Ask HN: Would you sign up for a "Hire-a-HN-Hacker" board? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Would you sign up for a "Hire-a-HN-Hacker" board?

38 pointsjosh_fyi27 comments

HN has monthly "Who's hiring" posts, but not "Who wants to be poached into a better job" posts.

So, I want to ask: Would you like such a service? Are there any comfortably-employed hackers hanging out at HN who would like something better -- new challenges, work-life balance, kegerator, whatever?

We created this page to test the idea: http://blog.fiveyearitch.com/2013/05/show-hn-unofficial-hire-hn-hacker-board.html (Clickable link below.)

It uses the same embeddable FiveYearItch widget which learning sites use to get better jobs for their students.

Do you like it? Tell me in the comment below and vote in the quiz at the widget page.

If enough HN people sign up, our next step is finding a permanent high-profile home for an unofficial "Hire a HN News Hacker" page.

View on HN

Clickable link: http://blog.fiveyearitch.com/2013/05/show-hn-unofficial-hire...

In my experience, most developers are looking for more then "just" another job...it could be a bump in pay but it usually also means a new challenge like working on a particular tech, type of product, domain, etc...nothing here on the Hire-a-HN-hacker tells the employer what you want to do, only what few hot keyword/skills you have and sure, the skills will match the same keywords that crappy recruiters are searching for and you'll learn about heaps of jobs good and more often bad. You could also post your résumé privately on monster if you want to cast a wide net.

we're lucky as engineers...tradionally employers have had an abundance of candidates to filter, but with programming skills in such demand, developers now have an abundance of oppourtunities...it's not that we need more job oppourtunities, we need a way to filter the bad ones out.

disclaimer, I run trypitchbox.com - which operates in a similar space

>tells the employer what you want to do

>it could be a bump in pay but it usually also means a new challenge like working on a particular tech, type of product, domain, etc

Sure, that's _exactly_ what FiveYearItch is all about.

When you register ( http://www.fiveyearitch.com/register?publisher=e0e3f1 ), you will say "what you need in your next job," whether it is learning opportunities, ace colleagues, stock options, a flat hierarchy, or anything else you'd like.

Employers have to commit to provide these if a deal goes through.

The "Hire-a-HN-Hacker" widget has limited space, and so it highlights skills that would interest an employer, but when the employer clicks to search, they'll see the developer's requirements as well.

Great idea, and it looks to be executed well. One gripe. Please don't regulate sysadmin/devops to 'other'. I like to believe we're first class citizens too :)

Thanks. Yes, this is absolutely for sysadmins, etc. The "fun quiz" on the welcome-page only had room for a few sample options.

On the registration page at http://fiveyearitch.com/register just start typing in the "wanted position" field and you'll see that "system administrator" is already an option.

I'm not sure if this will work, the thing is that a lot of good hackers that I know, don't like to spend time on writing nice resumes, sign-up for jobs websites, write a good bio, introduction etc, they simply prefer to do what they like :)

Thanks, maldinii, that's exactly the problem we are trying to solve. Take a look at the sign-up page http://fiveyearitch.com/register We made it super-simple: No resume, no bio, super-short form.

And even after employers contact you, we have optimized to make it easy to ignore them. No chit-chat, you can just click "no thanks."

Yes, I understand your point, but the problem is that if the developer doesn't post enough information, the employer won't be able to evaluate their work and they will not be able to differentiate people that are good from people that are not. A solution that I see for those kind of people is to introduce a 5 minute call with any developer that apply and see what kind of person they are .

Right, we developed a workflow to work around it.

The employer can ask for some quick qualifiers, FizzBuzz-style questions, to separate the sheep from the goats.

They should take two minutes each to answer and are not intended as an in-depth test or interview.

Afterwards, the employer can move into further discussions and the regular interview process.

How about people in EU? Please only sign up if you have authorization to work in the US.

We're not quite worldwide yet :-/ but we have been adding countries gradually and will be adding more soon.

So far, FiveYearItch supports the US, Australia, Canada, the UK, Israel, and India.

You can register at our user-feedback page http://fiveyearitch.uservoice.com/ to get updates.

> FiveYearItch supports the US, Australia, Canada, the UK, Israel, and India.

Why is supporting the EU more difficult than supporting any of those countries?

