

Show HN: Get discreet job interviews with your LinkedIn connections - victoriap
http://www.jobrupt.com/?d=hn

======
Peroni
_You are interested in a job interview with them, if they 're too_

Best not to truncate "they are" in this instance.

 _Select anyone with whom you are interested in a job interview. It is
anonymous and private; your connections will not see you are interested unless
they are too._

I don't get it. How will they find out I'm interested? Surely there needs to
be a separate system for employers to register interest in people who they
would willingly interview? The current format suggests that they would have to
also use your site and select ME as someone THEY want to be interviewed by
which makes no sense.

How do I select people I would willingly interview? How will I ever find out
if another user wants me to interview them?

So many questions.

~~~
readme
>The current format suggests that they would have to also use your site and
select ME as someone THEY want to be interviewed by which makes no sense.

How does this make no sense? I think the idea is to save both parties from
having to express premature rejection to the other.

~~~
Peroni
I'm a hiring manager. There are a number of connections on LinkedIn that I
would happily interview if they expressed interest. There are also a small
number of connections I would love to interview me for a role at their
company. The current model does nothing to allow me to differentiate.

~~~
victoriap
You are right in pointing out the asymmetric nature of job interviews, namely
"You may want to work for this person" vs "You may want to hire this person".

In the current model we wanted to keep things simple and leave as much as
possible to them to decide or know. With a check box, we may ask them to
select exactly what they want with this particular person.

Do you think, for every selection, asking whether you want to hire or you want
to work for a particular person is really necessary, or is it enough to leave
this to them, of course with a certain risk of misunderstanding in some cases.
I would be pleased to hear your opinion.

~~~
Peroni
I certainly believe that being given the option would be a significant
improvement. How you execute that appropriately is better answered by a UX
expert which I'm definitely not!

~~~
victoriap
Initially we implemented hiring and applying as the same action, assuming our
users would implicitly know how they position each other. After a week of
feedback, we now allow you to choose to select to hire or get hired by
someone.

We appreciate your feedback.

------
Robin_Message
>Help us spread the word [...] _make the first move towards a job interview in
a discreet way._

That might be a bit contradictory.

Also, it's not clear from your website – do you contact the people I select in
step 1 out of band (by e-mail or something) and ask them if they are
interested in interviewing any of their LinkedIn connections? How does this
actually work, end-to-end?

If you're relying on my contacts also signing up for jobrupt, then, to a close
approximation, that's never going to happen.

In a two-sided market like this, and with the anonymity constraint on top,
it's really hard to see how it can succeed. Some ideas:

Focus on a niche you can target to get reasonable usage [1][2] (ideally >50%
of users who might be selected, but at least 10% might be good enough).

Provide a concierge-type services to job-seekers – track down the people they
select then find out if they are offering jobs (its possible but not clear if
this is already what you are doing.)

[1] [http://joel.is/post/39659497239/how-to-gain-traction-in-
two-...](http://joel.is/post/39659497239/how-to-gain-traction-in-two-sided-
markets)

[2] [http://cdixon.org/2010/08/21/the-bowling-pin-
strategy/](http://cdixon.org/2010/08/21/the-bowling-pin-strategy/)

~~~
victoriap
Thanks for the great feedback.

We don't contact people in your selection or connections. We want to focus on
the small verticals where there is a high chance of match, like academicians,
senior executives, developers, kernel developers etc. By spreading the word,
you don't mention your selections. But if that still disturbs you, to be seen
on jobrupt, you better not spread the word as privacy comes first.

Thanks for the great ideas on focus, niche, getting traction etc. They are
great hints going forward.

------
nns
So this is basically speed dating for job interviews ! This is how most speed
dating events work (atleast in London) - you indicate your interest in the
other person anonymously and if they 'like' you back, the system sends out an
email to both.

This kinda breaks when someone ends up clicking 'like' for everyone they met
at the event ! This someone in your case will be recruiters who'll use the
information to hunt probable passive candidates.

