

Ask HN: Do you know startups that are changing the world of tech recruitment? - ftpaul


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lazyant
Doesn't look scalable for a startup but I'd give my pinky (OK, maybe just a
month's salary) for having a decent tech recruiter work for me (developer open
to new opportunities), as in sparing me of the 90% of BS that I usually go
through when dealing with recruiters/companies.

~~~
zvitez
Why do you think it's not scalable? Think there always has to be a level of
attention on an individual level? What BS are you referring to btw? The usual,
"This guy knows Java. He'll probably interested in this Javascript position!"?

~~~
lazyant
The recruiting game makes my blood boil, so I'll just point to some issues but
the main thing is that tech recruiters are clueless about tech and don't
bother reading about you or the target company before wasting your time, and
I'm not even getting at having someone really look out for you actively trying
to find a good match.

General issues or "Top 10 Mistakes Technical Recruiters Make":

    
    
      - Not selling their company (or the position)  
      - Not looking into the prospect’s web presence  
      - Sending “cold call” vague email  
      - Not understanding basic technology  
      - Not disclosing basic information (an idea of salary, company)  
      - Using buzzwords, offering silly perks  
      - Not asking relevant questions  
      - Radio silence, not being responsive  
      - Not being clear on the process, what to expect  
      - Not understanding what motivates people beyond money
    
    

I think a good recruiter is not scalable in principle since it would need
someone to get to know you a bit.

~~~
pcbo
Very nice list of top ten mistakes! You should write about it.

Can you please tell me what motivates you more beyond money? Challenge? Co-
workers?

I did a similar list but focused on companies top ten mistakes when hiring
tech professionals:
[https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/article/20140924112230-224359...](https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/article/20140924112230-22435923-10-common-
mistakes-companies-do-when-hiring-techies)

~~~
lazyant
the most important thing for me is the team, the people I'm surrounded with,
also like everybody else, autonomy, mastery, purpose
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdzHgN7_Hs8](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdzHgN7_Hs8)

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mallyvai
Going to promote [http://offerletter.io](http://offerletter.io) here :-) We
help engineers and other workers by connecting them with a live human who can
help evaluate opportunities, and give them advice to help them get what
they're worth.

OfferLetter is adding real value to people's lives and careers. We have a lot
of great data on market rates, career trajectories, and company cultures. And
because of our tip-as-percent-increase structure, the incentives are totally
aligned.

Shoot me a mail if you have any questions, or I'll be hanging around the
comments here! mallyvai AT offerletter.io

~~~
ftpaul
I like the way that you present your website. Do you think that it's scalable?
How are you going increase the number of advisors?

~~~
mallyvai
It's absolutely scalable, and extremely high-leverage to boot.

We have a lot of advisors right now - there's a culture in the Valley of
proactively wanting to help and connect with good people who need guidance. So
even my friends who are busy founders, PMs, and leaders in their own right,
are more than willing to make time to serve as Advisors. (It also helps that
they get compensated well for it - and compensated proportional to the value
they deliver :-).

The more interesting question is how we get the word out more aggressively to
get more individuals on-board. If you have any ideas about that, let me know -
mallyvai@offerletter.io.

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bzalasky
Hired.com (formerly DeveloperAuction) comes to mind. I found my current role
at Lookout through Hired. Having worked with traditional recruiters in the
past, the difference with Hired is they have candidates' interests in mind as
opposed to focusing solely on commissions. If you're qualified, they put your
resume/CV in front of tons of great companies, give you the inside scoop on
how interviews work at different companies, and provide more transparency
through the whole process.

~~~
athesyn
How long does it usually take for the approval process and to get offers?

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bzalasky
I don't remember exactly how long it took, but something like a week or so to
get approved, and then they run auctions ever few weeks or so. The "offers"
are really just invitations to interview where salary, equity and perks are
laid out transparently ahead of time so that you can decide if an opportunity
is right for your situation.

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MalcolmDiggs
Angellist.

How? Because I can browse the companies that are hiring, see the compensation
levels, and apply. The companies can find me and express interest directly.

No recruiters involved whatsoever. I think _THAT_ model is truly the future.
It's changing the world of tech recruiting because it's challenging that idea
that recruiters need to exist at all... and it's a pretty convincing argument.

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pjungwir
I started a project similar to talentbin.com: scraping Github, StackOverflow,
and about two dozen other sites to compile searchable developer profiles.
Figuring out when a Github and StackOverflow profile belonged to the same
person was a pretty fun challenge. Eventually I abandoned it though, because
it felt like I was just enabling keyword-based recruiter spam. Selling it to
people made me feel bad instead of good.

~~~
zvitez
Good on you for being so altruistic. Do you think there's any way to leverage
that while making it desirable for the developers? Imagine you have great
offers that you know would be valuable to the people you found. Would it be
spam to share it?

~~~
pjungwir
Well I did believe that when I started the project. I don't know if quitting
was altruism. Selling is hard enough for a programmer like me, but for this
project I really recoiled from it. My heart just wasn't in it. Perhaps if
communications were opt-in for the developers and we controlled the
communications channel it would be okay. This piece might be worth keeping:
The site scored each developer on various skills, so users could see that a
person was better than 87% of their peers worldwide and better than 93% of
people within 100 miles, etc. You could still use the whole population to
compile those stats, even if only some people had opted in to communications.
(Of course the score was based only on public data, so it was not perfect, but
still it seemed like a pretty strong signal when I looked at it for people I
know.)

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bluerail
hackerrank.com (formerly interviewstreet) - This came in at the right moment
when tech companies are struggling to filter out 1000s of resumes for a
programmer job.. You can read more about it here..

[http://tech.firstpost.com/news-analysis/interviewstreet-
disr...](http://tech.firstpost.com/news-analysis/interviewstreet-disrupting-
the-it-sector-hiring-process-103524.html)

~~~
tptacek
Does anyone have any experiences with HackerRank to share? I'm curious.

~~~
bluerail
Experience with regards to working with them or getting hired via it?

If getting hired via it, I do have. So far, 5 out of 6 jobs I applied used
hackerrank for initial level screening on programming knowledge.

I ve also worked with them in creating few interview questions, but its via
freelancing.

~~~
tptacek
Interesting. What was the screening like? I did a lot of work in candidate
screening at my old job; this is a hobbyhorse of mine.

Thanks for responding!

~~~
bluerail
Apparently, the comment depth is exceeded.. You can mail me (id in my profile)
and I am happy to discuss it.

~~~
mechanical_fish
Sigh.

~~~
tptacek
Do you nerd out on this stuff too?

~~~
mechanical_fish
Yes, and I also nerd out on the design of online discussion forums. So
watching this discussion trip over a misfeature and nearly fall into the
darknet was sad, and sad again.

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seekingcharlie
[http://hired.com/](http://hired.com/)

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knuxus
Some guys from here, Lisbon, Portugal are kinda making referrals work without
all that linkedin bs... [http://www.jobbox.io/](http://www.jobbox.io/) , you
can gain some serious money recommending people a better job

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rvivek
Hi, hackerrank founder here. Happy to answer any questions.

~~~
crazypyro
Could you give any insight into how many companies are creating their own
questions versus using your pre-loaded ones?

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lamby
Workable? Not world-changing but certainly takes some of the
"urgherhergasdasd" out of it.

~~~
zvitez
:) as long as it takes that out of it! What would make it world-changing for
you? Is that the only option you've considered?

