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Show HN: Remote Jobs (our answer to "Who Is Hiring Remote Workers?")
We're giving away coupon codes for a free month-long posting. Just email me at evan AT remote DASH jobs DOT com. The first few folks win!
I'm one of the founders of Remote Jobs -- also the same shlub who posted the first "Ask HN: Who Is Hiring Remote Workers?" http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1857051.
- soulclap 16y agoMaybe it's just me but I think it'd be great to see where the company is based (the country) in the initial list. At least that'd be handy if you get more job offers. As I am in Europe, I'd prefer jobs where I can call someone up during Euro working hours. (Then again, my sleeping patterns are way off anyway.) Just a suggestion though, the site looks sweet!
- sleight42 16y agoGood idea. I also tend to prefer work that is not too many time zones distant.
- sleight42 16y agoI'm one of the founders of Remote Jobs -- also the same shlub who posted the first "Ask HN: Who Is Hiring Remote Workers?" http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1857051 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1857051. We're giving away coupon codes for a free month-long posting. Just email me at evan AT remote DASH jobs DOT com. The first few folks win!
- thibaut_barrere 16y agoAs a now country-side based programmer, I will definitely use your site :) Thanks!
- sleight42 16y agoOh? Where are you? Would love to chat about Ruby nerdery sometime when we may be in the same place.
- thibaut_barrere 16y agoI'm in a rural area in west of France :) http://bit.ly/fEjBxk http://bit.ly/fEjBxk
- pdenya 16y agoLove the design and the idea.
- sleight42 16y agoThanks! And I bet that you just made Dave's day, too! ;-)
- djbrowning 16y ago<3 <3 <3
- sleight42 16y agoUm... fwiw, djbrowning is "Dave" ;)
- pluies 16y agoAgreed, the design is gorgeous. As said above though, the pricing might be a bit high for a brand new site without a large userbase.
- angelbob 16y agoMaybe. He's competing with headhunters, often at $30k+ per developer found. His charges look pretty modest if he has even a minimal success rate.
- vaksel 16y agocharging before you have mass adoption is a recipe for disaster...you should wait until you have mass adoption then make a premium listing and charge for that. As it stands now, you'll have a dozen or so jobs, interest will fade, and employers will stop posting when they get few resumes
- batasrki 16y agoSorry, I respectfully disagree. If the market will bear it, you can charge for a service before "mass adoption"
- vaksel 16y agonot when the service suffers from a chicken and egg problem. Why would someone pay money to list their job on a site with no traffic? Why would someone go to a site like that if you only have a dozen jobs? This can be something good...but they are shooting it in the leg by being greedy
- sleight42 16y agoTo be clear, greed certainly isn't our intent. As Dave (djbrowning) wrote, we're concerned about the quality of the content on the site. We're also giving away coupon codes right now (see my post below) to drive job posters to the site.
- sjmulder 16y agoReally nice site. Any chance of EU-based jobs on there in the future, or is it strictly USA?
- sleight42 16y agoWe'll look into it. I believe our job posting editor and credit card info form may prevent it right now. Good feature request. Thanks!
- wladimir 16y agoLove the idea of your site, + another request for EU-based jobs :)
- codeglomeration 16y agoEU based jobs would be highly appreciated.
- tomd 16y agoI've just added an EU-based job, thanks to a coupon from Evan: http://remote-jobs.com/jobs/30_Drupal_developer http://remote-jobs.com/jobs/30_Drupal_developer
- yeahsure 16y agoFrom the link at the bottom of the listing: "This is an on-site position, based in Cornbury Park, Oxfordshire. Only applicants who are authorized to work in the UK will be considered." I thought the website was called "Remote Jobs"? If I go to this website, I expect all openings to be for remote workers. Just a thought anyway, I like the site!
- stephen 16y agoLooks cool. RSS feeds would be nice.
- sleight42 16y agoGreat feature request. We're on it.
- djbrowning 16y agoGreat suggestion, we just added RSS!
