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Show HN: Work at a Startup – Find a Job at a YC Company
- mattlong 9y agoHi folks! I’m an engineer at YC and the main developer of Work at a Startup. Startups are an increasingly popular place to work in the tech industry. At the same time, the most common problem founders need help with is hiring people. Work at a Startup is a new way to help solve this pain point for both parties by connecting people interested in working at startups directly with the founders of the 1100+ active YC companies by completing a common application. This the next iteration of the "Work at a Startup Day" idea that YC started hosting way back in 2010 [0][1][2]! For now, Work at a Startup is targeted at software engineers who want to work at US-based companies since that’s the most common need of YC companies. We will be expanding to other roles and countries once we've validated the product for applicants and founders. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1346103 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1346103 [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2888696 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2888696 [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3676578 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3676578
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- jonny_eh 9y agoDoesn't this compete with Triplebyte, a YC company that was founded to help YC companies hire engineers?
- ericd 9y agoI don't think that that is the long term goal of Triplebyte - I think their goal is to help every company hire engineers. YC companies are a convenient first set of companies for a YC company to work with, though.
- flavio81 9y agoThanks for helping create this. It made my day, and I'm already thinking over and over on how to fill my application form in the best way possible. Go YC!
- mwseibel 9y agoI'm so excited that this is launching - great work Matt!!! - This is one of the features that I wanted YC to have way back in 2007!
- mangoman 9y agoThe one thing I saw missing from the application was a salary floor / expectation. I currently support my wife on my salary, and wouldn't be able to work for less than a certain amount. I would apply through this for a lot of startups, but I wouldn't want to go through the entire interview process and realize that they can't pay me what I need to support my family.
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- davidw 9y agoGood point - I'm in a similar situation.
- mattlong 9y agoThank you for the feedback, that is a very good point!
- overcast 9y agoI'm single, with no kids, and no one to support but me. I'm not going to work for less either.
- Alex3917 9y ago> I'm not going to work for less either. You can take equity instead of cash though.
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- Alex3917 9y ago> Cash has value though. Equity? Lottery ticket. Lottery tickets have a predictable value. Lottery tickets and cash are basically interchangeable goods, and if you have the ability to bear the risk that any given lottery ticket might not pay out then you can make money by taking on that risk. It's not really any different than being a VC, an insurance company, a movie producer, etc.
- Cshelton 9y agoIt should be renamed to "Work as a software engineer at a startup". Looking at the application, it seems that is all they care about.
- mattlong 9y agoApologies that it is misleading. We decided it was best to remain focused on single role while we work out all the kinks and make sure we're delivering a good user experience. Your point is well taken though. We fully intend on eventually supporting all sorts of roles. The demand is there now more than ever as more and more YC companies are working on things besides web and mobile apps.
- harkmylord 9y agoAgreed. Was hoping to find a spot as a designer.
- itronitron 9y agoYeah, I consider designer (of SW) a software engineering position. Most UX folks I know have CS degrees.
- mattlong 9y agoDesigners are next on our list!
- bduerst 9y agoYep, it's misleading. This loaded question in particular made me close the tab: > Which software engineering roles are you interested in?
- throwaway0071 9y agoI'm assuming this is US-centric. What's the approach to visas?
- tjuene 9y agoYou can select that you want to work remotely.
- mattlong 9y agoYes, for now it is US-centric. Work at a Startup serves primarily as a matchmaker for potential employees and founders and isn't directly involved in facilitating visa sponsorships or other details of employment. While YC advises our companies on how to best navigate and obtain visas, they are still ultimately the responsibility of the founders/company.
- alexk 9y agoAt first I did not understand that it is built by YC - thought someone had used styling. It would be helpful to add some additional message, e.g.: "built by YC team", may be even have an alias for a while work.ycombinator.com
- mwseibel 9y agogood suggestion!
- shafyy 9y agoGreat idea. Not important, but wondering: Why aren't you using the ycombinator.com domain for this?
- mattlong 9y agoGood question! We've been discussing this a bunch internally and will probably change in the near future. Doing so would provide a lot more trust that this service is indeed an official YC project. And I've I've recently learned, will do wonders for our SEO. FWIW, the reasoning for not doing that from the start is that we wanted the site to be very closely associated with the act of searching for "I want to work at a startup". Perhaps that's a bit old school, but I still like to think there's a little bit of value in it...either way, we'll likely just redirect workatastartup.com to something on the ycombinator.com domain.
- shafyy 9y agoCool, thanks for the explanation. My opinion is that from a branding perspective, a subdomain of ycombinator.com would be much better. Otherwise, it seems like a cheap affiliate website (like those search engine optimized domain names). Ironically, in your case, using a subdomain will be better for SEO (as you correctly stated).
- relyks 9y agoDoes this apply for people looking for internships?
- mwseibel 9y agonot yet but its on the list :)
- conanbatt 9y agoThe friction of entering and it demanding so much information is a killer for me. If you do make a decision that only vetted applicants should have access to apply, you should make it way more enticing to commit. Seeing some interesting jobs and then getting excited will get the user more willing to forkout so much information. As it is, it felt like people harvesting and I just left the site.
