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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 a

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.

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.