Yes, my intuition tells me employers see the post on HN (or Inc, QZ) and think it's a cheap gamble for highly qualified applicants relative to other outlets. I

Yes, my intuition tells me employers see the post on HN (or Inc, QZ) and think it's a cheap gamble for highly qualified applicants relative to other outlets. I haven't put any sort of tracking in place, so they have no way of knowing if anyone will see their job unless people apply and say where they're coming from. Employers often use trackable short urls for this purpose. I'd imagine they get as good if not better exposure than "who is hiring" because they get promoted to the top of my site and their listing lasts for 45 days, but I don't know.