
Thank HN: You helped me get a new job - atum47
I remember like it was yesterday: I applied to a job overseas through a job platform and didn&#x27;t get hired. People from the platform contacted me telling me one of the possible reasons was that I didn&#x27;t have any code on GitHub. After that I started uploading all my code as open source projects and began to search places to tell people about it.<p>Soon I learned about Hackernews and made a post that got 1 vote. I then decided to contact HN to ask how can I get more traction to my projects and they told me about the Show HN, a tag design to share small and even unfinished projects. Soon I was posting every idea I ever had made into a project. After InvaderZ - a space invaders clone that uses genetic algorithm (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=21577659" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=21577659</a>) - people started liking my projects and I started to gain some attention. That was very important cause I was being approached by some companies.<p>I don&#x27;t do projects to gather attention, I do cause I have fun doing them. I already had a lot of things done when I decided to upload them to GitHub. Well, in one of those times when my post was in top 10, a cool company from São Paulo saw me and called me for an interview. They liked my project so much they offer me a job.<p>I&#x27;m living in São Paulo now, it&#x27;s a huge city full of things to do and places to visit. It&#x27;s been really cool so far and I have a huge appreciation for  Hackernews and the good people that work here. They provide a cool platform where people can share relevant news. They provide tools for people to start their own startup. They share job openings. They share companies that are hiring. It&#x27;s a neat place for programmers, hackers and tech enthusiasts in general. I wrote this cause you never know when your story will inspire others and maybe there&#x27;s someone on the struggle right now looking for a job. This was my experience. HN help me a lot and I think it might help you too. Thank you all and have a wonderful year.
======
keyle
There is undeniably a positive energy around HN. It has enriched my life in
many ways and opened my mind to many different fields, niche communities and
many historical facts.

The world is truly filled with good people.

I'm not surprised and very glad to read about this story.

~~~
rohan1024
Sure HN crowd is far better than rest of platforms but we can't undermine OPs
efforts as well. Dude has like 70 Show HNs on his profile!

~~~
mannykoum
yeap it's all his doing :) HN just helped make that work visible which isn't
that easy (even within the HN community)

------
bmcfeeley
Thank you for posting!

I’m grateful to hear your story. These days, it seems all too easy to see only
the bad sides of the internet.

It feels like news breaks every day about yet another way that the advertising
industrial complex robs us of agency, another insensitive corporate gaffe goes
uncorrected, or a CEO ousted for their malignant influence on a company lands
on their feet with no repercussions — sometimes at the same company.

I grew attached to my computer at a young age — It felt like a chance to make
real all of the possibilities that felt so out of reach in the rest of my
life. It’s been a really hard road to face the current state of the net, like
one of my childhood dreams has turned sour.

So, when I see a story like yours, I’m grateful to be reminded of the ways
that the promise of a more connected world is not yet lost, we can still do
some good. I hope you enjoy your new job and São Paolo and that this is the
beginning of an exciting next chapter!

~~~
atum47
well, you'll be glad to know that I'm working on a project that helps children
eat healthier food and exercise. I'm using machine learning to provide a
custom experience for parents and children alike (not all children have access
to the same type of food - strawberries, for example, are expensive and hard
to find on some parts of Brazil so the app must not indicate that kind of food
to people from that area)

~~~
navs
This sounds like a great project. I've found you on LinkedIn and Github but is
there somewhere where I can follow this project?

~~~
atum47
look for NesPLAY on the app store. But I just joined the project, haven't done
much yet

------
kylecazar
What a positive post.

For what it's worth -- this industry and community, unlike any other is one in
which I've most seen people willing to give world-class advice, thoughts and
help for free. Maybe it's the communal roots of open source culture, not
sure... but it's rare and amazing. So I am also thankful.

~~~
adventured
It's an aspect to HN that I've found to be very consistent over the decade or
so I've been reading comments here. People are overwhelmingly willing to offer
up their contact info, give advice (often expert advice), help, beta test, and
so on. I think it's a critical part of the foundation that holds HN together
after all this time, helping to keep it inviting to new users.

------
r0b05
I have noticed that the people who contact you for positions via HN also
connect with you on a personal level and treat you like an actual human.

