5 ms·

Hey Jaclyn, glad to hear you're tackling this space - one that I'm passionate about. Congrats on the launch! "As a new grad without relevant work experience, o

Hey Jaclyn, glad to hear you're tackling this space - one that I'm passionate about. Congrats on the launch! "As a new grad without relevant work experience, or as a career shifter without a relevant degree, getting a first job is very painful" - Absolutely true. I've spent a good chunk of the past few months mentoring a cousin to help him get his first job in Tech. He studied computer science, has a great GPA, can actually build stuff, but went to a not so well known college in California and didn't have any top tech company internships under his belt. Very few companies responded to his applications (< 1% positive response) and he really had to hustle his way to get noticed (cold emails, milking his and my personal network for introductions to engineering managers, etc). Companies like TripleByte seem to have shifted more towards the senior software engineer category, so I see tremendous value in targeting entry-level positions. Questions: How do you plan to effectively source candidates that are able to pass your assessment? I think an interesting starting point would be to work with graduates of not well-known computer science programs. I think people generally under-estimate the difficulty of getting foot in the door at reputed Tech companies, when you didn't study at a top 10 CS program, and they would probably be the closest group, on average, to passing your technical assessment. In my conversations with fast-growing companies in the Bay, I got the sense that the demand for senior software engineers far outstrips demand for entry-level / internship positions. Have you noticed the same trend, and as a result are you working mostly with already established larger companies? Congrats again. Always happy to see more people tackle this problem. We need to create a more accessible, meritocratic pathway to work in Tech.

mettamage 7y ago
I have seen this in Amsterdam. The amount of rejections I got because I am not senior enough (despite it not being mentioned in job applications) is staggering.
jaclynmling 7y ago
Hey there, thank you for sharing your cousin's story. I think you're definitely right that a great place to target are programs outside of top 10 CS programs. I do believe we could bring the biggest benefit to these new grads. Do you have any suggestions on how to best reach these types of candidates? We have also seen similar sentiment toward senior software engineers. I think something we've also noticed though is that there is such a demand for talent, that we've actually been able to convince employers to hire high potential candidates with no experience even though they were initially looking for a candidate with 2-3 years of experience. Today, we actually focus on startups that have a challenge hiring themselves (i.e. because they lack large budgets and/or brand name), and so hiring "undervalued" talent is actually a great way for them to attract and hire talent!
- koopuluri 7y ago
  > Do you have any suggestions on how to best reach these types of candidates? Perhaps a combination of creating high quality content hyper targeted towards this audience to help them identify companies to work at, prepare for interviews and how to apply & reaching out to programming student organizations, and CS administrations at these schools to set up workshops, etc. Attending career fairs could also be fruitful (or even better, setting up great virtual career fairs for these schools) College administrators are incentivized to work with you - the more of their students get placed at companies, the more valuable their program becomes in the eyes of future students. E.g. my college used to heavily market av. starting salary and % students placed at graduation. > so hiring "undervalued" talent is actually a great way for them to attract and hire talent! This is interesting. I buy that startups without a recruiting brand want to hire undervalued candidates, but I'm skeptical of their demand to hire undervalued AND entry-level candidates / interns, given their stage where they likely need more execution power with less time spent on mentorship / ramping up. Curious to see how targeting this segment pans out in the long-term, but I'm sure with effective sourcing and screening, you can shift the company segment if need be.
  - jaclynmling 7y ago
    Great ideas-- never thought about virtual career fairs, but that sounds very interesting. You're definitely right that undervalued AND entry-level candidates is a hard sell most of the time-- but more employers need to start giving out work experience rather than just expecting 2-3 years+ work experience. So hopefully we can find more unique ways to help solve this "experience gap" problem as we grow.
- tareqak 7y ago
  The best thing that I can think of is to reach out to all the different colleges and universities and see if and when they hold any sort of career fairs / career information sessions for their about-to-graduate students. There are also career fairs that are more general (not associated with an educational institution, but a city or a state/province). I wish you all the best with Hatchways 'jaclynmling .
why_only_15 7y ago
FWIW I got my first job through Triplebyte when I was 19 just out of high school with nothing on my resume but two internships, so it can still be extremely useful for new engineers.

mettamage 7y ago

I have seen this in Amsterdam. The amount of rejections I got because I am not senior enough (despite it not being mentioned in job applications) is staggering.

jaclynmling 7y ago

Hey there, thank you for sharing your cousin's story. I think you're definitely right that a great place to target are programs outside of top 10 CS programs. I do believe we could bring the biggest benefit to these new grads. Do you have any suggestions on how to best reach these types of candidates? We have also seen similar sentiment toward senior software engineers. I think something we've also noticed though is that there is such a demand for talent, that we've actually been able to convince employers to hire high potential candidates with no experience even though they were initially looking for a candidate with 2-3 years of experience. Today, we actually focus on startups that have a challenge hiring themselves (i.e. because they lack large budgets and/or brand name), and so hiring "undervalued" talent is actually a great way for them to attract and hire talent!

koopuluri 7y ago
> Do you have any suggestions on how to best reach these types of candidates? Perhaps a combination of creating high quality content hyper targeted towards this audience to help them identify companies to work at, prepare for interviews and how to apply & reaching out to programming student organizations, and CS administrations at these schools to set up workshops, etc. Attending career fairs could also be fruitful (or even better, setting up great virtual career fairs for these schools) College administrators are incentivized to work with you - the more of their students get placed at companies, the more valuable their program becomes in the eyes of future students. E.g. my college used to heavily market av. starting salary and % students placed at graduation. > so hiring "undervalued" talent is actually a great way for them to attract and hire talent! This is interesting. I buy that startups without a recruiting brand want to hire undervalued candidates, but I'm skeptical of their demand to hire undervalued AND entry-level candidates / interns, given their stage where they likely need more execution power with less time spent on mentorship / ramping up. Curious to see how targeting this segment pans out in the long-term, but I'm sure with effective sourcing and screening, you can shift the company segment if need be.
- jaclynmling 7y ago
  Great ideas-- never thought about virtual career fairs, but that sounds very interesting. You're definitely right that undervalued AND entry-level candidates is a hard sell most of the time-- but more employers need to start giving out work experience rather than just expecting 2-3 years+ work experience. So hopefully we can find more unique ways to help solve this "experience gap" problem as we grow.
tareqak 7y ago
The best thing that I can think of is to reach out to all the different colleges and universities and see if and when they hold any sort of career fairs / career information sessions for their about-to-graduate students. There are also career fairs that are more general (not associated with an educational institution, but a city or a state/province). I wish you all the best with Hatchways 'jaclynmling .

why_only_15 7y ago

FWIW I got my first job through Triplebyte when I was 19 just out of high school with nothing on my resume but two internships, so it can still be extremely useful for new engineers.