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Oh man. I have a juicy Stripe story from a friend, but I'd rather not share all of the details in case anyone from Stripe is here listening. The gist is that I

Oh man. I have a juicy Stripe story from a friend, but I'd rather not share all of the details in case anyone from Stripe is here listening. The gist is that I had a friend apply, go through a few interviews, and then just get completely ghosted. After several emails and attempts to reach out, the hiring manager replied to his email with a two word reply when my friend asked about his application status. That reply was "no thanks".

wbronitsky 6y ago
In my experience, stories like this are par for the course. While at Stripe, a few of my close friends and former co-workers were treated so poorly during the application process that I stopped referring anyone over a year before I left.
- slumpt_ 6y ago
  Yeah. I wouldn't be shocked if a lot of these blog posts are just astroturfing. Well designed astroturfing, nonetheless. Edit: Astroturfing is the wrong word, perhaps. What I mean to say is vocalized better in the replies. These all should be taken with a substantial grain of salt. A rock of salt?
  - wbronitsky 6y ago
    I don't see how that would be possible. If you say you like working someplace, we know that you work there. You couldn't possibly be hiding who is paying you. I don't think that is a fair accusation. I think it would be much better said that we should take with a grain of salt anyone's assessment of their current job.
    - slumpt_ 6y ago
      Fair. Wrong word choice. The point just being that there could be a lot of company... encouragement... to be vocal about what you think of working at the org. And of course, to the point you raise, we must always take that with a grain of salt. Nobody is going to come to the table with complete honesty about the problems at a company with their name right next to it. Within reason, at least.
      - deleted 6y ago
        [deleted]
    - strbean 6y ago
      Astroturfing just means faking grass roots / community movement. Makes less sense here than in politics, but it would be possible if the marketing department was writing these blog posts on behalf of engineers.
  - neilparikh 6y ago
    These blog posts claim that they enjoy working at Stripe. The comments claim that the application/hiring process at Stripe is not great. It's entirely possible both are true, since they're mostly unrelated, so I don't understand the accusation of astroturfing.
    - angel_j 6y ago
      The connection is obvious. If you hear it sucks to apply or work there, you may decide against trying. If a dude with HN blogging cred says it's cool, you reconsider. It's a terrible read, all sugar and good-buddy fluff. One could easily question the motivation for such cheese.
  - gamblor956 6y ago
    It's possible for both (a) people to enjoy working at a company and (b) for that company's recruitment process to be abysmally bad. The people handling the recruiting functions are usually not the people you would be working with (unless you go into HR), and generally if HR starts ghosting you during the recruiting process it's because they're putting their efforts into the candidate they are trying to hire. EDIT: Conversely, the opposite is also true. I used to work for a firm that was an absolute nightmare to work for, but the HR process was amazing.
    - busterarm 6y ago
      patio11 quite famously on here had a recruiting startup before going to Stripe. Recruiting is likely the only reason they hired him.
      - mattmanser 6y ago
        He's more famous for generally being a developer blogger, he was well known here well before Starfighter. I think he always had the most karma before they got rid of 'top'. He was always very open about his bingo card creator software, and then his appointment reminder sass. His yearly round up of BCC was always a top voted post. Afaik he originally became well known for his helpful posts and advice on Joel Spolsky's business of software forums before HN even existed. That's where I first came across him, useful info about SEO. This is a long way of saying I thought he'd been hired as a developer advocate for their startup thing, Stripe Atlas, rather than a recruitment advisor. Edit: It's on his blog that he was hired for Stripe Atlas https://www.kalzumeus.com/2016/09/09/im-joining-stripe-to-work-on-atlas/ https://www.kalzumeus.com/2016/09/09/im-joining-stripe-to-wo...
        busterarm 6y ago
        That's a different type of recruiting ;) I'm well aware of who he is and what he's famous for though.
    - wolco2 6y ago
      That's a tough choice. In the end a functioning hr/payroll department beats a good experience. I've worked in both. When the company with a good environment closes we were all let go. They mishandled my last paycheck so I'm still waiting. No way to get references. Had to contact government to get seperation papers. The bad environment place that stressed you out and then let your department go for something out of your control. The firing process felt good. They provided career support offered a reasonable settlement package. Easy to use as a reference as they provided a contact #
  - heavyset_go 6y ago
    It's like when you see a dozen Glassdoor reviews for an employer where the only recommendation to management is to "keep doing what you're doing" and that any complaints are "sour grapes" or from employees who can't handle "growing pains".
    - wolco2 6y ago
      Any positive glassdoor post should be suspect. You generally visit glassdoor for three reasons. 1. You are researching a company. 2. You own or work in hr at a company or have been told to post a review by management. 3. You are angry/unhappy at your current role or that you were let go. You go on to warn others / get even. Rare is the person who is working a company and is happy who decides to visit glassdoor and tell everyone how happy they are. Have you done this? Know anyone who would follow this chain of events?
