3 ms·

I hired Sahat as an intern three years ago while he was an undergrad. It was one of the best hiring decisions I have ever made. He was productive immediately an

by paddy_m 10y ago

I hired Sahat as an intern three years ago while he was an undergrad. It was one of the best hiring decisions I have ever made. He was productive immediately and our (small) team felt the loss when he went back to school. This guy is good and gets stuff done, ask people who have worked with him. I wish Sahat had reached out to more of his network before responding to random recruiters. Tech interviews as Sahat experienced them are broken, but tech hiring is slightly less broken especially when you leverage your network. *note this is the same comment I made in the other thread. I stand by it. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11579757 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11579757

swayvil 10y ago
I'm seeing a lot of "reaching out" in this thread. Is this a new thing, like "passion"?
- eric-hu 10y ago
  No, quite the opposite. It's an old trick for job searching. It doesn't originate in tech. It's one reason why people go to networking events in their industry. My impression of what reaching out means today is a chat over coffee, lunch, or less preferably a phone call.
  - lj3 10y ago
    What frequently gets looked over is who you're reaching out to. It doesn't do you any good to reach out to a rank and file developer. You need to reach out to (is seduce a better word?) somebody with hiring authority in order to bypass the ridiculousness.
    - eric-hu 10y ago
      Personally, I don't mind going through an interview process. I actually find it strange if a company makes an offer without much of a technical interview, which has happened before.
- mathattack 10y ago
  Almost anyone in any company can go to HR and say, "This person is great, we should interview them for position X" and they will go to the top of the pile. If you reach out to someone you know at a company, if they like you, and you are good, usually you can get an interview there. Contacts are also good at helping you find unposted jobs. You have to "Reach out" first. Contacts can also recommend you to a hiring manager. The best hiring managers trust a reference based on a long working relationship over 30-45 minutes in an interview. But you have to "reach out" first.
  - vonmoltke 10y ago
    > Almost anyone in any company can go to HR and say, "This person is great, we should interview them for position X" and they will go to the top of the pile. If you reach out to someone you know at a company, if they like you, and you are good, usually you can get an interview there. I see you have never worked in the defense industry before.
    - mathattack 10y ago
      Should I consider that a blessing? :-)
- badloginagain 10y ago
  A personal connection, with someone who is in a hiring position, has a high likelihood hiring you outside of their interview process. With a vested interest to hire you in the company, it's much more likely that the interview process will be a more collaborative experience- such as coffee with a CTO to discuss the problems they're having. And it doesn't need to be "best friend" level of personal connection, it's someone you often see at that AngularJS meetup or whatever- after three or four pleasant conversations you'd be surprised how invested they can be to hire you- especially because they already know what your skill set is and would only look at you if you fit the problem they're having. This is the value proposition of going to Meetups, Conferences, Talks, etc. You start to see who the "regulars" are, and persons in a hiring position tend to bias very heavily to people they are already familiar with.
- xyz19128 10y ago
  Very annoying, but not that new: http://apennedpoint.com/dont-reach-out-to-me-please/ http://apennedpoint.com/dont-reach-out-to-me-please/
- pklausler 10y ago
  It's the latest euphemism for "communicating with a person in some manner whose details are not relevant" to join the already well-populated set { "approach", "contact", "consult", "get in touch", "speak with" }. I hate "reach out" with a passion and draw instant conclusions about those who use it, but I'm sure that most of the above were also hated when they were invented and it does fill a need for a missing verb in English.
  - Apocryphon 10y ago
    As buzzwordy as it is, "pinging someone" sounds even worse.
    - pklausler 10y ago
      "Tell" and "ask" can almost always be used to replace "reach out to".
p4wnc6 10y ago
I've done a large number of interviews by reaching out through my network and those interviews are no different. The companies involved still have a process whereby they get your resume as an internal recommendation, then move you over to the usual programming riddles, hazing, bullshit kinds of hiring stuff. Unless someone in your network has enough political pull to ensure you get bypassed around that shit, then network-based interviews are absolutely no different than other kinds.
- fossuser 10y ago
  Yep - network helps you get an interview where you otherwise would be ignored (if you haven't gone to MIT/Stanford/CMU and haven't yet worked at Google/Facebook/Palantir/YC Startup), but it doesn't get you out of the interview puzzles. Only way to bypass that is to start your own company or know somebody in a powerful position.
dang 10y ago
Your comment is duplicated now because we merged the threads.