- there 16y agoas someone said in a previous "who is hiring" thread, there's a reason why people post their job opportunities on hacker news and not on the dozens of job board websites (hint: it's not because they don't want to pay $75).
- pchristensen 16y agoSite looks nice. Right now there aren't a lot of jobs, so a good feature to attract seekers is some way to track jobs as they come in - email/sms/mobile updates, or even a simple RSS feed of jobs. This works well for other infrequent job sites like Top Ruby Jobs.
- sleight42 16y agoWe're all over adding RSS. It's also why we're offering free coupon codes to the first few people who email me (see below).
- djbrowning 16y agoRSS feed is now added, thanks for the suggestion!
- pchristensen 16y agoGreat! Bonus points for generating a custom feed for a saved search (not much of an issue until you have tons of jobs).
- shimi 16y agoLove your work guys!
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- JohnTitus 16y agoI like it, and think it's a great idea. Site looks pretty nice. One general design comment: The search bar is a bit hard to notice.
- johnohara 16y agoSeems a shame the unhyphenated domain name has been parked for 10 years. The good news is it expires in August. The trademark for it is dead as well: http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4007:ltdp75.2.1 http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4007:lt... The trademark registrant and domain registrant might be related or one in the same. Both were registered in 2001. Looks like it was intended for a remote job entry app. Worth watching.
- br41n 16y agotip: add an "operations" category, for sysadmins and so on
- sleight42 16y agoI dig it.
- ditojim 16y agohow many qualified individuals visit that site? i can pay about 2x as much and get a listing on linkedin for 30 days, which is, well, better..give me the value prop for this site and if it is good, i will post several jobs.
- sleight42 16y agoWe're here to serve a previously under-served market: remote workers. LI will case a (very) wide net. However, how many talented folks still use LI? You can call me biased but, seriously, I've hardly used LI since a good friend of mine there left the company about a year ago. I don't find value in it. Therefore, when looking for a hire, you'd never reach me. I've heard similar anecdotes from several other people in my "cohort" of Ruby/Rails nerds. EDIT: We're probably reaching a different audience. If it's an audience that interests you, we may be able to help you. If not, then perhaps not. We serve a niche.
- geoffw8 16y agoCan I just say, I think the question above is probably the best question/comment here. It should/will make you think about your actual proposition. Nail it down to a few bullet points, and a story or two. You should be able to answer this question smoothly, and very convincingly. Great design by the way!!
- ndaugherty18 16y agohttp://telesaur.com http://telesaur.com is another telecommute job board.
- kouiskas 16y agoLooks nice, but who would bother creating an account to see if there are any job offers on that site? What's the point of forcing candidate registration if access is free?
- Groxx 16y agoDown? I'd love to check it out, but I'm getting a "We're sorry, but something went wrong." message every time.
- sleight42 16y agoTL;DR: Fixed and happy again. Our sluggified SEO friendly job posting URLs choked on a more interesting job post.
- bdclimber14 16y agoQuestion related to charging: Did you charge for the initial posts on there now? I think the best strategy is to publicly advertise that you charge $75 for a post, but to get content up (and it looks like you have) give it away for free strategically (again, sounds like you're doing this). Also, to make sales, tell potential posters that you'll put in an inordinate amount of advertising for their job to drive overall traffic.
- bdclimber14 16y agoA related question, but slightly off topic: People who have worked on or built job boards, what do you think of a Shopify for job boards? It seems that all job board shares 90% of the functionality, but the best choice is still to develop one from scratch. You'd never think of developing an online store from scratch anymore, but I don't think job boards should be any different. Then you'll get all the customization and metrics that Shopify gives you for products. I'm in the process of validating this idea.
- doki_pen 16y agoIt would be great if you required companies to post pay ranges. Some jobs that I may not find interesting might become interesting if the pay is right. Without pay, it's very hard to determine which are worth pursuing.