Although nothing has worked out for me yet, this is a welcome change from the
run of the mill recruiters. You just know that you will be a cog in the wheel
if you are hired in those companies.

I guess that the majority of people here want to work on something that adds
value to the lives of others.

------
sixo
HN helped me too in a much less explicit way. I spent a lot of time on here
during the ~9mo period of learning tech after dropping out of grad school. I
count the exposure to technical conversations: links to diverse areas of the
field, raw _takes_ on technologies, references and arguments, discussion on
how tech fit into businesses - to be as valuable as the skills I was learning
towards getting employeed and before that just towards feeling like I had any
idea what I was doing. Now almost 3.5yrs in!

------
gridspy
Well done.

You showed yourself that you were a worthy programmer when you decided to code
a lot of cool projects for fun.

You showed the world once you put them online.

I find the #1 measurable determinant of great programmers is enough true joy
from programming that they create many sub-projects just for fun. I'm so glad
you found a venue to show it.

I hope you enjoy your new role and an amazing career to come. You earned them.

------
axaxs
Very nice story, glad you've found some success. One thing I try to be mindful
of, admittedly not as well as I'd like, is paying it forward. Remember the
feeling, the struggle, the journey, the people who've helped you along the
way, and try to be there for those in the future who will fill your past
shoes. Best of luck.

------
nominalprose
Congrats on the new job in São Paulo! :)

I'd echo other commentators that it's heartening to hear these stories of real
connection found via the web.

I had a similar experience some years ago; a blog post I wrote about a side
project connected me the SF-based startup I still work for. I couldn't have
predicted how that post, churned up by a fortuitous google ranking, would
impact my life. I'd be remiss to not also credit the generosity of the blogger
who shared it as a guest post.

If we're going to rediscover what the web should have been, then celebrating
stories like yours seems a good place to start.

There are teams formed, love found, and minds changed for good -- all via the
web. Perhaps it's in part by studying these connection stories that we'll find
our way to a healthier, more human web for everyone.

Another great example of the positive web:
[https://twitter.com/michael_nielsen/status/97588463553510195...](https://twitter.com/michael_nielsen/status/975884635535101952?lang=en)

------
monster_group
General question - Do companies look at candidate's github? I have never had
any company even care to ask what I have on github. Isn't it all about
whiteboard coding interview? If I don't do well on coding interview, it
doesn't matter what I have on github. At least that's been my experience. I am
curious to know others' experience in this regard.

~~~
brogrammernot
I do, but only if you seemed like you mucked up part of the interview. I’ll go
check Github, spend 2-3 minutes googling the source code to see if you
copied/pasted or if it’s yours.

I’ve passed a few candidates who bombed technical interview via phone because
Github showed they know what they’re doing & just had an off day.

Granted, I’m sure most do not do that but technical recruiting is so expensive
so spending 5-10 mins on a candidate I already spent 30 mins with is a drop in
the bucket if it gets me even 1-2 more hires who would’ve slipped through the
cracks.

~~~
sophacles
I have a similar practice. One of the best engineers I ever hired bombed the
tech interview, and I went poking in his github. Found a project that seemed
pretty neat and reached out the candidate with an email like:

"Hey, I realized we didn't get a chance the other day to go over something you
wrote independent of the hiring pressure. Would you mind a call where we talk
about $project?"

Since that candidate was much more comfortable talking about their own
project, the interview went great. I learned a little rust, and we got a good
engineer :)

------
soneca
Congrats! I remember seeing one of your projects, finding it cool, and
checking your profile and site.

HN is indeed a good platform for a kind of disperse networking. I got
approached by a friend whose boss saw my posts/comments on HN, somehow talked
about it to my friend, who recognized my username (which is both memorable for
Brazilians and my actual nickname) and asked him to recruit me.

And I don't even ever got a _hit_ post.

~~~
atum47
soneca is a funny nickname, uhauhauha

~~~
Insanity
Perhaps I'm missing something, why is it funny? :)

~~~
atum47
"soneca" it's a Portuguese word that means "sleep for a short time". Is
something people usually do after lunch.

~~~
soneca
The literal translation is _" nap"_; but nickname origin is actually because
it is how we call one of the Snow White's seven dwarves, Sleepy.