- mattlong 9y agoThanks for the feedback. Making it more of a two way marketplace by letting companies post job descriptions is certainly something we're looking at for the reasons you list. As for the concern on harvesting peoples' information, we try to be very open about the fact that applications will indeed be made available to founders of YC companies to facilitate employment opportunities. Are you not comfortable with the "all or nothing" nature of that?
- conanbatt 9y agoAt the point I saw it, it felt that I was giving something valuable without knowing what I'm getting in return. Knowing that I don't have to fork out any information visiting "Who is Hiring" makes it a tough sell. I think there is a question on why here. Lets say you add company job listings: why see them here and not on angellist (shows lots of information) or who is hiring (no commitment) or the companies job page. The beginning of the page mentions all big name companies which I would already know and would just go to their pages for job postings where I can better prepare my CV. It might be VERY different if the companies here are small and unknown, and are somehow vetted or show unique YC information about them. Angelist is too expensive for a 2-3 man shop just out of a batch. I guess I picture a YC official page to be about segmentation, not open-wide job listing competition with other big sites.
- zackbrown 9y agoFor what it's worth as a user on the other side of the marketplace — i.e. a founder scanning listings for prospective hires — the first thing I wanted was _more_ information. For example, I would love to know at a glance what the applicants' interests/passions are by sector/product type — in addition to technological passion/experience. While I recognize that each field adds friction, I'd take a high expected quality (e.g. qualified technical and passion match) candidate over a high volume of candidates any day.
- dschep 9y ago> Sign in with YC Hacker News to get started I think you meant: > Apply to get started
- sah2ed 9y agoI believe this means that they associate your HN handle with a workatastartup.com account by reusing your session so you don't have to manage yet another set of login credentials.
- dschep 9y agoSure, if that's what it did, but that's not what it looks like it does. (no auth flow and they're on totally different domains)
- tensormoon 9y agoYC is building out more of their pipeline? What are the implications for this? Is this to capture more data?
- wasd 9y agoReally cool. What niche is this serving that TripleByte doesn't? My impression was that if you wanted to apply to any YC company at once, TripleByte was the way to go.
- snowmaker 9y agoUnfortunately there is no true common app that really puts you in front of all YC companies yet. Because TripleByte charges companies a fee for each person hired, not all YC companies work with them. And because Work At A Startup is so new, not all YC companies are using it yet. You'll get the most reach by using both.
- mattlong 9y agoGood question! Right now since we only target software folks, you're correct that the two services do indeed overlap quite a bit. I think the differentiation will be more clear once we expand beyond software engineers, which we're hoping to do soon. The two services also differ in that Work at a Startup does not attempt to do any technical vetting; simply start conversations. The reasoning for this is that when founders are hiring their first handful of employees, it's often more important to find people that believe in your company's product/mission rather than people with a particular background. Founders are often constrained by how big of a "friend tree" they have to shake. Simply put, Work at a Startup gives founders the opportunity to pitch a lot more potential early employees than they'd otherwise have access to. All this being said, TripleByte is certainly still a great option to go with for a lot of folks and does indeed have a close relationship with a lot of YC companies!
- ktta 9y agoHow do you anticipate new college grads will fare?
- zitterbewegung 9y agoThat it isn’t TripleByte. When I applied at TripleByte I must have fallen through the cracks. My account doesn’t let me go forward it seems to be stuck in limbo. Their promise of interviewing people never occurs. They constantly change the rules for the sole reason that it’s just another staffing agency with a automated test .
- kogir 9y agoThis may be an unpopular opinion here, but I'd strongly advise you against working at a startup as an employee. Some key things to consider: * What comp are you giving up? * Will your options be worth more than Facebook/Google/Amazon/Apple RSUs? * Can you even afford your options? * Will the options ever be liquid? * Are you willing to earn-out after an acquisition? * Will you have to do extra work? Are you compensated for it? Starting a startup is great and you totally should. But working at one is (on average) setting yourself up to be worse off financially than working elsewhere. Make that decision deliberately and consciously only after really running the numbers and thinking critically about it.
- mwseibel 9y agoI think something to consider is that working at a startup is an extremely common path to starting one yourself.
- hkmurakami 9y agoWorking at a startup is never optimal economically, especially at an early stage one. There are non economical reasons why it might make sense for someone, but EV is not one of them.
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- sirodoht 9y agoThe main problem for me regarding this and other similar services (eg. Triplebyte) is that there is no reason to care if you live outside the US. Gettings a visa is hard, startups do not sponsor visas and the large majority of startup roles are onsite. Unfortunately, this is yet another waste of time for me along with many other similar opportunities to find a job when you aren't part of a network of people working with startups. That said, this seems like an interesting program by YC and I am looking forward to see how it will continue and how the other countries' expansion will actually work. Congrats @mattlong.
- andrewstetsenko 9y agoRecruiting process is so connected to applicant tracking systems, so applying via external services vs directly to career pages won't provide you benefits. Do you plan to integrate with ATS?
- rglover 9y agoAlternative title: Develop Hypertension at a Young Age.
- jmtame 9y agoI almost spit my beer out when I read this comment. It’s funny because it’s true.
- atTheBank 9y agoReally like the idea of this and i think its well executed. Is there scope to build this out beyond engineering roles?