
Developer Auction out of beta; accepting developers from all backgrounds in US - allangrant
http://developerauction.com/news/2013-01-16-now-accepting-developers-from-all-backgrounds
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iamleppert
I would recommend steering clear of these guys. They spammed me several times,
at work, trying to get me to join their site. Although the founder professes
they "are not your typical recruiter sending unsolicited emails".

On the surface it sounds like a good idea, but it is nothing more than
lipstick on a pig, plain old recruiters. You're better off using multiple
recruiters, who will expose you to many companies and get you the best
possible price.

~~~
ninetax
On the other side of the coin, I used them and got to interview with several
awesome (and some not so awesome) companies, and all I had to do was post my
resume and a picture.

That seemed like a pretty good deal to me, but then again, all the recruiters
I know work for single companies. What's the best way to meet some that are
more like "freelance" recruiters?

~~~
hugorodgerbrown
Not sure where you are based, but we are building something specifically for
freelancers (London first) - check us out at www.yunojuno.com and see if it
fits. (Oh, and we're not recruiters either.)

~~~
itsuart
Your site is almost unreadable. Screenshot:
[https://dl.dropbox.com/u/2858326/windows8%2C%20chrome%20-%20...](https://dl.dropbox.com/u/2858326/windows8%2C%20chrome%20-%20very%20hard%20to%20read%20the%20text.PNG)

~~~
robflynn
Replying to you just to keep this bundled together, but this is more for
hugorodgerbrown:

Looks equally bad w/ Chrome/Safari and Win7. Looks fine in Firefox on Win7.

Renders properly on Chrome and OSX.

~~~
hugorodgerbrown
Yup - we are aware. That's one of the perils of a having a graphic designer
rather than a web designer on board. We are nearing the end of a major
overhaul (visually), so that should address these issues.

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cyborg
I had an extremely bad experience with Developer Auction. Ultimately using the
site got me fired from my job and the team at Developer Auction was extremely
non-responsive/uncaring about it all. Matt Miszewski in particular was
extremely callous.

~~~
zht
would you mind elaborating? How did using a site like this get you fired?

And what did you really expect them to do?

~~~
michaelochurch
It's pretty common for someone to be fired when discovered interviewing
elsewhere. Usually, though, they draw up one of those horrible "performance
improvement plans" and you'll be able to move on before it closes.

Worst is when you're trying for internal transfer and get PIP'd because of it.
Then you have to get a job elsewhere, because the PIP fucks up your internal
mobility.

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donretag
Most of these new services trying to disrupt the recruiting market, such as
Developer Auction and Pitchbox, are narrowly focused on Silicon Valley.
Obviously, the issue is more acute in the Bay Area.

They are still curated with a manual selection process, in other words they
are still recruiters. A true disruption would need to occur for every locale.
Not everyone is looking to move to Silicon Valley and not only Silicon Valley
companies are looking to hire.

~~~
bitsweet
Hey founder of Pitchbox here. We're definitely focused on more then just
Silicon Valley. We are working with startups and interesting companies all
across the US. We're even connecting developers with companies that support
full-time telecommuting.

~~~
hnwh
whats the pitchbox website? pitchbox.com seems unrelated. I've refused several
developer auction offers because they weren't open to full-time telecommuting

~~~
bitsweet
<http://tryPitchbox.com>

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T-hawk
A few random site comments:

\- Posting a picture is a legal minefield for US employers. Companies
literally don't want to know anything about your age/race/sex at the screening
stage for fear of a discrimination lawsuit. The only safe policy is to
ignore/reject all candidate applications with a picture. (It's not illegal for
the employer to know or even ask, but it's illegal to make decisions based on
such information, and the best way to convince a belligerent labor attorney
that a decision wasn't discriminatory is to never possess the information in
the first place.)

\- The salary box has a hilarious pair of up/down arrows for increments of 1.
Yeah I'm going to click 110,000 times to enter my desired salary. :)

\- Am I blind or is there nowhere to list skills/responsibilities/experience
under the work experience section? Or is that the point, to avoid that stale
format?

~~~
mkoble11
"Posting a picture is a legal minefield for US employers."

What about all the recruitment done via Linkedin? Many people have a photo of
themselves there.

~~~
bdavisx
LinkedIn recruitment is different. If someone contacts you via LinkedIn, then
they've already seen your photo and are interested regardless. There's little
or no way to prove that someone even saw your profile on LinkedIn and then
passed up contacting you for a job.

In the case of DeveloperAuction, I'm assuming that if you have a photo, then
the potential employers are going to see it. If a 45 year old with similar
qualifications as a 25 year old doesn't get offers from the same companies as
the 25 year old, it opens up the potential for lawsuits -- this might be over-
simplifying. I'm not qualified to comment on how much standing a lawsuit like
this would have, but it's certainly happened in similar situations before.
That's why photos are a no-no in recruiting in the U.S.

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axlerunner
The name sucks. Makes me feel like cattle on the block.

~~~
waterlesscloud
Ordinarily I'd brush off comments about a site's name. Rarely does it matter
enough to actually care. But in this case, yeah, it gives me a radically
negative connotation.

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sandis
Developer Auction now accepting developers from all backgrounds _in the USA_

~~~
Trezoid
That struck me too. Are they saying no company will offer remote or visa
assistance?

~~~
allangrant
One step at a time. :) We're working on international, H1B, and other
geographies soon.

