4 ms·

Haha this is a funny little idealistic article. If any company actually hires like this I'd like to know. Want the job? This is the real selection criteria at

Haha this is a funny little idealistic article. If any company actually hires like this I'd like to know. Want the job? This is the real selection criteria at west coast startups: 1) Went to interviewer's school and/or worked at my buddy's startup 2) Drinks the kool-aid? i.e. willing to work 60+ hrs/week below market 3) Previously held self titled "Chief Product Officer" position at "startup" that failed after 3 months

gyardley 10y ago
Sure - that's how most places usually hire their first product manager, if they're not just promoting from within. Honestly, that's how most early-stage startups hire pretty much anybody. If the company continues to succeed in spite of itself, eventually that guy (it's almost always a guy) gets sacked and they bring on someone who's at least managed a team of product managers elsewhere. The new person almost always has a hiring process similar to the one in the post, having either figured it out from experience or from reading one of the many articles very very very similar to this one.
dang 10y ago
Please don't post substanceless, snarky dismissals like this to HN. If you have concrete experiences that are relevant, those would be a basis for a much better comment. But rage-driven overgeneralization is something we want less of here. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html
- yanilkr 10y ago
  I am not sure you are moderating this right. That comment was very insightful. People hiring product managers would now know how some others in the company think if they brought in friends or candidates with inflated titles. One of my very talented friends quit his job for the exact reason. There are CTOs who do not know the difference between java and javascript. We tried to hire an accountant who had a title "Advisor to startups" after talking to her for few minutes we had to rethink hiring.
  - dang 10y ago
    I disagree that it was insightful; it's a collection of clichés that appear here frequently. The phrase "west coast startups" is particularly spurious, putting down a specific region. Generic comments about idiots are bad enough, but provocations about idiot distribution are worse. The specific experiences you describe in your comment are another matter. That kind of thing is substantive and can be the basis of a thoughtful comment.

gyardley 10y ago

Sure - that's how most places usually hire their first product manager, if they're not just promoting from within. Honestly, that's how most early-stage startups hire pretty much anybody. If the company continues to succeed in spite of itself, eventually that guy (it's almost always a guy) gets sacked and they bring on someone who's at least managed a team of product managers elsewhere. The new person almost always has a hiring process similar to the one in the post, having either figured it out from experience or from reading one of the many articles very very very similar to this one.

dang 10y ago

Please don't post substanceless, snarky dismissals like this to HN. If you have concrete experiences that are relevant, those would be a basis for a much better comment. But rage-driven overgeneralization is something we want less of here. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html

yanilkr 10y ago
I am not sure you are moderating this right. That comment was very insightful. People hiring product managers would now know how some others in the company think if they brought in friends or candidates with inflated titles. One of my very talented friends quit his job for the exact reason. There are CTOs who do not know the difference between java and javascript. We tried to hire an accountant who had a title "Advisor to startups" after talking to her for few minutes we had to rethink hiring.
- dang 10y ago
  I disagree that it was insightful; it's a collection of clichés that appear here frequently. The phrase "west coast startups" is particularly spurious, putting down a specific region. Generic comments about idiots are bad enough, but provocations about idiot distribution are worse. The specific experiences you describe in your comment are another matter. That kind of thing is substantive and can be the basis of a thoughtful comment.