I used to sleep a lot during classes on high school. It's kind of a classic
nickname

~~~
atum47
yeah, I remember soneca from the 7 dwarfs but I failed to mention it

------
piva00
As another Brazilian that owes a lot of my career development to news,
discussions and people I've got in contact from HN for the past 7 years or so
I'd like to give you big congrats on landing the new job.

Given your English and programming skills level be sure that in no time you'll
be able to apply for jobs overseas if that is what you are looking for, I did
the move out of Brazil some years ago so shoot me a message if you are unsure
about it or have questions :)

Best of luck and have a blast with the new job.

------
yboris
Thanks to HN "who is hiring" thread earlier this month I was able to find a
100% remote contract. With it in hand I expressed to my job I wanted to quit
and they countered with letting me work 100% remotely (all I really wanted)!
Thank you HN!

------
codezero
Congrats on the job! It’s always awesome to hear how a community helps one of
its members!

Edit: looking at your submissions, you’ve been a machine, good work. I’m
moderately curious what hiring platform came back with feedback for you, it
seems in retrospect to have been helpful :)

~~~
atum47
honeypot, they were all over Reddit some time ago

edit: I think the lady who was dealing with my profile felt bad cause I had
zero offers, lol.

------
snake117
This is an awesome post. Thank you for sharing your story with the HN
community.

I was browsing your GitHub and played around a little with IsoCity [0]. I
really like it! Small projects like these are great and you can learn so much
from them. You said it very well:

> I don't do projects to gather attention, I do cause I have fun doing them.

Thanks again for sharing and all the best :)

[0] -
[https://github.com/victorqribeiro/isocity](https://github.com/victorqribeiro/isocity)

~~~
atum47
yeah, I was surprised with all the attention that project got. Made sure to
link to the artist portfolio so people would give him some love too

------
mdszy
"People from the platform contacted me telling me one of the possible reasons
was that I didn't have any code on GitHub."

this is an absolutely disgusting trend

"So you say you want to work in our paper mill and you don't even make your
own toilet paper to use at home? Get out, you casual."

~~~
irrationalactor
The problem isn't that you don't make your own toilet paper. It's that an
oddly high percentage of people you're competing against for the most
desirable jobs _do_ make their own toilet paper.

By contrast, you appear less appealing as a result. If all you want to do is
show up to the mill and get paid, stop applying at all the most prestigious
mills. There's thousands of more humble mills that could use your help outside
the valley--and they don't mind if you buy your toilet paper at the store.

~~~
mdszy
Right I guess I forgot that the same position at a fancy company is somehow
worth more because the company name is part of the FAANG acronym.

You can't pretend that there aren't plenty of non "prestigious" companies that
do this. Frankly the fact that any company would judge you based on "oh, you
don't spend your unpaid time doing work that we consider important?" is
absolute bullshit, no matter the "reputation" of the company.

These jobs are just another cog in the wheel job for christ sake, stop putting
companies on a pedestal just because of their name.

Furthermore, if you're applying for a "desirable" role and you don't have any
previous experience and NEED to use a github profile to show yourself off,
it's clear that the only thing making this role "desirable" is the name on the
fuckin company building which, again, is a bullshit reason to consider a job
"desirable".

Otherwise, a "desirable" role would be one that could be a senior role in a
field that you already have experience in, so your actual work experience
should be plenty of evidence for your worthiness for the position and you
shouldn't need any outside hobby code to show that you're qualified.

------
tombh
Same here. HN has changed my life. From getting exposure on open source
projects to geting various contracts around the world. I'm incredibly
grateful. Thank you Hacker News.

------
ryantgtg
I shared a project on Show HN (at a bad time of day: 3:30pm PST on a weekday),
and all I got out of it was a barrage of accounts created by spambots using
breached Yahoo and Hotmail email addresses! They didn't stop for weeks, until
we put in a recaptcha.

Pretty funny - I'm definitely not complaining about HN. And it's nice to hear
your story!

------
atonse
Congrats! :)

And thank you for writing this. I have used HN for more than 10 years and I've
learned so much about my profession from it. Some of it is that you simply
can't keep up with all the technology. But some of it is just inspirational. A
lot of it is just purely educational.

Clearly it has that affect for thousands (if not millions...) in our world.

------
jamie-vesoft
Wow great story! Congrats on the new position. I didn't know about the Show HN
tag. Sounds like a great opportunity for startups. Thanks for sharing!

