Has anyone ever got contacted from the “Who Wants to be Hired?” posts?

I posted in the December thread and was contacted several times over the next 6 weeks. Here is my learning from this:

* Be unique. As a JavaScript developer I mentioned that I will not work on Angular, React, or other big frameworks. This immediately tells 90% of hiring companies to not waste their time with me and I am also not competing with many other people.

* Be patient. I grew impatient and jumped on an opportunity outside of software.

* Be careful what you wish for. The same failings and faults that apply everywhere else in software hiring will happen here too. Always be skeptical of the process, and ask good questions.

* Keep your experience in mind. Mostly what software companies are looking for is experience. Education is a nice to have, but it isn't required to be a developer. Education is never a certification no matter how much you wish it were or how expensive it was. If you have no experience you should expect to start as a junior developer.

* You don't need to be hired to obtain experience. Nothing is preventing you from writing open source software personal project and making mistakes that you are learning from. As somebody with a masters degree you are in a stronger position for advancing quickly compared to most other developers. After 20 years of writing software I am convinced that there are only 2 difference between a novice developer and an expert: writing skills and an advanced appreciation for data structures. Those are both skills that take practice to develop and the results a self-evident when reviewing code.

I posted once and someone at a much better company than I’d otherwise get hired at saw the post and decided to refer me on a whim. That put me on an upward career trajectory and I now work at a FANG. I’m grateful for this community and also reminded of how much of a role luck plays in everything.

As for OP my suggestion is that the people who read Who wants to be hired are MUCH more clued in on tech than the average recruiter. If you’ve written blog posts or done anything cool or noteworthy put them in the post. They might make a difference.

Related discussion with 300 comments, summary is positive "Ask HN: Has anyone ever been hired from “Who wants to be hired?” threads?" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20330818

You are getting your PhD in genetics. That really seems like your passion. I looked at your website and it's clear that you have been involved in some cool research. Maybe it's a blessing you didn't get that junior dev job. Is that really the path you want to take? Will that leverage your skills and interests? I think you're better off using the Advanced Search function on LinkedIn Jobs to mass apply to recently posted jobs in your niche. Bonus points for having a coffee chat with the person who posted the job. Also, make a list of all the people who can vouch for your work, especially people that you've done research for/with. Analyze their LinkedIn, find jobs at companies that they've worked with in the past, and ask if they can introduce you to someone at the company who can discuss the job with you.

Yes. I had a pretty strong resume and a couple startups reached out to me through the contact information I posted. Also this is not the first time someone has asked.

But remember that you're probably competing with above average developers and as someone with little experience you may be overshadowed. Don't let that discourage you but be grounded in your aspirations.

Yes. I only posted once, but did get a few replies.

I will say that more than one of them was by people who were not hiring managers but rank-and-file employees fishing for referral bonuses.

The number of good leads I got was effectively zero.

I was contacted by – and took – an awesome job in Seattle via one of those threads. So glad I got out of SF.

My company has hired multiple developers from these HN posts. In fact, it's by far the most effective method I have been using to find high quality candidates.

Ping me via email if you want to discuss more.

From the other perspective: I posted a remote job ad in one of those threads once. I was buried under applications from remote employees.

Some advice: If you want to stand out, make your initial contact as easy and as complete as possible. The more the person on the other end needs to work to access your resume, understand who you are, and discover other details, the less likely you are to get a response.

We've hired people from both sides - us reaching out and people reaching out to us. I'll usually Ctrl+F keywords for what we're looking for and email anyone that looks relevant.

I've never posted on the "Who wants to be hired" but I've applied to a number of positions on the "Who's Hiring" and consistently get feedback from those.

If you've been looking for a job for year without any promising job leads, i would recommend:

-seek some feedback on your resume -speak to some professional developers for some general advice on getting the first job

I'd be happy to help if you want to message me on twitter @jakeduchen

I did on the 'who wants to freelance?' version once. It was a whole 45 minutes after I posted - someone one town over noticed my location and we connected. I ultimately didn't get the gig, but got a nice tour of their facility and some of the work they were doing. :)

Probably because HN is geared more toward tech/web/ai startups and you have something else on your Resume. I would try other communities instead. I don't think you should be looking for a Jr. Web Dev position.

I was contacted for a potential internship based on my post in "Who wants to be Hired?" in Feb 2020. I have prior background in industrial control systems, and the startup which interviewed me had some overlap as they focus on power grid. The startup is quite small but profitable, and I felt that it has a solid strategy+position for sustained growth. In the end, I believe my skills weren't a total grand slam for what they needed (lots of web dev skills), and I was also located 2+ hours (each way) and they likely needed someone to come into the office each day. They were also originally looking for someone fulltime, not part time or internship.

At the end of the day, I think both sides of the table was wonderfully honest, flexible and open to finding a potential fit/solution/consensus, but we couldn't figure out a satisfying way to make the parts fit together.

