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Ask HN: As a developer how do you want to be hired?

7 points by nathan_edwards ↗ HN
As a Front End Developer, I find myself and my fellow workmates almost on a daily basis complaining about recruiters either spamming us with jobs unrelated to what we do, or calling for a "catch-up" and to find out the names of our managers... Why do we put up with them? Surely as developers we can change the way we get hired.

Maybe something similar to Tinder where employers browse and make job offers direct to us? What are your thoughts?

10 comments

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msie
That would be great. Since you're asking, here are my pipedreams:

- interviews where I can dress up in a t-shirt and jeans

- max 3 interviews, none of this 9 interviews stuff

- simple questions to confirm my experience but not to assess whether I'm suitable for Mensa

kashkhan
the nine interviews are there to filter you out before you hit the actual decision maker.
bgoldste
Exactly, the dm's time is worth more than everyone else's.
nathan_edwards
Yeah, I never understood why a business would need more than 2 interviews tops to decide if you are suitable. Work portfolio would have been checked out before first interview and then would just be personality fit/meet team after that.
kashkhan
I would love to have a linkedin that is owned by the users.
nathan_edwards
Yeah good idea.. unfortunately it has now just become awash with recruiters trying to connect/job spam.
wturner
I would like to see a new recruiting trend where recruiters double as pseudo career mentors ( hence freely consulting people who are skilled but don't know where they fit in. To fulfill this role these people would probably have to be mentors in a specific industry first and recruiters second). However, I doubt this would make a good business since apparently shoe-horning employees to employers via linkedIn and resume's seems to work, but I figure there might be a subset of the recruiting industry that could possibly make a business out of this idea.

This is what I would like to see as I am very career-confused myself :)

le_douard
I would tend away from anything a third party recruiter send me. Really those guys incentives are not to fit you well, but to throw candidates at their customers and see what sticks to the wall. I've seen that from both sides of those guys (as a candidate and a person selecting candidate for my team).

If it is a HR person from inside the company that contacts me then I would definitely read the offer in details. For me LinkedIn, Emails or SnailMail is the same I can phase out everything if need be.

Something I don't like at all is 3+ interviews. Especially when the first one is just to "present" the offer or the company. That one can be done in conjunction with another (lets say the first technical), or on the phone/skype/hangouts. Don't make me come just for that.

Best job I had got done in one email + one interview with a coding test, and it was a cracking team.

ALSO: PLS understand you can use our online profiles as our CVs stop asking us to come discuss opportunities or to send you another copy! It just proves that you are just spamming from a search result list.

jordanbrown
I shy away from recruiters every time. Not sure why that is though.
lostdog
I want to receive an email from a current developer describing a bit about what the company is like and inviting me to lunch. I show up to lunch and 1-3 devs sit and talk with me about their current projects, and ask a bit about what I've worked on. A CTO or PM should show up eventually and tell me a bit more about the company-level goals. At the end of lunch, they invite me to come in for an evaluative interview and give me some idea of what topics to prep for (algorithms, design, or math).

Remember: If you found me, then you have to sell me on your company first. I care about the projects and the culture. A recruiter can't answer questions about these, so you should get me talking to a fellow dev ASAP.