Are you volunteering to spend the time building up a list of partner companies willing to hire through them from every country in the EU? Are you also volunteering to do the legal consultations to ensure they're meeting labor law requirements in each of those countries? Or, are you asking that they let engineers spend time putting their profiles into a pile nobody will see?

This isn't a technology problem ("add EU to line 284 of config.yml"). It's a regulatory problem, a cultural problem, a sales/support staffing problem, a marketing problem. There's nothing wrong with not half-assing it.

Amen to that. People tend to forget that Amazon started off selling only books, Facebook started off exclusive to Harvard students, CraigsList started off as a local SF site, etc. Companies that try to do too much at once end up spreading themselves too thin.

Like!

We need a way for GOOD employers, the ones who grok hacking, to poach us out of the corporate jobs.

We all got what it takes to hunt up a job, but if employers can find me with other HNers, all the better!

Strange how employers have to dig through HN profiles or LinkedIn accounts to find the good ones -- and many of us just don't WANT any offers at all.

I wish I could say "Job's not so awful I gotta move, but I want to hack for real, please, and not just on my GitHub at night."

I have that feeling too... I kindof want to look but don't want to do the whole song and dance.

Thanks! We called "that feeling" the "Itch," and built our site around it -- http://FiveYearItch.com.

Song-and-dance definitely not required.

Hey! I actually had a try on your site few months ago and it didn't pan out for me. I must not have an attractive enough skillset for the businesses browsing.

Just signed up, very pleasant site design/approach, curious to see how it will work out.

Well, I lose. It's not even 18 hours and I'm breaking from my self-imposed HN break. Dammit, I suck. Or, we'll just call this thread an exception, because I really want to contribute to this discussion.

Neat idea, but probably not. The problem with job boards is that they all turn into ghettos. The technology is fine. The material (sometimes on both sides, but almost always in terms of employers) usually ain't.

I was talking to an investor, years ago, about a dating site and he pointed out a mistake I was making. He said, "you think the problem with these other sites is technology, but that's wrong. The sites are fine; the people are broken."

We think that the recruiters peddling horrible subordinate corporate jobs are somehow unaware of HN and how geeks really think; but reality doesn't bear that out. We're damn easy to fool. If a sociopath can hoodwink a venture capitalist, then he can pretty easily hire nerds.

I don't want to get into a long-running HN thread (I have good reason for my month-long break that I just now broke from) but if you'd like to talk offline about some thoughts I've had about fixing the job market, I'm michael.o.church at gmail.

Michael,

Thanks for that comment, you've hit it spot on. The focus at FiveYearItch is not the technology, it's the workflow for connecting the two sides.

> recruiters peddling horrible subordinate corporate jobs

That's exactly who we are keeping out.

We work with employers, preferably technically savvy hiring managers, and they have to be smart enough to reach out to developers rather than assuming developers will come begging for a job to them.

They have to be willing to commit to what developers require, which is often not salary or health plans but "ace colleagues" and "flat hierarchy."

And as to finding the folks to bring together: That's the key, we're finding various ways to do it -- and note where we're chatting right now :-)

How is this different from a conventional full-service executive search firm?

How does it scale if employers and candidates are rigorously screened (assuming that they are rigorously screened) since conventional full-service match making is built upon individual relationships and meaningful conversations?

This is not to say that there isn't a need for an HN full-service executive search firm. But rather that I don't see how the objectives are satisfied without a conventional labor intensive model.

Good question.

First, it's for developers and other IT pros, not executives.

It's for introducing people, not a full-service search firm. Employers send quick screening question to candidates.

The workflow is designed to be very quick, easy, and easy to drop at any time. At the early stage of communication, both sites should be able to click a "No thanks" button and leave it at that.

Once the candidate has passed initial screening, employers continue in their normal interview process.

> Well, I lose. It's not even 18 hours and I'm breaking from my self-imposed HN break. Dammit, I suck. Or, we'll just call this thread an exception, because I really want to contribute to this discussion.

Hmmm... should I feel guilty about that or good ;-)

...Glad to be so good that it's worth breaking the ban!

Liked the quiz on the FiveYearItch.com welcome page. I got a 3-of-5 "itch" score, so, I guess I'll give it a try.

Very cool. Signed up.

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