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Hi all, OP here. We think that hiring is stuck in the dark ages. Engineering candidates have zero visibility into what it is like to work on an engineering te

by bwb 7y ago

Hi all, OP here. We think that hiring is stuck in the dark ages. Engineering candidates have zero visibility into what it is like to work on an engineering team. They either have to have a friend working there, trust what the recruiter says, or invest a lot of time in the interview process. As a result, looking for a job is like putting an offer on a house, but without knowing how many bedrooms or bathrooms it has. We want to change this and make it easier for smaller engineering teams to attract great engineers. How? Our software platform creates a careers site for engineering teams (the above link has an example profile). We show engineering candidates the team's culture, work schedule, technology, and methodologies. Plus a Q&A so candidates can ask questions before they even apply. The goal is to give engineers the info they need to get excited about the idea of a new job. And, give engineering teams a way to connect and attract more engineers who are a culture match. What do you think? Feedback always appreciated :)

kovacs 7y ago
I think solving this problem is a great idea and is something I've thought of building a product around myself. I just haven't acted on it and haven't gotten clear on what such a problem/solution would look like. Congrats on launching! I'm no legal expert but I would suspect there could be a point of friction with legal teams inside companies. Things like liability for hiring practices, IP leakage, and security. Not to dissuade you but just some thoughts about possible challenges that might work against the goal of transparency.
- bwb 7y ago
  Yep great point, in most cases it hasn't been two bad with our first batch of clients. Most companies that want to use a product like this already have a great culture and open mindset we have found thus far.
Insanity 7y ago
Hey! I like the general idea, just a small bit of feedback.. The comments are going to seem fake if they come from current employees. Something like glassdoor might be better suited for that. No employee (or founder) is going to post bad things about their own company of course. This website gives you a view of what the founders might _think_ their company culture is like, but not what it's actually like. Sorry, I can't give a solution to that, just a problem statement :(
- bwb 7y ago
  We gather those directly from the team ourselves. You are correct though. The point of the employee feedback is not to be negative, it is to highlight what the company is doing right in the words of individual team members. This is like a dating profile. You don't write a dating profile to explain why they shouldn't date you :), you show them what you are about and what you doing well at. We want to give job seekers this info so they filter and find companies that might be a match for them. And, make it easy to get that first date so they can see if this company is a good match for them or not.
mountainboot 7y ago
My initial thoughts are that this does not actually tell me anything. Take this... "What traits do you value in engineering managers and leadership?" "Servant leadership is everything to us. We want managers and leaders who are humble and know that their role is to support their teams and make sure nothing is standing in the way of doing great work. So not only work blockers but also ensuring our team has the time and energy to balance their personal lives with their work lives." Every company I have ever worked for claims something similar. This doesn't actually tell me anything. I would still need an inside person to tell me how it actually is to work at the company.
- bwb 7y ago
  Yep, one thing that is part of our process is pulling specifics for how they support that value/trait. That means how they spend time or money to provide that value to the team. You might have two companies that each list "Cross Department Teams" but how they actually implement that tells you so much about them (along with specific examples gathered from the individual engineers). We want to show how the company delivers on that value/trait, and what individual engineers say as well. We know we can't be as good as the friend who is on the inside. But, we are trying to get closer to that gold standard.
- Nextgrid 7y ago
  In the past year or so I noticed a lot of companies started having a set of "values" that are (or used to be) just common sense. Like things that you'd be doing anyway if you were a decent human being but now they are official company "values" and they even had an interview process around those. Of course, those values magically go out the window when an incident gives the higher-ups a reason to cover their ass.
codingdave 7y ago
I totally would love this as a candidate. But I don't see any incentive as a company to fill out a profile. I could write all this on my hiring page of my own web site already. And now that I think of it - even if I am a candidate, this is still just the company saying what they want, so how is this any different than just trusting what the recruiter says?
- bwb 7y ago
  Great Q! Companies pay us to become their engineering careers page. Not only does this profile 10x the response rate for any recruiter outreach, but it also builds an ongoing pipeline of interested engineers who like the culture and engineering practices they see described. For small to medium size companies this is huge as they can show candidates what they are about. This helps them fill the top of the funnel instead of fighting to get candidates to even respond. It is kinda like a dating profile. You don't jump straight to marriage from a dating profile, you just get enough information to filter who you want to go on a first date with. So, how is it different than a recruiter? A recruiter gets paid when you join the company. This is the company explaining who they are and how they work and then letting you decide if you want to have a chat and see if you are a match. In our minds that is a big difference. And, with our setup you can ask engineers at the companies questions you have anonymously.
  - polishdude20 7y ago
    I don't think many companies in software are fighting to get them to respond. Our want candidates to respond? Offer more money. Usually it's the opposite where job seekers are fighting to get companies to respond.
    - remyp 7y ago
      Hiring developers when you're a small or medium size company is really hard. Nobody knows you exist and if they do there's no way you can compete with FAANG compensation. So what can you do? You show off what makes you different, whether it's cool technology, family friendliness, remote work, etc.
koikikoi 7y ago
In these sad times where anybody with a 2 month bootcamp course call himself/herself engineer, we should be more careful when using the words engineer and engineering. It is not just fair for the actual engineers that have to pass technical and ethical exams to be considered as such.