      - blntechie 6y ago
        Glassdoor asks to leave a review for your current company or share your pay before looking up in detail about other companies. I wrote a review about my current company just for this reason but it was a honest review and not overly positive etc.
        wolco2 6y ago
        Why provide any real information vs filling in random data?
- biztos 6y ago
  Wouldn't it make sense to give referrals some kind of VIP treatment, just to keep a pipeline of referrals open from any employees who are happy with their jobs? I can't understand why a company wouldn't do that, even if they were overwhelmed with the challenge of hiring in general. The win is potentially exponential, if you get good people who come to work with people they already know how to work with.
nsenifty 6y ago
I went through the whole loop, "cleared" the interviews (as per the recruiter) and was told to stand by for the offer. A week later, instead of the offer, they just said they ran out of headcount. Never heard back from them again (even though they said they'll reach out when they get headcount back). This was for a pretty senior position.
- ryanSrich 6y ago
  Stories like this make absolutely no sense to me, and yet I hear them all the time about Stripe. Why not just tell the candidate that they aren't getting an offer? Why make up elaborate stories about headcount? Why say you're going to follow up? It's clearly not a bandwidth issue since they took the time to respond anyway. Even something like "We've filled all positions. Your application was strong, but not strong enough. It's unlikely we'll reach back out." That's 1000x better than getting ghosted after being told they WOULD reach back out. Complete bullshit on their part and a total lack of integrity. There's really no excuse for it.
  - mytailorisrich 6y ago
    Saying that they ran out of headcount is both telling that they won't offer and offering a reason, which is exactly as your example: they filled all the positions. It's a polite and somewhat sugar-coated reason instead of bluntly saying that they thought the person was not good enough, but it's standard to be polite when rejecting candidates.
    - Judgmentality 6y ago
      Going back to nsenifty: > A week later, instead of the offer, they just said they ran out of headcount. Never heard back from them again (even though they said they'll reach out when they get headcount back). Saying you'll get back to a candidate, especially when that candidate has already been told to expect an offer, and then ghosting is not polite. Any framing of this as acceptable behavior, be it polite or impolite, is unacceptable. You can say "oh that's just the way it is" and there's some truth to that, but that doesn't mean it isn't pure fucking bullshit and deserving of condemnation.
ionwake 6y ago
Lol the worst job application turn down I ever received was from Spotify. They said “ we don’t want you in our band “ It was oddly personal and upsetting. Lol How tone deaf is hr sometimes
- jariel 6y ago
  The level of unprofessionalism is just ridiculous - all these 'great companies' with 'billions' can't fing manage to tell someone what time it is. So much ghosting, don't know what's going on, left in the lurch etc. Is there literally not a single HR Portal that tracks status? That flags 'pending'? Notifications for '2 weeks no reply'? The HR person can't grab the hiring manager and hand-hold the response? An automated response would be just fine. And just cordial as a minimum you know 'Thanks so much for turning out, but we can't move forward at this time'.
  - koltzu 6y ago
    >Is there literally not a single HR Portal that tracks status? That flags 'pending'? Notifications for '2 weeks no reply'? As a hiring manager, absolutely all portals/HR management software I have used up to this moment have this feature. Most of them highlight the application and put them in a visible 'No progress for X time' category; some even send separate e-mails for each long overdue candidate. The truth is that - at least in the orgs I've been part of - the trend for HR is to be apathetic to the needs of the team they're hiring for and tone deaf in communication. Recruitment has been the least favourite bit of their job. Over the years I have received Linkedin messages from a number of candidates whom I have referred to other teams/department after they interviewed for a position in mine. HR should've followed up with them; they didn't.
    - stainforth 6y ago
      Maybe these HR people should have to go through some whiteboard algorithm gauntlet of their own.
  - biztos 6y ago
    Years ago, before "FAANG" was a term, I was flown in for an interview with Amazon in Seattle, a city I like enough to have considered moving there. They put me up in a grimy capital-M Motel by the airport with a cracked sink and a $50 cab ride into town (back when that was expensive). OTOH they were quite efficient with their response. It was a mutual "no" and they spared me the trouble by getting to me, with useful feedback, within 48 hours. There is a lot of BS around the hiring process these days, but some parts of it are still in HR's control: namely the "before" and "after" of the actual interview day(s). If that part is bad, it indicates rot in HR, which will be a problem every single time you interact with them. I have nothing against Stripe, just commenting on the general case.
ng12 6y ago
Doesn't surprise me. I did an on-site a while back and several of the interviewers seemed like they'd rather be anywhere else rather than in the interview room. It's a good thing the product has scaled well because it seems like the culture hasn't.

