

Ask HN: How to fix recruiting from your known groups? - vsergiu

I got a call yesterday from a friend asking me if I am available for work. I was not and I ended up calling some of my developer friends to ask them if they are available to take on the tasks. They were not, but they said they will ask around. I find this problem often and I am amazed that no one fixed it. I do not always know when my friends are available for work or if they look for someone to help them with tasks and just looking at their Linkedin profile doesn&#x27;t always mention this. 
So how to make this process easier? Is there an app that lets you share between your groups that you are looking for a developer or that you are available for work ( does not include searching for people you don&#x27;t know or not in your area).
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JSeymourATL
Hardly a week goes by without the announcement of some promising, brand new,
social-recruiting-app-platform. No one has built a killer app just yet.

Here's one announced just today>
[http://www.marketwatch.com/story/smartrecruiters-
revolutioni...](http://www.marketwatch.com/story/smartrecruiters-
revolutionizes-how-companies-find-and-hire-great-people-with-the-next-
generation-of-its-hiring-platform-2014-07-15)

> So how to make this process easier? The best method is still a bit Old
> School. On a regular basis, reach out to your network, actually talk to
> people live, catch up over beers. The accumulated personal insights will be
> deeper and more profound than a mere online connection.

~~~
vsergiu
That is the point...I only asked for an app that can tell me if X is available
so I can call him and grab a beer and talk. The point is I want to know which
of my friends or friends of my friends are available in order to talk him
because I do not want to start calling everyone from my list and ask my
friends to also ask their friends..and maybe I miss someone this way..also is
time consuming and not fun having to call people just to bug them if they are
available if they are not. Makes sense?

~~~
JSeymourATL
It's a brilliant idea, a location based hook-up app that uses GPS to locate
potential hires. Build it now, Linkedin/Monster would pay a tidy sum.

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pcbo
Until date no company was able to tackle that issue. There's some startups
trying to solve that, for instance
[http://www.jobbox.io](http://www.jobbox.io), but I think that problem will be
solved with a mix of machine learning and referrals.

This problem is very difficult to fix because we're dealing w/ people and
their careers, which bring confidentiality into the equation and that messes
up a bit.

Also, this issue is exponentially horrible when it comes to tech recruitment.
No one is f* available nowadays but there are plenty of passive tech workers.

~~~
vsergiu
Want to talk more about this problem? I think I will get a stab on it. My
email is in my profile.

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Varlski
As someone who works specifically recruiting for Startups and i have worked
with some pretty fast growing ones the main challenges any of these startups
is helping recruiting "passive candidates". What i mean by passive candidates
is someone who is not actively looking for a job.

I believe a platform will come that does cut out the middleman and i am
actually working on a few ideas but the harsh reality good companies want the
best talent and that talent isn't always looking for a job.

Referral apps are a great way to attack the problem but i do not believe will
be the only angle.

Michael

------
hcho
I remember a few London startups trying to tackle that. Their names are
eluding me at the moment.

I reckon the reason they didn't get successful is due to challenges in
monetization.

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dozzie
Yes, there is. It's called LinkedIn.

~~~
vsergiu
How does LinkedIn fix my problem in having to call all my friends when I am
looking for a developer to help with some tasks? How do I know only based on
his LinkedIn profile that he is available part time for work or not unless he
keeps updating his status.

~~~
dozzie
And how do you expect the new solution to operate? Somebody has to keep
people's statuses updated, it won't work magically.

