.

Yea I've gotten jobs from both the "Who is hiring" thread as well as "Who wants to be hired" thread.

Just realized these HN threads have been my most effective job searching sources

I did! 6 years ago I applied and from an ad and got hired as a Python engineer at a logistics startup in Hamburg.

Yes, I do post in these hiring threads as well as freelancer threads on my personal account every month. I have been working with two companies, and have invoiced them for nearly $200k in the past ~2 years for development and consulting work. One of them is a startup, the other a software shop for startups. All web-dev & api work. In both cases, they reached out to me. I have had no luck reaching out to companies in those threads.

Absolutely, it changed the trajectory of my career into the world of startups and smaller companies. It was somewhat indirect though, I got curious about what the company I read about was doing so contacted them just to talk about their tech. It was a Rails/Ruby shop and I ended up there some time later--accidentally because another job I had lined up had a hiring freeze right after I got through their process.

Yes! Totally changed my career trajectory by getting my foot in the door at a tech-focused company. I owe a lot to the who is hiring thread :)

Alright, hoping I also find one on this platform

Yes, my current job and the one prior to this were all found via the "who is hiring" thread.

Searching for my next role now. Hopefully I keep the trend going.

Have been hired, and have hired, off of HN threads

Dream job from it, yes. I also read it every month anyway just to see what companies are doing, and doing it well enough to actually be growing.

It's an economic indicator of "who's growing."

I’ve applied and got hired through a job posting a few years ago.

Yes. Multiple of our engineers found us via "Who is hiring". I found it to be a good way to find people who understand the startup game a bit.

I did, don't remember if it was from the "Who wants to be hired" thread, or the "Freelancer" thread.

I did, last summmer

Twice. Years ago now. It's probably the best tool to land a job in a startup.

Not yet.being applying off and on here on HN since i guess 2017

Yes, both sides, hiring and hired.

Yep, my first job came from one.

I get the feeling that more than half of the posted jobs are fake.

Why would people post fake jobs? Why would you think they are fake?

Not that these are prevalent in here, but here are a few reasons:

1. A company already has a candidate in mind for the role, and they want "plausible deniability" that they didn't try to fill the role through a competitive process. This is especially true with H1B-focused roles, where they have to justify hiring non-U.S. workers. Your resume serves that purpose.

2. They have an image to present. Shareholders have more valuable stock when the company appears to be doing well (dozens of unfilled positions) vs. not hiring at a given point in time. HN would be way less effective for this purpose than a company's own corporate website, but it's still part of the company image.

3. Workers are flaky as hell, and your rock star dev you snagged at 2x market rate just got an offer for 4x at a FAANG, and now you're left flat-footed.. OR.. you list their position as open, collect resumes, and as soon as they send you their two weeks you have a deep bench of eager recruits to interview. An unfortunate side effect is that you the applicant are highly unlikely to luck into the heir apparent role.

> dozens of unfilled positions

Although it's a big world, at the very same time it's a very small world. When I see that a company has an unfilled position which interests me, and I have applied, and I am qualified, and I haven't heard of them, then I will go to my LinkedIn account, ask around and speak my mind to people. A company that does it a lot won't get far. There are also some websites (I use GlassDoor) where you can comment on companies' 'attitudes'.

Yes, years ago.

Yes!

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