wbronitsky 6y ago

In my experience, stories like this are par for the course. While at Stripe, a few of my close friends and former co-workers were treated so poorly during the application process that I stopped referring anyone over a year before I left.

slumpt_ 6y ago
Yeah. I wouldn't be shocked if a lot of these blog posts are just astroturfing. Well designed astroturfing, nonetheless. Edit: Astroturfing is the wrong word, perhaps. What I mean to say is vocalized better in the replies. These all should be taken with a substantial grain of salt. A rock of salt?
- wbronitsky 6y ago
  I don't see how that would be possible. If you say you like working someplace, we know that you work there. You couldn't possibly be hiding who is paying you. I don't think that is a fair accusation. I think it would be much better said that we should take with a grain of salt anyone's assessment of their current job.
  - slumpt_ 6y ago
    Fair. Wrong word choice. The point just being that there could be a lot of company... encouragement... to be vocal about what you think of working at the org. And of course, to the point you raise, we must always take that with a grain of salt. Nobody is going to come to the table with complete honesty about the problems at a company with their name right next to it. Within reason, at least.
    - deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
  - strbean 6y ago
    Astroturfing just means faking grass roots / community movement. Makes less sense here than in politics, but it would be possible if the marketing department was writing these blog posts on behalf of engineers.
- neilparikh 6y ago
  These blog posts claim that they enjoy working at Stripe. The comments claim that the application/hiring process at Stripe is not great. It's entirely possible both are true, since they're mostly unrelated, so I don't understand the accusation of astroturfing.
  - angel_j 6y ago
    The connection is obvious. If you hear it sucks to apply or work there, you may decide against trying. If a dude with HN blogging cred says it's cool, you reconsider. It's a terrible read, all sugar and good-buddy fluff. One could easily question the motivation for such cheese.
- gamblor956 6y ago
  It's possible for both (a) people to enjoy working at a company and (b) for that company's recruitment process to be abysmally bad. The people handling the recruiting functions are usually not the people you would be working with (unless you go into HR), and generally if HR starts ghosting you during the recruiting process it's because they're putting their efforts into the candidate they are trying to hire. EDIT: Conversely, the opposite is also true. I used to work for a firm that was an absolute nightmare to work for, but the HR process was amazing.
  - busterarm 6y ago
    patio11 quite famously on here had a recruiting startup before going to Stripe. Recruiting is likely the only reason they hired him.
    - mattmanser 6y ago
      He's more famous for generally being a developer blogger, he was well known here well before Starfighter. I think he always had the most karma before they got rid of 'top'. He was always very open about his bingo card creator software, and then his appointment reminder sass. His yearly round up of BCC was always a top voted post. Afaik he originally became well known for his helpful posts and advice on Joel Spolsky's business of software forums before HN even existed. That's where I first came across him, useful info about SEO. This is a long way of saying I thought he'd been hired as a developer advocate for their startup thing, Stripe Atlas, rather than a recruitment advisor. Edit: It's on his blog that he was hired for Stripe Atlas https://www.kalzumeus.com/2016/09/09/im-joining-stripe-to-work-on-atlas/ https://www.kalzumeus.com/2016/09/09/im-joining-stripe-to-wo...
      - busterarm 6y ago
        That's a different type of recruiting ;) I'm well aware of who he is and what he's famous for though.
  - wolco2 6y ago
    That's a tough choice. In the end a functioning hr/payroll department beats a good experience. I've worked in both. When the company with a good environment closes we were all let go. They mishandled my last paycheck so I'm still waiting. No way to get references. Had to contact government to get seperation papers. The bad environment place that stressed you out and then let your department go for something out of your control. The firing process felt good. They provided career support offered a reasonable settlement package. Easy to use as a reference as they provided a contact #
- heavyset_go 6y ago
  It's like when you see a dozen Glassdoor reviews for an employer where the only recommendation to management is to "keep doing what you're doing" and that any complaints are "sour grapes" or from employees who can't handle "growing pains".
  - wolco2 6y ago
    Any positive glassdoor post should be suspect. You generally visit glassdoor for three reasons. 1. You are researching a company. 2. You own or work in hr at a company or have been told to post a review by management. 3. You are angry/unhappy at your current role or that you were let go. You go on to warn others / get even. Rare is the person who is working a company and is happy who decides to visit glassdoor and tell everyone how happy they are. Have you done this? Know anyone who would follow this chain of events?
    - blntechie 6y ago
      Glassdoor asks to leave a review for your current company or share your pay before looking up in detail about other companies. I wrote a review about my current company just for this reason but it was a honest review and not overly positive etc.
      - wolco2 6y ago
        Why provide any real information vs filling in random data?
biztos 6y ago
Wouldn't it make sense to give referrals some kind of VIP treatment, just to keep a pipeline of referrals open from any employees who are happy with their jobs? I can't understand why a company wouldn't do that, even if they were overwhelmed with the challenge of hiring in general. The win is potentially exponential, if you get good people who come to work with people they already know how to work with.