~~~
dbond
Is there a newsletter list anywhere to be notified of such a wonderful
advancement?

~~~
allangrant
There's no newsletter, but you can sign up now and will be notified when we
start approving developers from your region. We already have a lot of people
signed up different geographies, which will help us figure out what regions to
launch next.

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robomartin
Why are recruiter fees so ridiculously high?

I've been on both sides of the equation. I've used recruiters to try and find
people and have used recruiters to try and find work.

On the receiving end it is always shocking to see someone ask you for a $25K
fee to hire a $100K employee. I'd rather give the employee more money.

At best a recruiter should be perfectly happy with a 5% finder's fee. Why are
they asking to get paid the equivalent of what a person will take a quarter of
the year to earn?

This is particularly true in this age of database-driven recruiting. It costs
them just about zero to have you in a database.

~~~
bobbles
Hires and recruitment fees are typically made with the assumption that the
employee will be employed for more than 12 months, and that higher fees to the
recruiter will result in a more valuable employee.

Not saying its true or untrue, but you can't just say something like "Thats 3
months worth of earnings!" when value is the thing that matters, not price.

~~~
robomartin
"when the value is the thing that matters, not price"

Are you are recruiter? Because, you know, as an entrepreneur, yes, value is
always important, but price is always, always, always important. Fairness too.

25% is ridiculous. The recruiter is NOT generating the employee's value, the
employee is. And don't go for the "you would not have found them if it were
not for the recruiter". In my experience there are very few recruiters that
actually add value to the process. Most are horrible resume farms that
algorithmically (or not) match resumes with job requirements and barrage the
employer with a bunch of candidates to see if something sticks. In other
words, the quest for easy money rather than anything else. The more people and
companies you shovel through the system the greater your probabilities of
making money.

How many of us have received the formulaic email from some data-entry worker
in India saying something like: "I came across your resume and it looks like a
perfect fit for one of our clients. Please submit resume, availability,
desired salary and ability to relocate." Right.

There are a few (definitely count them with one hand) companies that might
truly do a good job of getting to know both candidate and employer, but these
days, that is far, very far, from the norm.

I offered that 5% might be a good number. What I actually think is that the
whole model is completely broken. I have some ideas on how to fix it, but
that's not for this thread.

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bcbrown
If the only hiring companies are early-stage VC-backed startups in the Bay
Area, that's not very interesting to me. That's the impression I got.

~~~
bsimpson
I've been in their system since they first broke in September. I've received 4
offers. 2 were very early stage compaines with <$100k offers. I've also
received a $110k offer from a well-known company and $165k from another early
stage.

The $110k was at a company I'd consider working for if I didn't have to work
from their NYC office. (I'm in SF now.)

~~~
kami8845
>I've also received a $110k offer from a well-known company and $165k from
another early stage.

It seems the 165k one wasn't. Which is understandable. If they were a great
opportunity for you, they wouldn't have to reach that deep into their pockets.

~~~
bsimpson
Haven't talked to the company yet. I'm skeptical, but always willing to hear
out a new opportunity.

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Cub3
Forgot about this, sent through my details on 9/24/12, still seem to have an
account "waiting for approval" (i'm non US though)

email I got at the time said "We're reviewing developer applications over the
coming week" and there seems to be no way to delete my account now... so my
information is sitting in triage

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blaines
Developer Auction was a great opportunity. I was able to get introduced to
companies previously not on my radar, and startups I may have never heard of.
I received offers from companies across the country in LA, SF, NYC, Chicago,
and more.

AMA

~~~
johnymontana
Did you find a job via DA? If so, what is your level of experience as a
developer? I have 5 years of QA experience but am looking to move into a
developer role. Not sure if DA is geared toward someone like me, or only for
more experienced developers?

~~~
blaines
Yes I did find a job with DA! I just moved to SF on Sunday. I have a few years
of experience as a developer (cofounder/employee) and a few more as a
contractor. I also have a number of personal projects and contest entries. In
my opinion you should just do it® - you can't be any worse off.

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n9com
Why do you only allow 'funded' startups to bid? What about highly profitable
bootstrapped companies? Drop the angel list requirement.

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chetan51
I recently got hired through Developer Auction, and I just want to say that it
was a really great experience. +1 from me :)

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cjbprime
Looks like the signup form (which asks you for a password) does _not_ use
HTTPS -- beware of exposing a shared password.

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pairing
I applied when the site first launched, but my profile is still being
approved... It would be nice if they had a section to highlight side projects.
Most of my software work out side of my day job is in side projects, and not
open source.

~~~
allangrant
The summary field is the best way to talk about your side projects. And it
takes _markdown_. :)

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codegeek
Is it just me or the top navbar is really hard to read with the color
combinations?

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robomartin
"Start working and receive 20% cash back on our fee, typically $3,000 to
$5,000+"

What does that mean? Somewhere else it says that it is free to developers. Is
the hired developer receiving a portion of the fee you charge the employer?

~~~
Zikes
Yes, according to their "For Developers" page the fee is to the employer and
you get a percentage of that.

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elliottcarlson
I tried creating a profile, and accidently linked the wrong Github account
(work vs personal) and there doesn't seem to be a way to unlink it.

~~~
JoelB
There also seems to be no way to delete an account.

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jsemar
Can't seem to edit my profile. Hitting submit returns me to /profiles with a
404 page (Obi wan kenobi)

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BayAreaDev
alright took the plunge! So far using the site, feel like the whole thing is
'in development' -not a finished product yet. Hopefully it will reach the
critical mass soon.

