Ask HN: Why do YC hiring posts not have comments allowed? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Why do YC hiring posts not have comments allowed?

35 pointsdpflan43 comments

I assume to not turn them into interviews in the comments? But it seems reasonable to let the community comment and discuss such a post.

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It's an ad, not a normal submission.

If there were comments, most of them would be shitposting about the company in question.

Some companies could benefit from some good criticism.

Will shift the focus on something else and not just the job. HN mods are smart to not allow that. I don't blame them.

The job would be shitposted too.

The good criticism unfortunately comes with a bunch of shitposting.

Most people can filter the shitposting vs the real criticism.

What is nice is being able to read:

I worked there. Avoid team X or manager Y otherwise the company is amazing.

No they can’t. If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s very easy to convincingly shitpost if you have an axe to grind or a personal vendetta.

Critics can submit a blog post about those companies, then there would be something to discuss

And there are many blogs with such criticisms

It could be done in some strictly moderated way (in the sense that comments don't appear unless approved). So that not being done shows that basically HN doesn't want job posts to be discussion items in any shape.

The moderators have said before that, when YC or YC-backed companies are spoken about, they have the principle of moderating less than they would for other posts to reduce chance of bias. So I think your suggestion would go against one of their other principles.

That's a great point. Not having comments at all sidesteps the conflicts of interest, or appearance thereof, in moderating the comments in any manner.

I would like to read those comments.

Because then most of us would comment on how the company in question seems to be constantly hiring and thus can't seem to hold on to employees (looking at you, Skio)

Companies like MSFT, Facebook, etc., might be perpetually hiring, but most of the YC companies whose posts we see here certainly aren't.

Doesn't this incentivize companies -- especially newer ones without a solid reputation -- to be both better and more transparent about their hiring practices? It lets the better startups float to the top, and gives the ones receiving more criticism a chance to improve.

A simple "Soandso is hiring" does nothing to tell us about the company, and the job descriptions are often not very informative either. I usually get more information out of a Craigslist post...

It is in the best interest of employees to do that, but not the startups. Information asymmetry is an important thing to leverage to maximize investment.

that's funny, I definitely react to skio hiring posts as well. "recharge migrations" lol like anyone knows what the hell that is. I get that i'm not their target market but it's a hiring post!

But, maybe there's no such thing as bad press.

(recharge migrations are a shopify subscription solution that's apparently outdated and complicated. skio makes it super easy, and better.)

Tesorio is another one like Skio...

edit: "big enough to justify perpetually hiring"

Because most of them are asking for senior developer and offering 150k and some equity...

I don't think many of the comments would have positive things to say.

Why? Because that's too low? Or because it's too high?

way too low.

It seems like plenty for all the set of "senior developers" who are three years out of college.

Just wondering, what do you consider a fair salary for a Sr developer? BLS says the median salary for US developers (I think this means junior and senior and staff, so it might be diluted) is 124,000 USD.

https://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-technology/...

"Fair" is what the market pays. Presumably though, YC companies aren't the average and should want top talent, so I think at least 200k plus some heavy equity for top tier talent. (In the US. If they're hiring from other countries obviously the market might be different).

Hiring for top talent is overrated when most of the services/products offered are pretty straightforward technical implementations. For most of the companies, what's need is competent engineers, good management, and exceptional sales/growth teams. Top tier hiring for engineers in commodified businesses where engineering isn't the market differentiator is a quick start down the path of lighting money on fire.

Can you point to highly successful software companies that just hire “good enough” talent?

How to tell you’re US-based without saying you’re US-based.

All kidding aside, 150k is a lot of money where I come from (around Amsterdam). I lead the engineering department of 30+ people in a 3 year old startup and I earn less than that.

Right but that's less than half of my comp right now.

Can you share how many employees are at your company and your YOE? I definitely feel underpaid, but not so terribly that I'm actively searching for another job. I know FANG pays well, but it isn't easy to get into those either.

I'm at a FAANG, and have ~17 YoE.

I made considerably less at smaller companies. But there's good money to be made at F500 companies that are non FAANG as well, if you're willing to climb the IC (or management) ladder.

You probably have access to better social services and vacation time etc that partially bridge the gap.

Absolutely! Honestly, I wouldn't trade my job for a US job 3x the compensation. I enjoy top health care, unlimited paid sick leave, unlimited vacation days with a soft-enforced minimum of 30 days per year etc.

Am I sometimes jealous when I see US tech compensation? Sure! But like you say, it's about much more than money + stock.

The healthcare in the US is excellent for people with good insurance, which the jobs offering 3x the compensation will provide. I would never trade the quality of my healthcare with the healthcare my German family gets. But you definitely significantly better vacation/sick leave terms over there and it’s not even close.

You work at a FAANG as you commented elsewhere. Of course it is low for you. 150k however is not a low salary on an average even in US.

I'm glad yCombinator was able to put together and prove the efficacy of this format and business model. Comments would threaten that and there's many other ways for one to get their point across.

"nice post" is not a useful comment.

"salary too low" is not useful.

"lol php" is not useful.

"what a dumb business model" is actually harmful.

"ceo used to work for rocket internet, what a fucking hypocrite" may be useful, but too many of these would reward personal attacks.

I can't really think of many useful comments.

You can't really comment in the who's hiring thread either,there are pretty particular rules

Can we let each company choose whether they want to allow comments for their particular post?

aside: (I like how the first top-level comments are that the posts would devolve, while the first top-level replies are that wouldn't it be beneficial in some way to have discussion...hence this post..)

Do you remember when reddit ads had comments? Pepperidge farm remembers.

That’s a meme I haven’t heard in a long time

Some Reddit ads still do. It's kinda hilarious when it happens, though most companies are 'wise' enough to realise what will happen.

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