

Ask HN: posted startup jobs at github, 37sigs, and only 6 resumes? - petervandijck

We posted our startup jobs (pretty great jobs I'd say, exciting startup, well paid) in the best places we could think of:<p>* 37sigs: http://bit.ly/g24KTD<p>* Stackoverflow: http://bit.ly/gchGuU<p>* Github: http://bit.ly/dSzOvu<p>* and our blog of course http://blog.getgush.com/<p>Only 6 resumes in a week. Half of them worthless. Is this typical? I would have expected quite a few more applications, these job postings are fairly expensive. How have others faired with these job boards? Is there something wrong with/missing in our job posting?
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ryanfitz
Your posting is too generic. You don't mention what you're working on or why I
should be excited to work with you guys. You also make it sound like you use
every major programing language/framework out there. Java, javascript, groovy,
ruby, python, scala, ios, android, windows mobile its all there plus a bunch
of frameworks and other tools. It all makes me have no idea what I would be
applying for or to expect, so I personally wouldn't waste my time writing you
a story about myself, which you are requesting.

~~~
petervandijck
Thanks, that's good feedback.

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mooism2
There's no indication of salary apart from "competitive".

"Working remotely is possible." How remote? Would I have to live in Canada? Is
USA ok? Further afield? Would you want me to come into the office at least
once a week? Once a month? Is "never" ok?

~~~
petervandijck
You should be in Canada or move there. Salary is competitive means we tend to
pay people more than they ask for. I guess you're saying it's too vague?

~~~
BenSS
The rewrite is a lot better, and specifying Canada was important (dang, I'm
job-hunting now and can't apply because of that).

~~~
petervandijck
They have flexible immigration policies. Just apply :)

~~~
BenSS
It sounds really interesting, but if we have to move for a job my wife would
rather move somewhere warmer than the northeast, not colder!

Do keep in mind a lot of the boards are US-centric, which might also change
the response rates.

~~~
petervandijck
Fair enough :)

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ig1
Location. Location. Location.

I mentioned this in an article I wrote last week:
[http://blog.coderstack.co.uk/lean-vs-vc-how-were-taking-
on-s...](http://blog.coderstack.co.uk/lean-vs-vc-how-were-taking-on-stack-
overflow)

But essentially it comes down to one of the biggest complaints about the job
boards you've mentioned is that they charge the same price whichever city your
in. Even if they only have a tiny handful of developers who would consider
working in your city.

Your best bet is to use a specialist local job board if one exists or
otherwise reach out through the local startup community.

------
bartonfink
What do you do? I care significantly more about that than I do about what
technology you use.

~~~
petervandijck
We're pre-alpha, so I don't really want to tell the world yet, although I'll
tell you all about that in an interview.

Does not saying what we do reduce the chances that you'd apply?

~~~
mindcrime
_Does not saying what we do reduce the chances that you'd apply?_

Reduce? Try "eliminate." I would never bother applying to a company where I
don't even know what they're building.

If you're that alpha/stealth, you'll probably fare better recruiting locally
through referrals from friends / colleagues / former co-workers / local user
groups / etc.

~~~
petervandijck
Really? I'll happily spill the beans during an interview, I just don't want to
post it out there just yet (we're barely getting started). Maybe I should
reconsider that?

~~~
mindcrime
_Really?_

Yes.

 _I'll happily spill the beans during an interview,_

That's nice, but what's the incentive for people to come interview with you,
just to find out what you're doing? Like others have said, you don't have to
give away deep, deep details, but you need to at least give an abstract
description of what you're doing.

 _I just don't want to post it out there just yet (we're barely getting
started)._

I think you're worrying about this WAY too much. It's not like there's a
gaggle of idea-starved hackers sitting around watching your job postings, just
waiting for a chance to jump on your brilliant idea, execute it better than
you, and steal your market from you. Somebody - I'm thinking Steve Blank, but
don't quote me on this - said something like "If your idea is any good, you'll
have to beat people over the head to get them to go along with it." I'd take
that to heart if it were me. <shrug />

But if you really want to stay stealth, why not stick to recruiting locally
through trusted connections? What you're trying to do here seems almost like a
fundamental contradiction. "Advertise widely, but keep everything a secret."
I'm having a hard time seeing how that's going to work.

~~~
petervandijck
Fair enough, and good feedback.

We've updated the job postings with a little more info. We're basically in the
photo space, but NOT another mobile photo sharing app.

~~~
mindcrime
Cool, that looks reasonable.

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petervandijck
Clickables: <http://blog.getgush.com/> <http://bit.ly/g24KTD>
<http://bit.ly/gchGuU> <http://bit.ly/dSzOvu>

------
petervandijck
ps: based on the feedback, we're editing the job description to be more
practical and say more about the product:

[http://jobs.github.com/positions/45d7614a-4f24-11e0-9e2f-43f...](http://jobs.github.com/positions/45d7614a-4f24-11e0-9e2f-43f3ee22dd93)

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kovar
Just out of curiosity, why did you hide the other URLs behind bit.ly but not
your own?

~~~
petervandijck
The other were horrendous insults to good url design (even Stackoverflow's).
The only one that was reasonable was 37sigs. I didn't really give it any
thought, ours would only have been like 2 chars shorter. Or perhaps it was
self-promotional instinct :)

~~~
spicyj
You can also shorten the StackOverflow one:

<http://careers.stackoverflow.com/jobs/10660>

Also a note, HN automatically truncates overly-long URLs so you don't usually
need to worry about pre-shortening.

