
Why Finding a Development Job Online Sucks - isthisanything
http://hirehumans.posterous.com/why-finding-a-development-job-online-sucks
======
patio11
Finding a development job online is great. Its just the job sites which suck.
One of these things is not like the other.

Most hiring decisions are made through the informal networks. That has,
historically, been one of the great benefits of going to a really good school,
because you get to make weak ties with folks who will eventually probably be
in a position to help you out (and vice versa). Participation online is a
_staggeringly_ good way to make weak ties.

Meanwhile, the "Send out a hundred resumes and then wait by the phone" is
jobseeking for the truly clueless (and, sadly relatedly, the entry level -- I
swear, there should be a class on this at college). It virtually guarantees
that any company putting up a job will get a hundred resumes for it, most of
them from people who have no capability to actually do the job. Additionally,
all the people who are poor candidates on day N will probably still need jobs
on day N+1, and they'll probably still be sending resumes. It doesn't take a
genius to predict what this does to your applicant pool after iterating for a
while.

I think if you're really good your jobseeking process is less likely to
involve seeking out companies and more likely to involve saying "I am
available for work" in a semi-public fashion, but that is another discussion
altogether.

~~~
cookiecaper
>I think if you're really good your jobseeking process is less likely to
involve seeking out companies and more likely to involve saying "I am
available for work" in a semi-public fashion, but that is another discussion
altogether.

This is interesting. Do you think one has to have a high-profile outlet to
qualify as "really good", and when you say "really good", what kind of
percentile are you talking? Do you mean, like, exceedingly better than
average, or do you mean "actually" good, instead of one of the mass-resume-
senders?

I think I'm an OK programmer in the disciplines I know, but I don't really
maintain a blog and as far as I know I don't have a bunch of regular readers
of my profile here.

Do you expect every person worthy of hire to be able to just say "I need work"
and automatically get offers?

~~~
eru
Just for the amusement value [1]: My company is looking for programmers. Or
more specifically we are looking for people to work at our office in
Cambrigde, UK, of Citrix. Almost everything we do is open source and my very
own team is hacking with Ocaml (but the other teams us more `normal'
languages).

Please drop me a line if you are interested. My mail is
matthias.goergens@gmail.com.

[1] I was going to submit a "Tell HN" or something like this anyway. You can
also find some more text on our recent post on the Haskell mailing list
([http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.general/177...](http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.haskell.general/17763)).Of
course Citrix.com also has some job offers, but like someone said, going
directly is better for you, since your CV does not land on a company-wide
pile.

P.S. I got my job (and some other interviews) through contacts I made at the
ICFP 2009 conference.

------
verdant
Every job I have ever had I have gotten either through personal contacts or by
sending my resume to a company that I was interested in. It wasn't that people
were doing me favors, its just that it put me in the right place at the right
time and that was much more effective than browsing online ads. I have read
statistics that say most hires are made through personal contacts, otherwise
known as "networking"

~~~
btilly
Every job but one that I've had I got through personal contacts.

However one of those jobs was through a personal contact I made through being
on a Perl website, and another was a personal contact I only maintained
through LinkedIn.

There is therefore no conflict between searching for jobs online, and finding
jobs using personal contacts. Furthermore if you're looking for a job online,
I would suggest focusing on activities that build your personal network. Which
means mostly ignoring the job boards (that largely don't work anyways), and
doing things like being on local mailing lists, going to local meetups, being
on discussion boards, and using tools like LinkedIn to maintain your network.

Good luck. In this economy you may need it. :-(

------
iaskwhy
I got my first job online.

I was looking for a junior web developer job so I replied to a number of ads
on a job board and got several interviews and a really good job at a startup.
All my friends there which were on their first job (they weren't many though)
did just as I did too.

Then, after I quit to work on my own startup, I got invited several times by
those contacts I made while I worked there so I'd say networking is really
good for everyone else not looking for a first job.

------
kowen
A couple of years ago I spent a lot of time looking at job boards and
craigslist, and the experience was not a delightful one. Finally I found a
company that hadn't posted any listings but that I really liked, and just
knocked on their door. I actually still work there.

Recently I got _How to get the tech job you love_ by Andy Lester (pragmatic
bookshelf). It's a great read whether or not you have a job.

------
rogermugs
very next story is a development job offer win:

WePay (S09, August Capital) hiring PHP engineer to make online payments a
better place (theresumator.com)

17 points by billclerico 1 hour ago

~~~
rglullis
And there's another discussion about where to find good job seekers at
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1133360>.

Let's just say that all of these threads really make me (and my project) feel
validated.