nsenifty 6y ago

I went through the whole loop, "cleared" the interviews (as per the recruiter) and was told to stand by for the offer. A week later, instead of the offer, they just said they ran out of headcount. Never heard back from them again (even though they said they'll reach out when they get headcount back). This was for a pretty senior position.

ryanSrich 6y ago
Stories like this make absolutely no sense to me, and yet I hear them all the time about Stripe. Why not just tell the candidate that they aren't getting an offer? Why make up elaborate stories about headcount? Why say you're going to follow up? It's clearly not a bandwidth issue since they took the time to respond anyway. Even something like "We've filled all positions. Your application was strong, but not strong enough. It's unlikely we'll reach back out." That's 1000x better than getting ghosted after being told they WOULD reach back out. Complete bullshit on their part and a total lack of integrity. There's really no excuse for it.
- mytailorisrich 6y ago
  Saying that they ran out of headcount is both telling that they won't offer and offering a reason, which is exactly as your example: they filled all the positions. It's a polite and somewhat sugar-coated reason instead of bluntly saying that they thought the person was not good enough, but it's standard to be polite when rejecting candidates.
  - Judgmentality 6y ago
    Going back to nsenifty: > A week later, instead of the offer, they just said they ran out of headcount. Never heard back from them again (even though they said they'll reach out when they get headcount back). Saying you'll get back to a candidate, especially when that candidate has already been told to expect an offer, and then ghosting is not polite. Any framing of this as acceptable behavior, be it polite or impolite, is unacceptable. You can say "oh that's just the way it is" and there's some truth to that, but that doesn't mean it isn't pure fucking bullshit and deserving of condemnation.

ionwake 6y ago

Lol the worst job application turn down I ever received was from Spotify. They said “ we don’t want you in our band “ It was oddly personal and upsetting. Lol How tone deaf is hr sometimes

jariel 6y ago
The level of unprofessionalism is just ridiculous - all these 'great companies' with 'billions' can't fing manage to tell someone what time it is. So much ghosting, don't know what's going on, left in the lurch etc. Is there literally not a single HR Portal that tracks status? That flags 'pending'? Notifications for '2 weeks no reply'? The HR person can't grab the hiring manager and hand-hold the response? An automated response would be just fine. And just cordial as a minimum you know 'Thanks so much for turning out, but we can't move forward at this time'.
- koltzu 6y ago
  >Is there literally not a single HR Portal that tracks status? That flags 'pending'? Notifications for '2 weeks no reply'? As a hiring manager, absolutely all portals/HR management software I have used up to this moment have this feature. Most of them highlight the application and put them in a visible 'No progress for X time' category; some even send separate e-mails for each long overdue candidate. The truth is that - at least in the orgs I've been part of - the trend for HR is to be apathetic to the needs of the team they're hiring for and tone deaf in communication. Recruitment has been the least favourite bit of their job. Over the years I have received Linkedin messages from a number of candidates whom I have referred to other teams/department after they interviewed for a position in mine. HR should've followed up with them; they didn't.
  - stainforth 6y ago
    Maybe these HR people should have to go through some whiteboard algorithm gauntlet of their own.
- biztos 6y ago
  Years ago, before "FAANG" was a term, I was flown in for an interview with Amazon in Seattle, a city I like enough to have considered moving there. They put me up in a grimy capital-M Motel by the airport with a cracked sink and a $50 cab ride into town (back when that was expensive). OTOH they were quite efficient with their response. It was a mutual "no" and they spared me the trouble by getting to me, with useful feedback, within 48 hours. There is a lot of BS around the hiring process these days, but some parts of it are still in HR's control: namely the "before" and "after" of the actual interview day(s). If that part is bad, it indicates rot in HR, which will be a problem every single time you interact with them. I have nothing against Stripe, just commenting on the general case.

ng12 6y ago

Doesn't surprise me. I did an on-site a while back and several of the interviewers seemed like they'd rather be anywhere else rather than in the interview room. It's a good thing the product has scaled well because it seems like the culture hasn't.