
Ask HN: What attracts you to an engineering role? - danpalmer
We&#x27;re in the process of iterating our engineering jobs pages, the way we describe our roles, and the way we describe the company as a whole, and we want to make sure it appeals to the right people.<p>- When reading about a potential software engineering role and company, what attracts you and makes you more likely to apply?<p>- What concerns do you have about companies you haven&#x27;t heard of before that might prevent you from applying?<p>- What else might persuade to apply (or dissuade you from it)? Description of the interview process? Detail on the company culture and values?
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PaulHoule
The #1 problem is bullshit.

People that go through a huge amount of effort to "hire the best" and then
they buy either a bright and shiny mac laptop or a cheap and cruddy dell
laptop, and then they blame you for complaining that the build takes 50
minutes, etc...

You can't be a "10x" developer if there is ANY bullshit in the job.

~~~
random778
Can't support this enough. Management bullshit. Appoint an engineer who has
developed some empathy and START TRUSTING HIM. If you're not an engineer you
will very like fuck this up. Getting someone to give you the right words for
recruitment doesn't translate into understanding what drives an engineer.

~~~
danpalmer
I am an engineer, but I realise that what matters to me will be different to
what matters to many others. The point about empathy is an interesting one
though - might try and highlight the empathy we have in the company, thanks.

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TaiFood
As an orphan from the semiconductor industry, proficient with hardware,
assembly, firmware, and light software coding I think prospective employers
neglect seemingly non-qualified engineers that might answer phones or work in
receiving while updating specific skills that engineering needs but is
disconnected with HR who filters prospects with a laser focus to ensure
immediate productivity.

We need to recycle great engineers who are unable to predict the exact
programming skills that would lead to NEAR term employment.

How can we address the lack of a domestic engineering ecosystem?

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kafkaesq
Instant turnoffs:

\- Boasts of "epic" nerf gun (and/or laser tag) battles, foosball tables,
office kegs, or other non- or anti-perks;

\- Group selfies of your whole team wearing brightly colored T-shirts and
forced smiles at some company outing. What is this, day camp?

\- Mandatory linked-in profiles and / mug shots on the company website. Where
did this trend come from? What happened to privacy?

\- Tightly-packed open plan offices

\- "unlimited vacation"

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danpalmer
Can I ask your opinion on these in a bit more detail?

\- non-perks: we mention that we hang out on Friday evenings and sometimes
have a drink, and we celebrate when we do important things, is this too much?
Are there better ways of writing that?

\- Interesting point, I see what you mean, and we do have a team photo (no
matching t-shirts). Will think about this.

\- Profiles: We want to link for those who want it, which currently happens to
be the whole team - how do you suggest we convey that those are optional?

\- Office: This is a tricky one, the open-plan office is currently under
discussion among the team, although we aren't that tightly packed.

\- Unlimited vacation: I think we might just not mention this one. We do have
unlimited vacation, but the founders set a very good example, and it's used
much more as a 'flexible' vacation policy. I think we can explain how it gets
used, but maybe not on first read of a hiring page. What do you think?

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random778
I don't see how the discussion around an open plan office is tricky. Simply
googling it will give you droves of articles like this one

[http://www.inc.com/geoffrey-james/why-your-company-will-
bene...](http://www.inc.com/geoffrey-james/why-your-company-will-benefit-from-
getting-rid-of-open-office-spaces-first-90.html)

as well as research such as this review of research on the topic:

[http://www.lapa.co.nz/assets/NewsAttachments/openplanoffices...](http://www.lapa.co.nz/assets/NewsAttachments/openplanofficeszengine.pdf)

~~~
danpalmer
I've read a lot of these things, and while I recognise there is some research
in favour of private offices, I also think it's currently very 'trendy' to say
that open spaces are bad, and I think a lot of the discussion is very
developer-focused. Most of the people in our office are non-developers, and
while the developers like quiet, our creative teams get far more enjoyment
(and seemingly productivity) as a result of being able to talk and bounce
ideas off each other much more.

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random778
Do you have experienced engineers/developers who can mentor junior employees?

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danpalmer
That would be a really good selling point, thanks for mentioning it, but we're
not looking for _really_ junior developers at the moment. That said, we would
be a good place for mentoring on launching a startup, so we might mention
that.

