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Ask HN: Using search ads to target potential employers Good or Bad?

7 points by taylorlb ↗ HN
Curious what HN thinks about targeting current employees of a startup where I would like to work with FB ads that express my desire to work there. My thinking is that anything that might help me stand out from other candidates can't hurt, but do you think this is too much? Potentially negative even?

6 comments

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kirillzubovsky
What type of work do you want to do that startup? If it's something marketing related, then use marketing tricks, but if you want to write code, then make something useful for their startup and offer, perhaps, as open source. Unless you are trying to brainwash them to remember your photo subconsciously, ads aren't going to do any good.
taylorlb
It's a marketing position. I don't expect much to come from running ads, but I am curious to see if it can give me some sort of mind share advantage perhaps. Maybe someone unrelated to the position sees it and then emails someone who is involved in that dept pointing out how "this guy is really eager". I'm more than qualified for the position, but I'm concerned it's so competative I'll get lost in the noise.
nostrademons
I think it would be creepy to target rank & file employees of your target employer with FB ads. Most of them aren't in a position to help anyway.

It might be interesting to buy AdWords on your name so your preferred spiel comes up when people Google you. I'm not sure if it's all that much more effective than just having a decent homepage though.

patio11
Let's say that between thinking this up, questioning the utility of it, asking HN, and actually implementing it takes only one hour.

You know what you could do in an hour, trivially? Find the person who can say "Hire Taylorlb" and invite them to lunch or coffee. Alternatively, find someone who they trust and get a warm intro like "Still looking for a $FOO? You should talk to Taylorlb."

You can try more exotic ways to break into $TARGET but walking through the open front door is a good place to start. Bonus points: many people competing with you are pathologically unable to find the front door because they think it is cheating.

taylorlb
I actually know one of the people hiring the position and have traded a couple emails with him about my interest. I also had someone he respects recommend me so perhaps I'm already doing better than I thought I was.

I put the ads on hold after reading a couple of these comments since no one seemed to have a "totally. go for it" response. For what it's worth, the CTR was actually really high. Hope those who clicked did so with a smile.

WillyF
I actually "invented" this idea back in 2008 ( here's my post: http://www.onedayonejob.com/blog/use-facebook-ads-to-make-em... ). A lot of people have come up with it independently since. Because it's done before, it's not nearly as interesting as when people were first doing it, but it's great if you want to get into online advertising or marketing--shows your skills.

If you're having trouble getting on people's radar, it's worth a try, but it's probably not your best bet.