

Ask HN: Job searches don't have to suck, do they? - LanceJones

We're working on a 'Hipmunk' for hacker job searches, and we'd love to hear from this community about what's important in a job search.<p>What drives your search? Is it 'job first' or 'company first'?<p>We can imagine job/company location is pretty important, but what about understanding the customer problem the company is trying to solve? How important is that to you in your search?<p>What about the day-to-day perks of working for an organization (e.g., 4-day week, choice of hardware, free lunches, etc.)?<p>Would information about a company's success in the market (as much as can be shared publically) be highly relevant to your search?<p>And finally, how do you discover what great new companies are out there to work for?
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ig1
It varies a lot between hackers.

Someone working in say the financial sector or in gaming is much more likely
to want to move within that sector than say someone working on web design
where industry is secondary to technology.

Also location has a big impact how some searches for a job, someone in SF or
NY who has a wide range of options is more likely to be picky about multiple
factors, while someone in a tech backwater is much more likely to care about
company success (as losing your job is much more serious) but may also be
willing to travel much further to work.

There's also a lot of factors which relatively few developers care about (4
day work week, whether the company will allow you to work on open source
projects in your own time) but the developers who care about them _care a
lot_.

I run a developer job board in the UK so I obviously spent a fair amount of
time thinking about these things :)

If you want to chat feel free to drop me an email, happy to share advice from
my own experience.

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mgkimsal
Factors for me in order: * Location (or telecommute options) * Pay range *
Problem space * Perks/benefits * Other

By location I'd generally mean what's nearby me, but secondarily, if I was
ever considering a move, that target destination would obviously come in to
play.

Pay range - I really need to have an idea about pay scale/range from a
company. It's really annoying that more companies don't offer a range up
front. It might attract the wrong crowd, perhaps, but it might also help
people be a bit more realistic about the value a company places on them.

Problem space is less important to me for a couple reasons. I've worked in a
range of domains over the past 16 years, and have found I can adapt to most
problem domains, and am generally equally happy in all. I don't have a huge
push to be in telecom vs education vs retail - the problems each industry face
can be as interesting as you want to make them.

Perks - they're nice to have, but I'm not driving 2 hours per day just for a
free gym membership. They've never been a deciding factor for me. 401k
contributions - nice, sure. I've generally never pursued 'jobs' in such a way
that I had 3-5 offers at the same time, so I'm not sure how much of a deciding
factor they ever _would_ be, but I think the other factors would generally
outweigh most perks.

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dennyferra
1\. Location (I currently commute at least 2 hours a day) 2\. Pay and Benefits
(Married, 2 kids, house) 3\. Work environment / culture (Hardest part to
determine*) 4\. Perks (Coffee, gym, flexibility, etc) 5\. Everything else

I feel that understanding the problem space comes lower in the list of factors
for me. I might be more inclined to work in a tech focused company but if
factors 1-4 above are met at a company that works in agriculture... well then
give me a straw hat, some overalls and I'm in.

The one thing that sucks for me is gauging the company culture. Phone or face-
to-face interviews just don't cut it. And unless you know someone who works at
the place it's difficult to get a good idea of what the place is really like
to work at. I wish I could watch a video of people just working at the place.
Show me how the meetings go, show me how you guys deploy code, show me a
developer working on something, show me what happens when an issue in
production comes up. ~ There's an idea, video job postings!

How do I discover great new companies? Search, search, search, interview & ask
questions, talk to developers, go to meetups and talk to the people there,
blog, tweet, hope something interesting somehow makes it in front of my
eyeballs.

Oh and one other tip (not my site): <http://dearrecruiters.com/>

