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Serious Problems with HTTPS://Www.workatastartup.com/

2 points by pratt3000 ↗ HN
I was under the impression that this would be a great platform where companies actually hire for the roles they post and reply if I apply but I have been using it for 6 months+ and its literally like sending your applications into oblivion. Its not different from applying on Linkedin at all. To put this more concretely, over the last 6 months I have applied for 100+ roles at various startups and have received an 'acknowledgement' from 5 of them. I interviewed at only one of thoes 5 but thats something I can understand. But the fact that most companies dont seem to be using the portal seems like such a lost opportunity and waste of what could have been the best place to find jobs at a startup.

5 comments

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cranberryturkey
well 4% response rate is about average. I never get any responses from them either though. I gave up awhile ago.
neximo64
Because they're startups doesn't mean its any easier to get a job with one.

Startups are also looking for talent that is on average better and more aligned with them.

I don't want to be critical but it sounds a lot from the description that a startup wouldn't want to hire you. Startups want you to be with them on the mission in a very deep and specific way. If you're applying to a hundred at a go, whatever you're offering might be a bit too generic to be appealing to any one of them. You would need to have a skill with depth that can add value to a startup. This applies more to startups than large companies like on linkedin.

KingOfCoders
You were a good fit for 100+ roles?

As someone who hired many developers and scanned thousands of CVs - I don't know how you applied for a job - but this does not sound right.

I recommend everyone to spend some hours to curate their CV for each job and the application letter to each job, with finding out what is important to the company, their language, their challenges etc. Just like a sales rep would. If you take 1h for every application to prepare this would take several weeks of preparations for 100+ roles.

The hiring manager needs to think: Why did this person not apply earlier, they are perfect!

Not saying you did this, but sending the same CV and application to 100+ open positions is just like sending sales spam out. And when people do not put effort into their application, why should I put effort into rejecting them? I also just ignore mass applications.

Funny you mention LinkedIn, from which I seldom get good applications just mass spamming ones.

_ua_
There's also the sad fact that a job post doesn't mean there's a real vacancy.

A tactic startups use to "boost their stats" is to have vacancies open even they aren't actively hiring.