

Ask HN: Would you sign up for a "Hire-a-HN-Hacker" board? - josh_fyi

HN has monthly "Who's hiring" posts, but not "Who wants to be poached into a better job" posts.<p>So, I want to ask: Would you like such a service? Are there any comfortably-employed hackers hanging out at HN who would like something better -- new challenges, work-life balance, kegerator, whatever?<p>We created this page to test the idea: http://blog.fiveyearitch.com/2013/05/show-hn-unofficial-hire-hn-hacker-board.html  (Clickable link below.)<p>It uses the same embeddable FiveYearItch widget which learning sites use to get better jobs for their students.<p>Do you like it? Tell me in the comment below and vote in the quiz at the widget page.<p>If enough HN people sign up, our next step is finding a permanent high-profile home for an unofficial "Hire a HN News Hacker" page.
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josh_fyi
Clickable link: [http://blog.fiveyearitch.com/2013/05/show-hn-unofficial-
hire...](http://blog.fiveyearitch.com/2013/05/show-hn-unofficial-hire-hn-
hacker-board.html)

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bitsweet
In my experience, most developers are looking for more then "just" another
job...it could be a bump in pay but it usually also means a new challenge like
working on a particular tech, type of product, domain, etc...nothing here on
the Hire-a-HN-hacker tells the employer what you _want_ to do, only what few
hot keyword/skills you have and sure, the skills will match the same keywords
that crappy recruiters are searching for and you'll learn about heaps of jobs
good and more often bad. You could also post your résumé privately on monster
if you want to cast a wide net.

we're lucky as engineers...tradionally employers have had an abundance of
candidates to filter, but with programming skills in such demand, developers
now have an abundance of oppourtunities...it's not that we need more job
oppourtunities, we need a way to filter the bad ones out.

disclaimer, I run trypitchbox.com - which operates in a similar space

~~~
josh_fyi
>tells the employer what you want to do

>it could be a bump in pay but it usually also means a new challenge like
working on a particular tech, type of product, domain, etc

Sure, that's _exactly_ what FiveYearItch is all about.

When you register ( <http://www.fiveyearitch.com/register?publisher=e0e3f1> ),
you will say "what you need in your next job," whether it is learning
opportunities, ace colleagues, stock options, a flat hierarchy, or anything
else you'd like.

Employers have to commit to provide these if a deal goes through.

The "Hire-a-HN-Hacker" widget has limited space, and so it highlights skills
that would interest an employer, but when the employer clicks to search,
they'll see the developer's requirements as well.

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jetblackio
Great idea, and it looks to be executed well. One gripe. Please don't regulate
sysadmin/devops to 'other'. I like to believe we're first class citizens too
:)

~~~
josh_fyi
Thanks. Yes, this is absolutely for sysadmins, etc. The "fun quiz" on the
welcome-page only had room for a few sample options.

On the registration page at <http://fiveyearitch.com/register> just start
typing in the "wanted position" field and you'll see that "system
administrator" is already an option.

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maldinii
I'm not sure if this will work, the thing is that a lot of good hackers that I
know, don't like to spend time on writing nice resumes, sign-up for jobs
websites, write a good bio, introduction etc, they simply prefer to do what
they like :)

~~~
josh_fyi
Thanks, maldinii, that's exactly the problem we are trying to solve. Take a
look at the sign-up page <http://fiveyearitch.com/register> We made it super-
simple: No resume, no bio, super-short form.

And even after employers contact you, we have optimized to make it easy to
ignore them. No chit-chat, you can just click "no thanks."

~~~
maldinii
Yes, I understand your point, but the problem is that if the developer doesn't
post enough information, the employer won't be able to evaluate their work and
they will not be able to differentiate people that are good from people that
are not. A solution that I see for those kind of people is to introduce a 5
minute call with any developer that apply and see what kind of person they are
.

~~~
josh_fyi
Right, we developed a workflow to work around it.

The employer can ask for some quick qualifiers, FizzBuzz-style questions, to
separate the sheep from the goats.

They should take two minutes each to answer and are not intended as an in-
depth test or interview.

Afterwards, the employer can move into further discussions and the regular
interview process.

------
bliker
How about people in EU? _Please only sign up if you have authorization to work
in the US._

~~~
josh_fyi
We're not quite worldwide yet :-/ but we have been adding countries gradually
and will be adding more soon.

So far, FiveYearItch supports the US, Australia, Canada, the UK, Israel, and
India.

