

Show HN: Hiring startups get top developers in their inbox - jacektu
http://devhunt.co

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lscore720
Do you have an About page? How are you acquiring your network/database of
caliber engineers for these start-ups? What are you going to charge after a
limited time?

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jacektu
The engineering talent is at a high level due to the fact that candidates have
worked at top tech companies. There is no charge to the developers. Startups
at a monthly fee will get an increased number of candidates in their inbox.

Meant to include all information in one page so didn't add a separate About
page.

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lscore720
So I imagine you already have a large database of candidates in there so
employers can receive them once they sign up, right?

Otherwise it's a basically a landing page and e-mail sign up for a stack
overflow-type careers site and you'll only receive active (with few
exceptions, lower caliber) candidates. Hopefully that's not the case, as there
would be practically zero chance of success.

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jacektu
Startups specify what tech companies the candidates have worked. This narrows
the pool of candidates to ones already vetted by these companies.

For example, if a startup chooses Google and Facebook, they will only receive
developers who have worked at Google or Facebook and who are looking to be
hired by a startup.

~~~
lscore720
OK, but how are you finding/convincing these prospective candidates to talk to
these companies?

What value are you providing these companies here? The fact that you're
already requiring the employer to TELL you which companies to target puts you
far behind an average recruiter just in terms of hassle & productivity.

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jacektu
I'm building up the database of candidates at the same time as the database of
startups. There are two sign up paths on the form, "Get Hired" and "Hire".

The benefit to the startup is convenience. Startups get a regular e-mail with
engineers including their contact information. No app or service to log in to.
They also don't need to deal with anonymous introductions to candidates who
aren't seriously looking.

Requiring startups to specify which companies to hire from may be limiting or
like you said not productive. If I see many startups selecting many or all
companies I will simply make it a requirement that candidates have worked at a
top tech company and not specific ones.

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lscore720
Got it, thanks for explaining. Here's my two cents and I'm sorry if it's not
what you want to hear:

The foundation of recruiting is sales - you are competing again internal,
external recruiters and many other avenues pursued by an employer to hire THE
best candidate for a given role. They don't care about anything but you
delivering the best in the most efficient way possible.

I regular give advice to people testing new tech recruiting approaches -
because the system is broken in many ways. The worst attempts at fixing are
generally made by engineers with limited understanding of what it takes to
actually be.a.recruiter. They assume that their technical proficiency will
give them the edge - wrong. This is the mistake made by most technical people
who believe they'll also succeed in sales - it ends up being a handicap. For
the most part, actuaries make terrible insurances salespeople, mechanics fail
in car sales, and so on. Human first, salesperson second, technician a distant
third.

At this point, all you have is a visually appealing tool that may add a tiny
fraction to the employer's hiring productivity. But that means nothing unless
you have the best candidates for them, yesterday. If you are starting from
scratch, you'll either need to partner with a recruiter with a huge rolodex or
spend about years building up your own. You cannot just enter this game
without a huge database ready for your hiring campaign. It's a numbers game,
it takes massive outreach before you can even offer a simple tool like this to
differentiate yourself. Until then, an employer could care less unless you've
proven you can deliver the best candidate, now.

Hope this helps!

~~~
jacektu
Based on your experience in the tech recruiting industry, what aspect of
recruiting is broken and is the biggest pain point?

~~~
lscore720
IMO trust in recruiters. Like any commission-sales role, there is a low
barrier to entry and too many bad professionals give it a bad name, lead to
skepticism, therefore creating challenges and inefficiencies for the minority
that can make it a valuable experience for both candidates & hiring managers.

