
Ask HN: Who's Trolling (March 2020) – a sister thread of “Who's Hiring”? - RemoteIsHeaven
Would you find a &quot;Who&#x27;s Trolling&quot; (not sold on the name, so suggest away!) - a sister thread of our monthly &quot;Who&#x27;s Hiring&quot; to be helpful in your job search?<p>Job search is stressful, time consuming and exhausting as a candidate. We need all the help we can get.<p>We take the posts in the monthly &quot;Who&#x27;s Hiring&quot; pretty seriously, treating each job post with way more respect than job posts elsewhere.<p>The 5 major objectives are to identify companies that:<p>1. Ghost.<p>This, after they list intricate requirements with elaborate HackerRank&#x2F;take home assignments, quiz that try and see how much of time you spent reading their posts here&#x2F;elsewhere including cues (&quot;Please keep your answers short and include the word &#x27;IReadThis &lt;your hn id&gt;&#x27; so we know you read these instructions.&quot;)<p>2. Not looking to hire but actually collect resumes&#x2F;market research<p>The day (sometimes even a week) long take home assignments are just to see if anyone who&#x27;s really capable is really interested in the position enough to put in the work needed. Some throw forms with multiple questions on it at you that take hours to fill out instead. No response. Not even an interview.<p>3. Misrepresent themselves, the position or the benefits.<p>&quot;Remote&quot; companies that &quot;prefer&quot; candidates in the same city. Or &quot;Yeah, we are trialing the remote thing 2 times a week for now.&quot;<p>4. Crowdsource their MVP<p>Scrappy startups with no actual funds to hire a developer are using assignments to build their MVPs.
More in this video: https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;QkJpdaNGHgQ<p>5. Repeatedly post &quot;job postings&quot; every month, without a break, for the exact same role, schedule interviews, assign take homes, regularly, over and over again, without ever hiring once and providing 0 code review for those assignments.<p>Currently, there is absolutely no way for us to communicate to each other when we come across these companies.<p>THIS is an attempt in fixing that.
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RemoteIsHeaven
If "FakeCo" was to post on Indeed/LinkedIn or even cold email me, I won't even
take a second look at it, but, if they post on HN, I will not only check them
out but go as far as give their take home assignments a serious shot because
HN has a special place in my heart and I want to help my fellow entrepreneurs.

I am very confident in saying this is just not me - a lot of you treat the
posts in the monthly "Who's Hiring" pretty seriously as well!

However:

Reading reports on HN, it seems like, certain companies have realized we take
the posts in the monthly "Who's Hiring" pretty seriously and are actively
exploiting our goodwill.

Currently, there is absolutely no way for us to communicate to each other when
we come across these companies.

THIS is an attempt in fixing that.

Secondary objectives of this thread could be to:

i. Inform us if the project manager has asked the non-technical interviewer to
ask technical questions from a list. What's the runtime of QuickSort? Best
case, worst case or average case? What's the partioning strategy you want me
to use? Aux storage needed? Does it say I have to say "O(n log n)" on the
list?

ii. Warn us that a post is really for a H1B PERM and no real application is
being sought. It's just a honeypot to produce as evidence in case the DHS ever
comes knocking asking questions if an US Citizen was considered for the
position

iii. Warn us that the architect you get to speak with at the end of the 18
hour interview pipeline hates anyone who ever coded in Java as it's "pure
poison for the mind" and wants to ensure you forgot all the "bad habits" that
Java taught you and "C# with LINQ" is the real solution to all the world's
problems

iv. ... you get the idea

I DONT expect quality control on Indeed/LinkedIn/WhatHaveYou and treat these
sites with the respect they deserve.

I DO really respect HN and believe it's important to be able to verify and
maintain the integrity of "Who's Hiring" with what we can

Please suggest away and if all these experiences are just me, no one here had
to go through any of this, I am really sorry for wasting your time.

