Show HN: Rate My App - The Best Way for Developers to Stay in Shape | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: Rate My App - The Best Way for Developers to Stay in Shape

ratemyapp.com

28 pointsvlad18 comments

I have no idea what this is. I'm mostly confused by the mismatch between the domain name and the concept of rating interview skills...

Oh, wait a sec, is app short for 'interview application' ie cover letter and cv?

This is something I have used non-technical or non-smartphone owning people start to use, it is a bit confusing.

Seconded. This is very confusing. Is it a way to collect feedback on my apps, some kind of life hack fitness app or something to do with technical interviews?

After clicking on 'schedule now'...

"All interviews are 30 minutes long over Skype, Google Hangouts, or phone (customer's choice). After the interview, you will receive written feedback and ways to improve."

So, it's like a practice interview.

On Wednesday, I had the idea that developers should be able to schedule programming interviews whenever they want and track their progress over time. This idea is now a real product called Rate My App, now available!

Launch pricing for the first few users is $9.99 for a 30 minute interview. Please provide any feedback you have! You can also follow the project on twitter, tumblr, facebook, and youtube (/ratemyapp.)

Thank you! - Vlad (@vla)

I couldn't find any details on the qualifications of the person giving feedback.

Excellent question, smokestack! My goal is to test the viability of such a product with real customers. I am applying my experience to help out fellow developers with most of the possible combinations of interview requests, and I offer a money back guarantee if somebody is not 100% satisfied.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/yazhbin

Thank you!

I think you'd be better off getting folks who are actual interviewers (or ex-interviewers) from Google, etc, to conduct interviews; your site focuses on that as one of its selling points but your resume doesn't match up (in fact your LinkedIn gives no indication of how experienced an interviewer you are).

I think this is one of those products that's best served by finding people one-on-one who need help, and providing it for free so you get a bunch of testimonials, pictures, videos, etc -- rather than throwing up a landing page and survey. It's definitely a useful service; I mentor folks in interview practice occasionally these days, and there's certainly an appetite for it, though a lot of people I talk to tend to go about it by applying for jobs they don't really want and using those interviews as practice.

Awesome, thank you, Jennie!

I think you're absolutely right that the product needs to display profiles of specific interviewers (starting with me) as the next step.

Thank you for the feedback!

Sure, then it will only be a $1000 an interview.

It is not clear what metrics are used to measure progress over time.

A few thoughts

* I hear "app" I think "app" as in iOS or Android or Mac app, I have never heard anyone say "app" for "application".

* The whole thing smells of "charge people before you even have a product" to me: you came up with the idea on Wednesday, there is no way you have a system in place to justify asking people for $10.

* You need to establish trust on your front page: why should I do this through your system? A blurry, hand-wavy graph is not enough.

Alas, I suppose us systems programmers are a dying breed (and I'm not really that old..).

At some point "developer" started meaning "web developer". I know this is the reality of 2013 but I found it a bit depressing that the closest thing I saw was "Backend" with Ruby-on-Rails being the first thing mentioned. Someone had to write the database, web server, proxy, kernel, hypervisor, ... :)

Someone had to write the web browser. Is that the "front end" or "back end" I wonder?

I would say both. Browsers are a mix of a client facing UI and business logic.

So this is an idea you came up with on Wednesday.... and by today you've thrown up a really basic site and want to charge people? Haha... that's superb.

How about you pay me to interview you first. Then I'll let you know if you're qualified to interview me.

I want that domain !

on a serious note, I first thought its an app for software developers to keep a tab on their health ?( may be workout app) after I checked the domain I thought its a service to collect feedback and rating for apps. and when I clicked on the wufoo form I got some idea on what actually it does .

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