by bwb 7y ago

kovacs 7y ago

I think solving this problem is a great idea and is something I've thought of building a product around myself. I just haven't acted on it and haven't gotten clear on what such a problem/solution would look like. Congrats on launching! I'm no legal expert but I would suspect there could be a point of friction with legal teams inside companies. Things like liability for hiring practices, IP leakage, and security. Not to dissuade you but just some thoughts about possible challenges that might work against the goal of transparency.

bwb 7y ago
Yep great point, in most cases it hasn't been two bad with our first batch of clients. Most companies that want to use a product like this already have a great culture and open mindset we have found thus far.

Insanity 7y ago

Hey! I like the general idea, just a small bit of feedback.. The comments are going to seem fake if they come from current employees. Something like glassdoor might be better suited for that. No employee (or founder) is going to post bad things about their own company of course. This website gives you a view of what the founders might _think_ their company culture is like, but not what it's actually like. Sorry, I can't give a solution to that, just a problem statement :(

bwb 7y ago
We gather those directly from the team ourselves. You are correct though. The point of the employee feedback is not to be negative, it is to highlight what the company is doing right in the words of individual team members. This is like a dating profile. You don't write a dating profile to explain why they shouldn't date you :), you show them what you are about and what you doing well at. We want to give job seekers this info so they filter and find companies that might be a match for them. And, make it easy to get that first date so they can see if this company is a good match for them or not.

mountainboot 7y ago

My initial thoughts are that this does not actually tell me anything. Take this... "What traits do you value in engineering managers and leadership?" "Servant leadership is everything to us. We want managers and leaders who are humble and know that their role is to support their teams and make sure nothing is standing in the way of doing great work. So not only work blockers but also ensuring our team has the time and energy to balance their personal lives with their work lives." Every company I have ever worked for claims something similar. This doesn't actually tell me anything. I would still need an inside person to tell me how it actually is to work at the company.

bwb 7y ago
Yep, one thing that is part of our process is pulling specifics for how they support that value/trait. That means how they spend time or money to provide that value to the team. You might have two companies that each list "Cross Department Teams" but how they actually implement that tells you so much about them (along with specific examples gathered from the individual engineers). We want to show how the company delivers on that value/trait, and what individual engineers say as well. We know we can't be as good as the friend who is on the inside. But, we are trying to get closer to that gold standard.
Nextgrid 7y ago
In the past year or so I noticed a lot of companies started having a set of "values" that are (or used to be) just common sense. Like things that you'd be doing anyway if you were a decent human being but now they are official company "values" and they even had an interview process around those. Of course, those values magically go out the window when an incident gives the higher-ups a reason to cover their ass.

codingdave 7y ago

I totally would love this as a candidate. But I don't see any incentive as a company to fill out a profile. I could write all this on my hiring page of my own web site already. And now that I think of it - even if I am a candidate, this is still just the company saying what they want, so how is this any different than just trusting what the recruiter says?

bwb 7y ago
Great Q! Companies pay us to become their engineering careers page. Not only does this profile 10x the response rate for any recruiter outreach, but it also builds an ongoing pipeline of interested engineers who like the culture and engineering practices they see described. For small to medium size companies this is huge as they can show candidates what they are about. This helps them fill the top of the funnel instead of fighting to get candidates to even respond. It is kinda like a dating profile. You don't jump straight to marriage from a dating profile, you just get enough information to filter who you want to go on a first date with. So, how is it different than a recruiter? A recruiter gets paid when you join the company. This is the company explaining who they are and how they work and then letting you decide if you want to have a chat and see if you are a match. In our minds that is a big difference. And, with our setup you can ask engineers at the companies questions you have anonymously.
- polishdude20 7y ago
  I don't think many companies in software are fighting to get them to respond. Our want candidates to respond? Offer more money. Usually it's the opposite where job seekers are fighting to get companies to respond.
  - remyp 7y ago
    Hiring developers when you're a small or medium size company is really hard. Nobody knows you exist and if they do there's no way you can compete with FAANG compensation. So what can you do? You show off what makes you different, whether it's cool technology, family friendliness, remote work, etc.

koikikoi 7y ago

In these sad times where anybody with a 2 month bootcamp course call himself/herself engineer, we should be more careful when using the words engineer and engineering. It is not just fair for the actual engineers that have to pass technical and ethical exams to be considered as such.