~~~
conductr
> I didn't know about the Show HN tag

Not sure why but that made me laugh and think that either says a lot about how
HN has changed over the years or you just don’t spend much time here

~~~
OJFord
I'm guessing the latter, there's two on the front page right now; there must
rarely not be at least one.

~~~
conductr
Probably and that’s kind of my point. Not meant as an insult or anything but
just thought it was funny since it seemed like the main purpose of HN back in
the day

------
gigatexal
Congrats!!!

HN is a place I check all the time. There’s so many smart people here and the
conversations are often very civil and super informative.

------
wycy
Related question: is Github (specifically) considered a must, or is it just
considered a need to have code online? I primarily use Gitlab--is that seen as
a kind of demerit?

~~~
Myrmornis
No, Gitlab is not seen as inferior. I must admit though that I have been
guilty of checking whether a candidate had a Github page and forgetting that
they might have one elsewhere.

------
sbuccini
Congratulations! Don't stop now! Stick around and provide inspiration to
others coming along behind us.

------
bobochan
Wow! Congratulations! This is a great story. Best of luck with your new
position. São Paulo sounds great.

~~~
atum47
Thank you. São Paulo is a great city. Every food you want to try, from every
nation. you can rent a eletric scooter from the street with just your phone.
I'm really having fun here

~~~
rapfaria

       you can rent a eletric scooter from the street with just your phone
    

For now, at least

~~~
hycaria
And is it really the best part about a city ?

------
RobRivera
Wow this is such an accomplishment and a testament to a healthy culture of
encouragement. Congratulations to you and best of luck on your future
endeavors!!

------
puranjay
Apart from a few niche-specific closed forums, I've had consistently high
quality discussions on HN. Somehow the HN culture stops the proliferation of
low-effort comments and trolling so prominent everywhere else.

~~~
kaazhan
I'm pretty sure the poor design does not encourage people to come there if
they do not expect to find something valuable. The overall quality of shared
news is really good, the comments are not imediately accessible after reading
the news, people express different points of view. A lot of hacker news reader
arent english native speakers, and it's hard to troll efficiently with a
language you do not master.

~~~
zozbot234
HN design is outstanding, both on desktop and especially on mobile. There's
nothing "poor" about it.

~~~
hobofan
> especially on mobile

Eh, I much prefer using an app on mobile. All the buttons (up-/downvote,
collapse) are too small, and a lot of space to the right is often left on the
table, which makes longer comments very hard to read.

------
leonidasv
Congratulations!

I've always wanted to publish interesting projects on Github, but I find it
hard to get inspiration. Do you have any tips?

~~~
atum47
I always liked computers even when I was a child. So when I decided to go to
college for the second time to study software engineering I was very eager to
understand how things work inside a computer. I remember not knowing how
numbers can represent an image. So I took digital image processing. I like to
get to the basics so I can try stuff later on. I also especially like to solve
problems. Even if a problem is well solved by a genius of the past, I think:
how would I solve this if I didn't have Google to provide me with the
algorithm? Many projects came from this two things. The third thing o really
like is games. So I'm always trying to come up with interesting mechanics,
concepts, ways of making the computer plays against humans... I also watch a
lot of good people on YouTube, read a lot of what people post here... all
those things poke my curiosity one way or another and I end up writing code.

------
__s
Gratz

I'll echo this sentiment as someone who's been hired through a lead on "Who's
hiring?"