So in search for discreteness, the job-seeker would end up falling prey to the
game of head hunters.

~~~
victoriap
Thanks for the comparison and feedback. You are right with the risk, but we
have some soft limits for selections as an anti-spam measure. Also in our case
the set of people are not finite but open ended.

Someone today suggested using it for intracompany hiring in large consulting
companies like Accenture etc.

This is still experimental, we don't definitely aim to be a mainstream tool.
We just hope it will benefit some people in some situations.

~~~
nns
Sorry if the first comment sounded a bit discouraging. I think you folks have
made a great start and would be on the verge of a breakthrough.

Good luck and I hope it works! :)

~~~
victoriap
Any comment is always better than 'No comment' . I appreciate your feedback.

------
khoury
Ok, let me play the devils advocate here.

We get the point, I guess. People will feel less "desperate" in the eyes of
the contractor, since they obviously also showed their interest. But at the
end of the day, and this is why I will keep my skepticism for now, the
contractor has many many more seekers out there who are willing to do the job,
than the other way around.

Honestly, in a competitive market, this feel too weak from the contracter's
point of view. I you want a job, show it properly that you can do the job
well, not bitch around playing some sort of social game, trying to play hard
to get or whatever. Tl;Dr: There's no time for this shit.

On the other hand: Great! Like a "Bang with friends" for job hunting! You get
matched with whoever is looking for similar talents/positions, and then you
evaluate the other part, whereafter you either secretly show your interest or
not.

If the normal way is the hard way, this is the curling way where it doesn't
hurt as much to get dissed, because maybe they just didn't notice you, right?
But hey, you'll never know because you're too much of a pussy to find out.

My two cents.

~~~
victoriap
I hope that side would serve some small, highly skilled circles, such as Ruby
Developers, Kernel developers, Ember.js people, Academicians, Corporate
software sales people etc. We plan to keep out headhunters, contractors and
other mass-hiring entities.

The idea is to select whom you want to work with and leverage your connections
in addition to other methods.

------
Kliment
I think it's horrible that the only way to log in is via antisocial
networking. It's only one step removed from being a facebook login. If you
want it to be discreet, make it anonymous (email address only).

~~~
victoriap
Currently there is only LinkedIn signup available. But we plan an email signup
going forward. Mainly we need you to be able to see and select connections,
which is easier on LinkedIn. In email it is only possible through a list of
emails entered by the user. That's still a good option with some small
caveats. Thanks for the feedback.

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marknutter
So far this morning we've had two Show HN's with similar titles:

"Job searching/hiring turned upside down"

and

"Show HN: Dating turned upside down - Tomonotomo"

I'm wondering if this is just a coincidence or its the same person/entity.
They both use cheesy stock photos on their landing page and have very similar
layouts.

~~~
victoriap
Actual I entered the second one, after seeing Tomonotomo's title first. I
liked it as a nice expression of their ideas, and wanted to reuse it, so no
coincidence indeed. But we are not at all related. Sorry if that was
disturbing in any way.

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jmasonherr
This is cool, but I'd be worried that it wouldn't line me up with enough of
the right jobs. For that reason, I still prefer mightyspring for anonymous job
searching. A big part of the problem is matching the right people with the
right opportunities, and their algorithms are a lot more robust.

~~~
victoriap
You are absolutely right in pointing out Mightyspring. They help especially
when you focus on what you want to do. In Jobrupt's case, the focus is on
'with whom you want to work'. It may be your ex-boss or ex-employee, your ex-
colleague, your classmate, your competitor, your customer, your service
provider etc. Mightyspring definitely deserve their place, Jobrupt is just a
different and additional type of job search tool. You don't need to choose one
or another, you may use both.

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dccoolgai
I sort of like the "discrete" part, but what happens when the manager at your
current job logs in and feigns "interest" in you, just to see if you're
looking?

~~~
victoriap
Your manager will not know anything unless you also select her/him. And if you
both select each other, that's just a re-validation of your synergy :)

------
bmcd
It's Tinder (gotinder.com) for the job search!

