

Recruiting: Why you should alienate half of your candidates - frankus
http://www.danshapiro.com/blog/2010/05/on-recruiting-make-sure-to-alienate-at-least-half-your-candidates/

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lotharbot
Really, this is already being done on a larger scale -- by setting up shop in
Seattle, you alienate (or, properly stated, created a hurdle for) people from
Silicon Valley, New York, or London.

As long as you set up somewhere with a large enough talent pool to hire the
number of people you need, you're fine. While Microsoft and Google are over in
Redmond, Seattle proper has plenty of talented software types at companies
like Amazon, Real Networks, and Boeing.

Locating your startup in Skykomish or Roslyn would be a different story.

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aaronbrethorst
Gus Mueller from Flying Meat is looking for a Mac developer who's willing to
work in downtown Everett.

If I lived in Everett, I'd jump at the opportunity to skip the I-5/405
commutes. Of course, since I live in Capitol Hill I won't consider applying
for his open position.

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isleyaardvark
They're not so much "alienating" candidates as they are targeting a niche,
which is a fine strategy if you're a small company.

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frankus
Sometimes a slight exaggeration makes for a better headline :)

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aaronbrethorst
I left Microsoft a few years ago to join a company in Seattle. Not having to
cross those bridges any more was a HUGE part of the reason why I left. I
cannot express how awful the commute is to and from Redmond.

Of course, getting a raise and working in a 15 person startup didn't hurt
either... These days, I'm working out of a cafe two blocks from my apartment.
My daily commute time has gone from 90 minutes by car to 30 minutes by bus to
5 minutes by foot.

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Empact
Were you driving yourself? When I was at MSFT I used to take the 545 back and
forth, and did a fair amount of reading, coding and movie watching in that
bus.

Not that I wouldn't appreciate work within walking distance, but transit made
it reasonably pleasant.

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SteveJS
I live on Capitol hill. 545 in, and MS commuter bus back is fantastic. The
ensured reading/downtime everyday is wonderful. The only downside is the
restrictive times on the commuter bus and the lack of a vehicle at work to run
errands. I'll shortly be moving to a house walking distance to MS and the
reading time of my commute is something I'll greatly miss. I'm seriously
thinking I might (on some days) take the 545 in to Seattle to get Vivace
coffee and take it back to MS to get to work.

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aaronbrethorst
Or you could move into Brix or Joule, walk downstairs to Vivace and pick up
the commuter bus on Broadway... ;-)

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stretchwithme
Sounds like there should be an app for that. Talent in any industry could
create a skill and geographic preference profile and then startups could see
where all the talent wishes they could work.

They could integrate apps like the total cost of driving
(<http://earliertcd.appspot.com/>) and show people concretely how much their
time is worth.

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mkramlich
TL;DR: you should also 37Signals-ize your recruiting (take a stance, the extra
filter is a _good_ thing)

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coderdude
Sorry, we don't appreciate that here.

