Ask YC/HN: How do you help your job-hunting friends out? | Hacker News Reader

Ask YC/HN: How do you help your job-hunting friends out?

18 pointsMystalic13 comments

Hey HN,

So I may not have a problem with jobs, but many of my friends do, especially a few talented ones that I know would perform fantastically almost anywhere. I tell these friends I will help them out, but I'm still not sure the best way to help them.

If they know the company they want to work for, that's easy. But what about people who just want a job in a specific industry (i.e. consulting, start-ups)? Do you message a group of friends? Share it via social media? Figure out where they would fit in and call your friends at those places?

I'd like to know so I can be helpful to these really talented friends.

Thanks.

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I have them send me a resume and then I personally contact a handful of folks that I think would benefit from hiring someone like them, and that would be a good fit for them.

If they are visible online, I'll be sure to email that along, pass it along via IM, etc

I don't really do anything special, and if I happen to be in the right place at the right time to hook two people up in a mutually beneficial way, I do that.

Just keep an eye out for your friends telling you that they have so and so position available. Then let them know you have someone good who'd be a good fit. Also if you know a good recruiter pass their resume on.

But only do it, if you are 100% sure it won't come to bite you in the ass later.

3 stories:

1-Guy went into an interview. Told me he knew a language, when he didn't. I got a friend to get him an interview at his company...turned out he couldn't write a simple select statement. He knew the theory, but he didn't practice writing the actual code.

2-Guy went into an interview, got tired of interviewing after 4 different people, and walked out. And on the way out he called his last interviewer a bitch under his breath...which she heard.

3-Guy went into an interview...got an offer. Accepted it. Then 1 week later got fired for incompetence. Apparently he was a very slow coder.

In each case, the person I asked to help out got in trouble. And I got an earful for putting them in hot water.

how slow is slow? Its one thing to be slow implementing a precise spec where the algorithms are sketched (ie problemeatic), its another thing (ie reasonable) to be slow cooking up a nicely designed tool with good / nontrivial algorithimics and interface

I don't really know the details, but he got fired after something like 1 week, so I doubt it was in regards to something complicated.

I ask what their ultimate work situation would be (environment, tools, etc.) and what environment they would avoid like the the plague. Then I keep an eye out for them, offer support/assistance, and refer them to others that can help.

Linked In is a great place to start.

Ask a question on Linked In about who has jobs and send it to all of your contacts. That way you can funnel the right jobs to the right people.

Not only will it help your friends but also if you land any successful candidates the person who hired will probably be pretty happy too.

I set up a number of people I know with jobs this way.

The other thing I did was have a party. It was purely co-incidental, but given my circle of friends maybe 5 people were hiring and there were about the same who wanted a new job. I'm not sure if anyone has been hired because of it, but I'm sure it didn't hurt. Just make sure you don't invite someone because they are hiring. That's kinda lame and inconsiderate to them as a person.

I'm good at writing resumes. But lousy at interviewing - which I discovered the hard way while running for office this past November.

At the moment, only one friend is looking for something (more stable than his current gig), so when I see something, I let him know. This guy writes better resumes than I do, and he is extremely good at interviewing. He's been a contractor for the past 25 years.

If you're going to help out your friends, then you need lots of contacts in the industry. Effectively, you'll become a recruiter/headhunter/go-between yourself.

Figure out where they would fit in and call your friends at those places? Yes. Exactly that.

I have the same problem as the original poster but I also have the opposite problem: I have several perpetually unemployed or underemployed friends. They are old. They are opinionated. They should be looking at retirement with pensions by now. They don't fit with any team I have been on. Whenever I post to various forums we all frequent with open positions they send in their resumes. But I can't hire them for the same reason nobody else can hire them. It's awkward when I have to ignore their resume or tell them they just wouldn't be a good fit.

I was young and opinionated once. I´m old and opinionated now. The only difference is, now I'm right.

I think the best thing to do is to introduce them to as many people as possible so that they can meet face-to-face. Obviously, it has to be a match for skill set, personality type, role, etc.

People simply relate better to direct meetings. They can put a face to a name and have a much better understanding of the person who is looking for a job.

Also, it is simply a lot harder to tell someone no to their face :-)

I'm sending their resumes to some recruiters I know...or, if I hear about a job somewhere I send them the link to apply.

would one more of these friends be open to getting together to do a startup (atleast those interested in startups)?

This post is a great step, tell us more.

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