You can register at our user-feedback page
<http://fiveyearitch.uservoice.com/> to get updates.

~~~
white_devil
> FiveYearItch supports the US, Australia, Canada, the UK, Israel, and India.

Why is supporting the EU more difficult than supporting any of those
countries?

~~~
dangrossman
Are you volunteering to spend the time building up a list of partner companies
willing to hire through them from every country in the EU? Are you also
volunteering to do the legal consultations to ensure they're meeting labor law
requirements in each of those countries? Or, are you asking that they let
engineers spend time putting their profiles into a pile nobody will see?

This isn't a technology problem ("add EU to line 284 of config.yml"). It's a
regulatory problem, a cultural problem, a sales/support staffing problem, a
marketing problem. There's nothing wrong with not half-assing it.

~~~
BraveNewCurency
Amen to that. People tend to forget that Amazon started off selling only
books, Facebook started off exclusive to Harvard students, CraigsList started
off as a local SF site, etc. Companies that try to do too much at once end up
spreading themselves too thin.

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scottalpert
Like!

We need a way for GOOD employers, the ones who grok hacking, to poach us out
of the corporate jobs.

We all got what it takes to hunt up a job, but if employers can find me with
other HNers, all the better!

~~~
mandytolliver
Strange how employers have to dig through HN profiles or LinkedIn accounts to
find the good ones -- and many of us just don't WANT any offers at all.

I wish I could say "Job's not so awful I gotta move, but I want to hack for
real, please, and not just on my GitHub at night."

~~~
pi18n
I have that feeling too... I kindof want to look but don't want to do the
whole song and dance.

~~~
josh_fyi
Thanks! We called "that feeling" the "Itch," and built our site around it --
<http://FiveYearItch.com>.

Song-and-dance definitely not required.

~~~
pi18n
Hey! I actually had a try on your site few months ago and it didn't pan out
for me. I must not have an attractive enough skillset for the businesses
browsing.

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michaelochurch
Well, I lose. It's not even 18 hours and I'm breaking from my self-imposed HN
break. Dammit, I suck. Or, we'll just call this thread an exception, because I
really want to contribute to this discussion.

Neat idea, but probably not. The problem with job boards is that they all turn
into ghettos. The technology is fine. The material (sometimes on both sides,
but almost always in terms of employers) usually ain't.

I was talking to an investor, years ago, about a dating site and he pointed
out a mistake I was making. He said, "you think the problem with these other
sites is technology, but that's wrong. The sites are fine; the people are
broken."

We think that the recruiters peddling horrible subordinate corporate jobs are
somehow unaware of HN and how geeks really think; but reality doesn't bear
that out. We're damn easy to fool. If a sociopath can hoodwink a venture
capitalist, then he can pretty easily hire nerds.

I don't want to get into a long-running HN thread (I have good reason for my
month-long break that I just now broke from) but if you'd like to talk offline
about some thoughts I've had about fixing the job market, I'm michael.o.church
at gmail.

~~~
josh_fyi
Michael,

Thanks for that comment, you've hit it spot on. The focus at FiveYearItch is
not the technology, it's the workflow for connecting the two sides.

> recruiters peddling horrible subordinate corporate jobs

That's exactly who we are keeping out.

We work with employers, preferably technically savvy hiring managers, and they
have to be smart enough to reach out to developers rather than assuming
developers will come begging for a job to them.

They have to be willing to commit to what developers require, which is often
not salary or health plans but "ace colleagues" and "flat hierarchy."

And as to finding the folks to bring together: That's the key, we're finding
various ways to do it -- and note where we're chatting right now :-)

~~~
brudgers
How is this different from a conventional full-service executive search firm?

How does it scale if employers and candidates are rigorously screened
(assuming that they are rigorously screened) since conventional full-service
match making is built upon individual relationships and meaningful
conversations?

This is not to say that there isn't a need for an HN full-service executive
search firm. But rather that I don't see how the objectives are satisfied
without a conventional labor intensive model.

~~~
josh_fyi
Good question.

First, it's for developers and other IT pros, not executives.

It's for introducing people, not a full-service search firm. Employers send
quick screening question to candidates.

The workflow is designed to be very quick, easy, and easy to drop at any time.
At the early stage of communication, both sites should be able to click a "No
thanks" button and leave it at that.

Once the candidate has passed initial screening, employers continue in their
normal interview process.

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sheshbesh
Liked the quiz on the FiveYearItch.com welcome page. I got a 3-of-5 "itch"
score, so, I guess I'll give it a try.

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ISL
Very cool. Signed up.