------
isugimpy
I definitely have to thank this awesome site as well. Had been stuck in a
position where I didn't feel like I had a way out, due to a combination of a
non-compete on myself and restrictive no-poach agreements between my (now
former) employer and a majority of large tech-oriented businesses in my city.
Tried everything I could to get out from under both, short of leaving town,
and just couldn't find a job that fit my career goals that I was actually able
to take. Early last year, I started checking the who's hiring posts monthly,
on the off-chance that something would stick out and catch my attention. I was
scrolling through pretty quickly one day, just looking for keywords, and
blasted through like half the page, and then realized I had missed reading a
comment that had some of my target words in it. Scrolled back up, saw a post
from an engineering manager at a company whose product I actually use, and on
a whim I just applied. Now, over half a year later, I'm happily and gainfully
employed, working remote, for a company that I really enjoy working for and on
a product that I can dogfood. Feels really great. Thanks for keeping this
community alive, everybody. It's awesome to be a part of this.

------
vishwajeetv
I remember going through your GitHub and LinkedIn profile in detail. It has
inspired me to develop something based on genetic algorithms myself! Keep it
up! You are awesome!

~~~
atum47
thank you

------
honkycat
It's good to know the classic method of getting hired as an engineer still
works! Congrats!!

~~~
atum47
thank you

------
gordon_freeman
Congrats and I hope you'll keep contributing to this HN community in the
future as well.

~~~
atum47
Thanks, I hope I do too.

------
xallace
I deleted all my other social media accounts (except for strava and youtube),
I stay here for a while. Much healthier community.

------
fernandotakai
as another developer from são paulo that got jobs from HN postings, cheers!

if you ever need tips, help or even someone to have a beer, feel free to
contact me (keybase/email is on my profile).

------
Keyframe
Congrats! If anyone is looking for opportunities in São Paulo, feel free to
contact me (contact is in my profile). At CIAL Dun&Bradstreet
[https://www.cialdnb.com/pt-br/](https://www.cialdnb.com/pt-br/) we’re on a
lookout for python and js devs.

~~~
fefb
Saving it for later

------
osi1647
I have favorite your post in order to remember that I have to add more of my
projects to Github and shown HN

~~~
atum47
I highly recommend that you do that. It's awesome when people send pull
requests improving your work.

------
mohas
But how did you find the time to do all this stuff, didn't you have to work?
are you single?

~~~
atum47
Yes, I'm single right now. And when I was on college I had a lot of free time,
cause I was working part time. Several projects that are now on GitHub came
from sketches I did while bored in class or on my free time -
[http://jsfiddle.net/user/victorqribeiro](http://jsfiddle.net/user/victorqribeiro)
\- I'm not young, I'm 35 now. I went back to college at 30 because I went
broke (after the last company I worked for screwed me). It's kinda hard to
date when you're a broke going bald 35 years old with no steady income. I'm
getting back on my feet now. But as you can see, I used my free time to
thinker with things like code and electronics.

~~~
mohas
It's all good I' happy for you, life is a sinus wave, there was a time that I
felt that it will only get better from now on, and few years after that I was
broke and screwed by the company I gave my all for

------
mzitelli
I am also a developer from São Paulo and because of this community I just got
a new remote job in a German company.

Your Show HN pots are really inspiring. They really show your enthusiasm about
software development, which I think it is fundamental for mastering the craft.

------
leetbulb
Congrats! Glad to hear! HN also helped get me my dream job -- this community
is amazing!

------
leona_2020
Thank you so much for sharing! It's the best thing I've seen so far today!!!

I live in Shanghai and yeah struggling with getting a job or I should say, a
job I like, a boss I admired or a company I'm willing to support;

------
richardlblair
This right here is why Software matters.

------
cmauniada
This is what differentiates the comp sci & (some) engineering crowd from
anyone else. If you ask anyone a question on here, everyone will jump in to
help you out and it's like this in real life too. Throughout my degree I
noticed how eager my fellow classmates would be to help others solve difficult
questions, problems etc and generally be nice.

Compared to business or even some engineering classes it was pure cut-throat.
So, it's always refreshing to see stories like this, restores my faith in
humanity.

------
ddog78
Thank you for sharing your story. I am what one would call a lurker but have
recently decided to start participating directly too. Your post also gives me
a lot of motivation to do that.

I think one of the reasons of the positive energy in this community is because
it's strict rules on trolling. If one doesn't get to see low effort replies,
sarcastic comments etc, then it reduces the chances of them having a bad
experience. Hence, resulting in an net positive vibe in the whole forum. Just
my two cents!