I've done about a dozen interviews since January (and found several offers), and several dozen more earlier in life. The interview I found via "Who wants to be Hired?" really stands out for being the most earnest, open, flexible, and consensus-focused. It felt like discussing a potential partnership ("Here's where I'm at, whats that look like for you?"), rather than a typical job interview -- i.e. "This place has been voted top quality of life in Metropolitan (because we paid for it, but our employees actually end up working 60 hrs/week most weeks)" and "Yes, I have Django experience (from my personal project I never quite finished or ever deployed)"

Whoshiring worked for me back in like 2014-2016 when I was the "only" React.js freelancer with deep experience. (Not sure when whoshiring started but somewhere in there.) It stopped working in ~2017-2019 once everyone had that and I don't think I was ever contacted again (by a serious opportunity). Trolling public forums is so low effort that anyone can do it and it's a race to the bottom unless you stand out in some clear way.

Yes, I got contacted by HN hiring threads multiple times. I ended up taking few gigs and it turned out to be good. The quality of the jobs and requirements we get from HN is good when compared to other job boards. Experience definitely matters for a good role. I see lot of requirements are related to javascript frameworks (e.g React). In your case I would show some links to your profile (i.e Github, linkedin or your own website). Good luck with your search. You can also reach out to people from "Who is Hiring" thread.

Here is list of compiled remote job boards.

https://github.com/lukasz-madon/awesome-remote-job/#job-boar...

Has anyone had success posting on the “who wants to be hired thread” looking for work but not having a traditional software background? I’m just wondering if there is any real way for this to be effective when lacking the ‘normal’ key signals for software jobs.

If you're getting a PhD you might want to consider a Data Science / research role, or at least an analyst role. If you wanted a job as a Software Engineer, why stay in school so long? Many SE roles don't even need a bachelors degree (though, ofc, companies want people with a BS).

I've never worked with a PhD software engineer, but as a data scientist, most of the people I work with have a PhD or masters. I'm the odd one out not having a degree.

And to answer your question, when I post in the Who Wants to be Hired threads I always get responses, but I've got 10+ years of industry experience, so it makes sense.

Yep. I moved from Boulder to NYC based on an offer I got from my only post.

I've also worked in a couple of companies that need computational biology, biostats, etc., and I don't think any of them would be likely to reach out to people on HN.

I have- however, both of them called me the wrong name; so I didn't reply.

I got hired on my first internship after I graduated college from HN, in 2017. I was jobless at the time and living with my parents in the hope I would be able to get a good opportunity. I ended up being hired on a small internship role developing a Rails app, which wasn't enough to sustain me so I still relied on my parents for rent. After that I got lucky on one of my other applications and got hired by a much bigger org, such that I can now pay for my own rent.

Got a few leads in the past year from two personal submissions to the freelancer seeking work topic. They ended in nothing massive (or life changing, as some are reporting on here, well done to you!) because onsite still seems a pre-requisite for anything non-software and, more than that, real life teams cannot outsource IP trust or strategic responsibility for heavy-impact r&d decisions.

As for the question in the topic: yes, I have been contacted.

Do you have any experience outside the university degrees? It is difficult to hire someone who has a very diverse skill set with no particular experience. You should probably focus on building a portfolio - work on some open source projects or create something on your own... Otherwise, it will be tough :)

Once I was in dire straits, in great need of honest work, and had lots of skills and experience.

Got one reply from someone building a surveillance apparatus for authoritarian countries. I had to say no. :(

I think that most employers look at that MS in genetics and assume you're looking for related work. The problem with that is that biotech employers don't read Hacker News nearly as much as software employers. You need to look for other venues.

Those posts are generally for people with dev experience or BS/MS/PhD in CS. Pretty much a strong resume though there are exceptions.

> I got a minor in CS, MS in genetics and have been looking for an industry job for about a year now.

If you have a MS in genetics why are you applying for jr. dev jobs which primarily targets towards CS majors fresh out of school? You are at a distinct disadvantage with a minor in CS.

With your background in genetics, why are you seeking out dev positions at all? Shouldn't you be seeking lab/research positions and use your CS minor to differentiate yourself from other people with MS in genetics?

Anyways good luck with your job search, but I really don't think the "Who Wants to be Hired" is what you are looking for. Your best bet is through your alma mater/networks, professors, job fairs, etc.

Have you looked into the possibility of bioinformatics at smaller biotechs who aren’t looking for lots of acumen? If not I’d probably look there.

Sometimes you don’t have to hit all the boxes. Knowing R would help.

I sent you an email and left a message on the number listed on your personal site you advertised in the other hiring thread.

Would love to help you out (even if its just referrals or advice), I know how it feels.

I have been contacted and even got on-sites with them in the end. I always post when I see the post. I can follow how useful it is via my website and google analytics!

Those threads are a great way to datamine info.

A couple of years ago I was contacted and did some freelance engagement with a great client.

I was contacted but I had a different offer by the time it happened. Still worth it because the position looked interesting.

I was about to post the same question But I have similar question would love to hear community opinion on this

I commented on a Who's Hiring thread a year ago, and got an interview out of it :)

I hired two people from The Who Wants to be hired posts.

i've reached out to someone to hire them for some small freelance work