- jmcc 16y agoI agree. That has been a core policy / goal of http://WheresTheRemote.com/ http://WheresTheRemote.com/ (although the site has not really gotten off the ground yet). As a professional I don't want to waste my time reading and replying to ads that aren't worth my while, that don't offer appropriate compensation for example, so I want to know what the advertiser is willing to pay. One of the principles of WheresTheRemote.com has been to require advertisers to provide a rate or range and pay a fee based on the highest advertised rate, to encourage accuracy. In my experience, requiring advertisers to include rate information is not a common feature of job sites.
- dylanrw 16y agoFinally, I hate the stigma people have with remote workers. I have made 90% of my income over the past 10 years this way, but it is tough to find people willing to work like this.
- mkramlich 16y agosimilar here, for last 3 years. commutes are a thing of the past. highway rush hour. cubicles. enterprise meetings and Watercooler Bob the Chitchat Parasite (TM), the whole nine yards. all gone. now, just work (mostly) and money (mostly). heaven.
- duck 16y agoGreat idea! Whenever I include the "Who is Hiring" posts in my Hacker Newsletter it always has a high click rate. Another great resource to send people to now if you can keep it going.
- Groxx 16y ago>1-3 on the front-page display for http://remote-jobs.com/jobs/32_NLP___ML___Python_contractor http://remote-jobs.com/jobs/32_NLP___ML___Python_contractor 1-3 what? Hours per day? Years? Months? Fortnights? Somewhere / somehow, you should inform what unit you're using. Add it on the end, or maybe a mouse-over. Or, if there were enough listings to make it clear (ie, a 4-5h/day entry), it'd be fine-ish the way it is. Similarly, I notice that the Mobile Developer falls into a second line - trim it, inform it's been trimmed (...), and a mouse-over would be useful. All in all, looks quite nice, and fast to use from a consumer standpoint. I'll have to keep an eye on it!
- jmcc 16y agoInteresting discussion here. I've also been working on a remote jobs website: http://WheresTheRemote.com/ http://WheresTheRemote.com/. I've had the idea for years, but it "opened for business" last year. I've considered many of the issues raised here. It's definitely a chicken and egg problem. Allowing free ads might help get the ball rolling, but I've resisted that since I'm concerned it will lead to low quality, which is one of the problems I have with other job sites. I don't want to hurt the site's reputation right out of the gate. Moderation is one way to address that, but one of the core ideas of my site, which I think sets it apart from a lot of other job sites, is to require advertisers to include rate of compensation in their ads, and encourage accuracy by basing the fee for posting the ad on the advertised rate. Trying to charge for something like this right off the bat without a lot of traffic is a difficult proposition, in my experience. But people seem to be willing to use mediocre web services and job sites, so allowing free ads to begin with, even if it results in low quality ads, might be a more realistic way to get something like this started. So far I haven't compromised any of the original ideas for my site, but it hasn't gotten any traction either. I hoped that offering a money back guarantee would encourage a few advertisers to give it a shot and get the ball rolling, but so far that hasn't been enough. It's also difficult to figure out where / how to advertise something like this to even reach the right audience and make potential advertisers aware of it, at least without spending a ton. If I'd known that all it takes to get people to start advertising jobs is to post the site on Hacker News, I would have done that months ago! I suspect that the activity on remote-jobs.com also has to do with the coupon offer though. I'm considering making some changes to my site to get the ball rolling and then start charging or return to the original ideas for the site if and when there's enough traffic, as some have suggested. I don't think there's anything greedy about charging for such a service. If people are willing to pay it right off the bat, great, if not, that's another story. It might be more realistic to not charge or charge a small fee at first, and I agree that even charging a small fee would help to weed out the worst kind of posters who have free reign on some other sites. I have problems with all of the job sites I've seen and the goal of my site is also to provide a better venue for finding remote jobs, and to try to level the playing field for job seekers, e.g. by requiring rate information in ads, backing that up with the fee structure, limiting the time ads are displayed moreso than most sites to reduce the opportunity for lazy or busy advertisers to waste job seekers' time with stale ads, etc.