~~~
foreverloop
Same here ... this is actually my first comment. Planning on being more active
if I have something worthwhile to contribute with.

------
ipnon
Congratulations. The hacking can truly open doors it seems. :)

~~~
atum47
I see what your did there

------
dalerka
Thank you too! This reminds me that I should probably thank people more often
(both in private and public). It sure does help to support and spread some
positive vibes.

I read HN daily and learn so much more from discussions. Every time I meet
someone who could be interested and contribute to this community I suggest
them to take a look, and often people get hooked, just like I was.

So, thank you and best wishes to the mods and the whole HN community! Happy
2020!

------
paul7986
Congrats and Where were you living before?

Im here in Washington DC but might be getting a similar job
opportunity(similar circumstances) in San Paolo too.

How is it there?

~~~
atum47
I graduated in Rio Grande do Sul (federal universities are free in Brazil and
with one test you can apply to any of them), then I went to Minas Gerais
(Where I'm originally from) to write my final thesis and to take an
internship. São Paulo is huge, there's an app for everything, especially for
ordering food with discount. The "Ibirapuera park" is great and so is the
"centro cultural", there's a lot of other things to see here but I'm kinda
busy finish renting an apartment and stating my new job (today was my second
day). I think you'll like here. if you need anything you can contact me.
victorqribeiro on LinkedIn

~~~
paul7986
Ok great, thanks and congratulations!

I'll connect with you on LinkedIn and reach out if this opportunity pans out.

------
werber
That’s so awesome, congratulations on your success

~~~
atum47
thank you

------
makach
Thanks for sharing your experience! One of the things that keep drawing me to
HN is the fresh news and the friendly community.

------
spikepuppet
This is honestly so amazing to see. Congratulations, and also good work on all
the Show HN posts you've made!

------
BOOSTERHIDROGEN
Congrats,

Even I dont work directly in programming, its still benefit a lot for me, HN
is my second search engine.

------
wallawe
Well, this is refreshing. Congrats and keep your attitude of gratitude, it
will serve you well.

------
kinow
Well done and thanks for sharing your story! I miss São Paulo a lot, the North
where I grew up, and the Augusta/Paulista place where there were always
interesting geeks in coffees, lots of meetups, companies, conferences. Hope
you will enjoy it too!

~~~
atum47
I'm learning my way around here. I'm working on Lapa and renting an apartment
here to.

------
jupake
What a wholesome story. Well done.

------
happppy
Many many congratulations.

What kind of projects can we show at HN? I have an open source project that I
made to download movie torrents using YTS API. I made it to learn react. I am
really not sure if its alright to share torrent site here.

~~~
atum47
I don't recommend that one. Trust me, I've made a similar app two months ago
but after learning that a guy from UK got sent to jail just for having links
to pirate content, I took the app down and deleted the post.

------
lostsoul8282
Great story and glad to see you gained so much from this wonderful community.

------
ourlordcaffeine
>People from the platform contacted me telling me one of the possible reasons
was that I didn't have any code on GitHub.

Do places really require a github account with lots of code now to be
considered?

~~~
PopeDotNinja
A few places have thought that was a good idea even since Github became a
thing. I don't think it's a terribly good strategy myself.

------
mindfulgeek
This is awesome! Thank you for sharing your story and congratulations!

------
Validus
Congratulations! What a good story to read first thing in the morning

------
yingw787
Congratulations!! Hope you keep making things and posting them here!

~~~
atum47
yes, I have three projects that people will love. Each one of them is half
done (I do the programming first, then I do the graphics/UI then write some
sort of documentation and release)