by paddy_m 10y ago

swayvil 10y ago

I'm seeing a lot of "reaching out" in this thread. Is this a new thing, like "passion"?

eric-hu 10y ago
No, quite the opposite. It's an old trick for job searching. It doesn't originate in tech. It's one reason why people go to networking events in their industry. My impression of what reaching out means today is a chat over coffee, lunch, or less preferably a phone call.
- lj3 10y ago
  What frequently gets looked over is who you're reaching out to. It doesn't do you any good to reach out to a rank and file developer. You need to reach out to (is seduce a better word?) somebody with hiring authority in order to bypass the ridiculousness.
  - eric-hu 10y ago
    Personally, I don't mind going through an interview process. I actually find it strange if a company makes an offer without much of a technical interview, which has happened before.
mathattack 10y ago
Almost anyone in any company can go to HR and say, "This person is great, we should interview them for position X" and they will go to the top of the pile. If you reach out to someone you know at a company, if they like you, and you are good, usually you can get an interview there. Contacts are also good at helping you find unposted jobs. You have to "Reach out" first. Contacts can also recommend you to a hiring manager. The best hiring managers trust a reference based on a long working relationship over 30-45 minutes in an interview. But you have to "reach out" first.
- vonmoltke 10y ago
  > Almost anyone in any company can go to HR and say, "This person is great, we should interview them for position X" and they will go to the top of the pile. If you reach out to someone you know at a company, if they like you, and you are good, usually you can get an interview there. I see you have never worked in the defense industry before.
  - mathattack 10y ago
    Should I consider that a blessing? :-)
badloginagain 10y ago
A personal connection, with someone who is in a hiring position, has a high likelihood hiring you outside of their interview process. With a vested interest to hire you in the company, it's much more likely that the interview process will be a more collaborative experience- such as coffee with a CTO to discuss the problems they're having. And it doesn't need to be "best friend" level of personal connection, it's someone you often see at that AngularJS meetup or whatever- after three or four pleasant conversations you'd be surprised how invested they can be to hire you- especially because they already know what your skill set is and would only look at you if you fit the problem they're having. This is the value proposition of going to Meetups, Conferences, Talks, etc. You start to see who the "regulars" are, and persons in a hiring position tend to bias very heavily to people they are already familiar with.
xyz19128 10y ago
Very annoying, but not that new: http://apennedpoint.com/dont-reach-out-to-me-please/ http://apennedpoint.com/dont-reach-out-to-me-please/
pklausler 10y ago
It's the latest euphemism for "communicating with a person in some manner whose details are not relevant" to join the already well-populated set { "approach", "contact", "consult", "get in touch", "speak with" }. I hate "reach out" with a passion and draw instant conclusions about those who use it, but I'm sure that most of the above were also hated when they were invented and it does fill a need for a missing verb in English.
- Apocryphon 10y ago
  As buzzwordy as it is, "pinging someone" sounds even worse.
  - pklausler 10y ago
    "Tell" and "ask" can almost always be used to replace "reach out to".

p4wnc6 10y ago

I've done a large number of interviews by reaching out through my network and those interviews are no different. The companies involved still have a process whereby they get your resume as an internal recommendation, then move you over to the usual programming riddles, hazing, bullshit kinds of hiring stuff. Unless someone in your network has enough political pull to ensure you get bypassed around that shit, then network-based interviews are absolutely no different than other kinds.

fossuser 10y ago
Yep - network helps you get an interview where you otherwise would be ignored (if you haven't gone to MIT/Stanford/CMU and haven't yet worked at Google/Facebook/Palantir/YC Startup), but it doesn't get you out of the interview puzzles. Only way to bypass that is to start your own company or know somebody in a powerful position.

dang 10y ago

Your comment is duplicated now because we merged the threads.