

Ask HN: What would you like to see in a better job board? - Peroni

Assume the following:<p>* Job boards are by and large rubbish and full of recruiters raping the database.<p>* This job board has zero recruiters and is aimed exclusively at Developers.<p>We are in the process of developing a board with the aim of targeting HN types, Github types, Stack Overflow types, you get the gist. On the other side of the fence we are targeting companies with legitimately challenging Developer roles in interesting organisations ranging from start-ups to large corporates. Our methods on the client side are relatively unique but what we would love to know is what <i>you</i> feel would make a job board better from a candidate perspective.<p>The product is in Alpha at the moment and not live yet but we are really keen to find out if there are blatantly obvious features that we simply haven't considered.<p>So, what would do <i>you</i> want to see in a job board?
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brandonb
One problem with finding a job is the paradox of choice. The more choices you
have, the harder it is to make a final decision. That's especially true of
startups, where there are literally thousands of potential options and no
practical way to evaluate them all.

What if you curated a weekly mail that features amazing jobs the way that
Groupon features amazing deals? You'd have to select only the best, hacker-
friendly companies. I think simply filtering through all the cruft would put
you at a huge advantage to all the conventional job boards. In fact, even
people who aren't actively looking for jobs might sign up, since they don't
have to do any work, and there's always a possibility that their "dream job"
may come along.

The other advantage of having a small number of featured jobs is that you
avoid half of the two-sided market problem. You still have to get engineers to
subscribe, and a small number of jobs to seed the list, but if you're a good
hacker, you could probably start with your personal network for both.

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ig1
Make me a good offer and I'll sell you CoderStack ;)

I didn't really appreciate it before building a job board but adding features
for developers has practically zero upside, developers who are actively
looking for jobs will use you anyway (assuming you have a base level of
interesting jobs) and those not looking won't.

Basically for any feature you have to ask (1) will it result in more
applications/candidate (2) will it attract more candidates to your site who
would otherwise use another site.

But in the developer market the fundamental market problem is neither of these
two, but rather that most good developers aren't in the job market. So to make
a big difference you essentially have to attract developers who would
otherwise not be looking for a job.

StackOverflow does this through it's stack exchange sites where they have a
captive audience, CoderStack does this through a huge amount of advertising
and marketing (we've bought roughly 30 million ad impressions this year -
that's about 90 impressions for every developer in the UK).

You need to ask yourself what is it that you're going to do differently that
will allow you to attract these developers.

If I was building something in this space from scratch I'd be much more
inclined to go the route someone else suggested in this thread of the daily
deal email route, because that is a feasible way of tackling the attracting
passive developer problem.

~~~
Peroni
Passive developers are our target market and we have a few tricks up our
sleeve in that regard!

Email me about CoderStack. I'm genuinely intrigued.

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gyardley
Ratings and reviews by applicants (both successful and unsuccessful) on the
quality and characteristics of the interview process.

Links to the Github, Stack Overflow, or HN accounts of the people we'd be
working with. Targeting HN / Github / Stack Overflow types works both ways.

~~~
Peroni
Glad you mentioned this. Linkedin, Github, Stack & HN links are already
incorporated :)

I like the review idea. Thanks!

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calbear81
I'm not sure if this is specific to just a job board targeted at developers
but even on a job aggregator like Indeed.com, I can't filter by some elements
that I can see people interested in like:

\- Benefits (401k matching, health, vision, dental, free lunch, daycare, etc.)
\- Equipment (what is provided? Ergonomic chairs, etc.)

I know some of this may seem like the wrong things to focus on when choosing a
job but I personally know many folks who spend a significant % of their income
on healthcare and child care and it should be considered as important as
salary.

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jgrahamc
Well, I built something like that: <http://jobs.usethesource.com/>

Simple entry procedure: you have to either be a high-karma or long-standing HN
member, or beg me.

~~~
ecaron
I was debating on pitching my own site, <http://www.linkup.com/>, but couldn't
justify starting a top-level comment on it.

Thanks for starting the trend;-)

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cultureulterior
Good geographic search, by human language compability, visa compability, etc.

~~~
Peroni
Could you elaborate? Most job boards have a generic 'enter City & search
radius' option. What could be done to improve on that?

~~~
quadform
Some job boards have a geographic search, but they "stretch the radius" so as
to return more listings.

So, I'd say that "good geographic search" == an honest one (that is, give me
the results that are actually within the radius or area that I specified).

~~~
ecaron
Good geographic search is incredibly difficult. Systems could be 100% accurate
if each job required an actual physical address (123 Modem Dr, Main St, 55555
for example.) With that, I can give you the lat/lon and do all the great
circle geometry needed.

The problem is that cities have multiple names. For example in Minneapolis,
Golden Valley is a suburb but people swap the names to suit their needs. So
even though Golden Valley is a subset, the simple radius search can still be
"honest" while appearing to stretch the radius. And don't even get my started
on jobs that are 90% travel!

Would you say that requiring an actual physical address for each job on the
site is feasible?

~~~
quadform
> Would you say that requiring an actual physical address for each job on the
> site is feasible?

If I'm searching for a job, I've usually got a max commuting time in mind.
Some towns are closer, but take longer to drive to because there's no highway
leading there, or no train. Some are very far, but the train goes there, and
so I'd consider the commute.

So, when a job ad has an address, that's what I'm thinking about when I see
it: commute time.

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wavephorm
A big problem is most jobs say "competitive salary" without specifying what
that means, and only after a few phone calls and maybe a full interview you
find out it's significantly less than average pay.

It would be nice if a job board could filter out these low paying jobs that
nobody wants.

