4 ms·

There's a whole range. Companies are hiring for new grad software engineers up to senior engineers and CTOs. There are also many roles, from full-stack web to

There's a whole range. Companies are hiring for new grad software engineers up to senior engineers and CTOs. There are also many roles, from full-stack web to back-end and data science and many tech stacks. I'm particularly excited by how many companies are hiring for deep-tech roles like machine learning, computer vision, and embedded programming for hardware.

whb07 8y ago
Thanks for the quick response. I guess I’ll try to be more specific. What are they specifically looking for and how are they measuring that? Granted, everyone wants the “smart, motivated” + some other synonym for a great person. But are they looking only at c.s grads from surrounding Bay Area schools/Ex-Google and the like?
- snowmaker 8y ago
  Something I've learned from working with a lot of YC companies, is that while they certainly all want people who are "smart and motivated", they measure and define it quite differently. It sounds like your concern is whether companies are only looking for c.s. grads from brand name schools and companies, and I can specifically vouch for that not being the case. Depending on the company, they're likely to value open source contributions, independent projects you've built that are interesting, startups you've started or worked at, impressive technical work you've done at any company, and how candidates do on their own technical interviews (which vary greatly in substance), among many other factors.
mmt 8y ago
> software engineers Is there any timeline on lifting that exclusivity?
- snowmaker 8y ago
  Honestly, I don't know yet. Our timeline is "when it's working really well for software engineers", so it's hard to judge.
  - mmt 8y ago
    "Really well" strikes me as a remarkably high standard. If the focus is primarily on early employees, then I can see how that makes sense. For later stage startups, wouldn't YC be concerned with encouraging or supporting monocultures, or otherwise tipping the scales in favor of more software expertise, even if the company is more hardware (or ops or biotech or whatever) heavy?
    - snowmaker 8y ago
      That's an interesting point. At the moment, I wouldn't give ourselves enough credit to think we can meaningfully tip the scales in that way, but I could see how that could happen down the road. Out of curiosity, what role would you be looking for?
      - mmt 8y ago
        > I wouldn't give ourselves enough credit to think we can meaningfully tip the scales in that way I would hope that would be the whole point of such a project! (To reduce hiring friction enough to be able to tip the scales, not actually tip them) > what role would you be looking for? Personally, my specialty is ops (fka sysadmin). I rarely see a startup truly needing a dedicated someone-like-me until well after they've hired all their early employees.
        snowmaker 8y ago
        Actually, I think you should give Work at a Startup a try now. We have a category for ops already, as it was close to enough software engineering that we thought we'd get some amount of overlap in interest. It doesn't have quite as much activity as the core software engineering roles, but still some. Feel free to email me (in my profile) and let me know how it goes if you try it.
        mmt 8y ago
        The first thing it still asks is: >Are you looking for a software engineering position? Answering "No" hides the "Continue" button. If you hadn't told me otherwise here, I would have had no idea you were including Ops. I'll try "Yes" and provide more detailed feedback in e-mail.

whb07 8y ago

Thanks for the quick response. I guess I’ll try to be more specific. What are they specifically looking for and how are they measuring that? Granted, everyone wants the “smart, motivated” + some other synonym for a great person. But are they looking only at c.s grads from surrounding Bay Area schools/Ex-Google and the like?

snowmaker 8y ago
Something I've learned from working with a lot of YC companies, is that while they certainly all want people who are "smart and motivated", they measure and define it quite differently. It sounds like your concern is whether companies are only looking for c.s. grads from brand name schools and companies, and I can specifically vouch for that not being the case. Depending on the company, they're likely to value open source contributions, independent projects you've built that are interesting, startups you've started or worked at, impressive technical work you've done at any company, and how candidates do on their own technical interviews (which vary greatly in substance), among many other factors.

mmt 8y ago

> software engineers Is there any timeline on lifting that exclusivity?

snowmaker 8y ago
Honestly, I don't know yet. Our timeline is "when it's working really well for software engineers", so it's hard to judge.
- mmt 8y ago
  "Really well" strikes me as a remarkably high standard. If the focus is primarily on early employees, then I can see how that makes sense. For later stage startups, wouldn't YC be concerned with encouraging or supporting monocultures, or otherwise tipping the scales in favor of more software expertise, even if the company is more hardware (or ops or biotech or whatever) heavy?
  - snowmaker 8y ago
    That's an interesting point. At the moment, I wouldn't give ourselves enough credit to think we can meaningfully tip the scales in that way, but I could see how that could happen down the road. Out of curiosity, what role would you be looking for?
    - mmt 8y ago
      > I wouldn't give ourselves enough credit to think we can meaningfully tip the scales in that way I would hope that would be the whole point of such a project! (To reduce hiring friction enough to be able to tip the scales, not actually tip them) > what role would you be looking for? Personally, my specialty is ops (fka sysadmin). I rarely see a startup truly needing a dedicated someone-like-me until well after they've hired all their early employees.
      - snowmaker 8y ago
        Actually, I think you should give Work at a Startup a try now. We have a category for ops already, as it was close to enough software engineering that we thought we'd get some amount of overlap in interest. It doesn't have quite as much activity as the core software engineering roles, but still some. Feel free to email me (in my profile) and let me know how it goes if you try it.
        mmt 8y ago
        The first thing it still asks is: >Are you looking for a software engineering position? Answering "No" hides the "Continue" button. If you hadn't told me otherwise here, I would have had no idea you were including Ops. I'll try "Yes" and provide more detailed feedback in e-mail.