------
emersonrsantos
Congratulations, and have a wonderful time in Sao Paulo! You rock!

~~~
atum47
thank you and thank you also for the referral, I was kinda committed to this
company I'm now, but maybe we can be co-workers in the future

------
swilliamsio
Congratulations, man! Your story is super positive I love it.

------
bilekas
Don't thank anyone. If you like it, you enjoy it, you can do it... The job is
for you!

Also I will argue: Any company who 'requires' github code can suck my next
job.

------
tkloc
And that's how you create your own lucky. Congrats!

------
nukst
Not a full fledged and philosophical comment here, just my honestest
congratulations fellow Paulista, you serve as the perfect inspiration to me!

------
wurp
And thank you, atum47, for sharing this story! You'll encourage more people to
develop and share their ideas in a virtuous cycle.

------
sharadov
Excellent job and best of luck,the platform is great but undeniably you did
your best with the platform, leveraging it and finding success!

------
roguesupport
This is the most awesome thing ever.

This is what inspires innovation.

------
jve
Well, now your story made it to TOP 1, grats :)

------
speq
I was a lurker, but your post has inspired me to create an account. Thank you
for reminding us that people can be good.

------
joeraut
Thanks for sharing this, I'm glad that things have worked out well for you
here. All the best for the future!

------
johnwish007
Congratulations dude, What a great story!

------
jetman007
Thank you man! Who ever you are. Wish you all the best in life! Be sure you
inspired at least one person!

------
bobblywobbles
I'm happy things turned out well for you. Let's make the world a better place
for all of us =)

------
rapfaria
Congratulations! There are also several meetups here in São Paulo, which are
great to grow your network!

~~~
atum47
yes, the company I'm working for also is very present on meetups and
workshops. soon I'll be too

------
ehnree
Awesome post! HN has also helped me a tremendous amount over the years. Good
luck on your new job!

------
vansteen
Thanks for sharing. Congratulations!

------
bcyn
Congrats! That's amazing news!

------
nkg
Congrats! I can feel your enthusiasm. Try and keep this positivity as long as
you can.

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Edouar1
Thanks for sharing and it is a really inspiring story, congrats and way to go!

------
winjay
Thanks for sharing your story

------
peeyek
Congrats!

------
h_amg
Thanks for sharing! That's a delightful and encouraging story.

------
eden_hazard
Congrats on the job! Seeing your commits on git are inspiring!!

------
codetrotter
Awesome, congratulations and thanks for sharing your story :)

------
ryloric
This is so wholesome!

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gitgud
Hey mate,

Great to hear you've landed a job! I've enjoyed following a few of your
projects.

But I must say your success is not surprising, as you're a Brazilian times
better than your average coder! ;)

------
rglover
Congratulations :)

------
thelookingglass
That's awesome, congrats on the new job!

------
holistio
Congratulations!

------
kisanme
Superb! Congrats

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mezi
Great post, thank you for sharing.

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xuesj
This is a moved story.

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ankut04
This is very cool!

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keyP
Congratulations!

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ArcMex
Congratulations!

------
christopher8827
Congrats dude!

------
IanSanders
I feel like we're around a "golden age" of HN and dread the day when it all
starts going downhill.

~~~
geerlingguy
To be fair, I remember people posting this same thing in 2008... 2010...
2014... etc. So far it HN seems to be able to buck the trend, likely due to
its simplicity, the great moderation team, and the community. It's not without
fault but it's better than most.

~~~
jedberg
I think three things keep HN great.

One is the moderation team. I don’t always agree with their decisions, but
they are definitely on top of things and do what they think is best for the
content.

Two is the comment sort algorithm. It’s far superior to Reddit, which I think
is far superior to any other platform. On HN, if you make a comment on a post
that’s a few hours old, your comment will still be seen. It will be at the top
for at least a few minutes. On reddit it’ll just be buried.

And third, the lack of profit motive. Every decision they make is in the name
of improved content. They have no concern for driving traffic.

------
ansmv
best site for tech enthusiastic and programmers

------
ByzantineO6
wow! recursive auto-shill! YC paid good money to make HN valuable so now let's
strip-mine!

~~~
dang
Nah, that's unfair. It's great for both YC and HN that the HN community gets a
reflection of itself like this. I suggested to Victor that he make this post.
He originally emailed us to say thanks, but I told him it was all of HN he
should thank, and that the community might appreciate his story.

It happens pretty often that people tell us interesting things by email. I
usually urge them to post it to HN so that more than just we can enjoy it.

------
asjw
That's not what my experience tells me.

There is a lot of negative energy, hidden under that thing we call downvotes

They should be punishing low value content or outright trolling, but it's
instead a measure of how much the comment matches the general bay are
technocrat sentiment

I followed a conversation the other day about the increase of alcohol related
diseases and addictions in US and one of the most voted comments was about
getting sober thanks to AA

There's value in getting sober, but it's not a solution to the problem
presented, which is mostly a social problem, that the private health care in
US won't solve no matter how much money you pour at it

And yet those criticising the US social system and the absence of a public
welfare were downvoted.

So in the end nobody learns from their mistakes and those willing to
collaborate bringing a different POV are discouraged to do so again.

It doesn't sound positive to me.

~~~
dang
We detached this subthread from
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22051358](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22051358).

By the way, only about 10% of the HN community is in the Bay Area and that
segment is by no means all "technocrat". People's impressions of the
community's politics are mostly the afterimage of what they saw that they
disliked, because those are the things we tend to notice and that make the
strongest impact. People who dislike the opposite things have the opposite
afterimage. In reality, the community is divided and produces lots of examples
either way.

~~~
chinesempire
> By the way, only about 10% of the HN community is in the Bay Area and that
> segment is by no means all "technocrat"

The original comment said _" a measure of how much the comment matches the
general bay are technocrat sentiment"_, it doesn't say that everyone on HN is
from bay area or a technocrat.

From my understanding it means that if people believe _" it's what people in
Bay Are would think"_ it gets more traction.

There's a trend towards conformity that is helped by the style of moderation.

Not saying is bad, just saying that there's a consistent pattern.

Which is exactly what happened.

~~~
dang
I'd say the opposite is more prevalent. People assume that HN is dominated by
Bay Area thinking—which is to say, whatever caricature they regard as Bay Area
thinking, since there's no single such thing—and then post what they imagine
to be their contrarian view against it. Usually they do so angrily or
sarcastically, since people get defensive when they think they're going
against a dominant view.

It's been many years since HN comments have been Bay Area-centric, if they
ever were. HN now has far more users who identify against it than with it, at
least among commenters. That's why I tell people that only 10% of the
community is based there; it usually comes as a surprise.

~~~
chinesempire
> which is to say, whatever caricature they regard as Bay Area thinking, since
> there's no single such thing

Yes.

And it is exactly what I said

> if people _ __believe ___ "it's what people in Bay Are would think"

That kind of "tension towards conformity" is still very present, at least it
seems to me, even though they are conforming to an idealized and/or
caricatural way of life.

And my understanding of the original comment is that it was mocking the "bay
area billionaire wannabes".

> Usually they do so angrily or sarcastically, since people get defensive when
> they think they're going against a dominant view.

This wasn't the case though.

My point is that my last comment costed me some downvotes and a minus on the
karma, but it wasn't angry or sarcastic or against a dominant view, it was
only an analysis on someone else's comment.

No big deal, probably someone disagreed with it and downvoted the comment, but
that's not what a downvote should be used for - AFAIK.

------
retox
This is not reddit or livejournal.

~~~
dang
It's true that meta posts are like crack and it's important not to overdo
them, but I had a feeling this story might resonate with the community
particularly well, and suggested to Victor that he post it. So if you want to
blame someone it'll have to be me. More here:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22053084](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22053084).

This thread exceeded expectations, and reminds me of a thought I've often had:
could we find some way to help HN users meet and support each other in the
real world, to make more real connections? Hiring is an important special case
of that, but not the whole story. It's also cool when people find friends,
kindred spirits, collaborators, investors, and so on. Lots of this goes on and
always has, but I wonder if we could catalyze more of it, without getting too
formal or nannyistic. I think a lot of creative potential could be activated
if more HN users connected with each other. Also, more interesting feedback
loops happen when the loop passes between online and offline (as in the OP's
case), so it would make HN better too.

~~~
goblin89
HN doesn’t really create barriers to taking it offline, does it? If one wants
to be contacted, one can leave info in their profile. I was emailed this way
more than once!

Meanwhile, if IRL meetings become a big part of the community, could this
create fragmented/exclusive feeling in threads, especially considering there
are folks who have reasons to participate anonymously or are unable to attend
for other reasons?

I somehow feel like connections made here may be limited, but in some ways
more pure and to the point, lacking the distracting visuals and inconveniences
of flesh so to speak.

~~~
dang
I do worry about the possible downside of any new mechanism like that.

