4 ms·

I'm surprised this is coming from Spolsky. Spolsky's companies must be getting big. Small companies can often only hire one person at a time and therefore need

I'm surprised this is coming from Spolsky. Spolsky's companies must be getting big. Small companies can often only hire one person at a time and therefore need short acceptance windows. Small companies (< 50 people) often have only one specific position open. It is unethical to make more than one offer if you hiring for a single position. Therefore small companies often need short acceptance windows so they can make an offer to someone else who might want the position and fill the job.

brown9-2 15y ago
It's not a new message from Joel. This was originally posted on his site in 2008: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2008/11/26.html http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2008/11/26.html
benatkin 15y ago
Spolsky's companies are getting big, but this article was written a long time ago. He worked for Microsoft, so he has some experience with a big company, and he has definitely spent a lot of time thinking and reading about big companies. I think he wants to get the right number of employees but he'd rather have people genuinely interested in his companies than play the game. I think he also notices that some of the most promising candidates stop looking due to accepting one of these exploding offers, so he isn't able to conduct a thorough search.
raganwald 15y ago
He’s discussing the kind of company that recruits using mass-interviews of college students. Some are small companies, but most are BigCos with cubicle farms to fill.
rmc 15y ago
IME Small companies usually have a hard time hiring people, and sometimes it's months between "Hey we should hire someone" and when that person starts. Hence they have already waited a few months from when they started looking to your interview, and as such a few more weeks isn't going to kill them.
thedufer 15y ago
I've been sitting on a Fog Creek offer since late August and there's been no pressure whatsoever to respond. They seem to take more of the approach of giving out offers to anyone they like, on the assumption that they'll be able to find something for them to do if they all take it. Joel definitely sticks to his guns on this one, but I wouldn't call either of his companies big (pretty sure they both fall in the < 50 people category).
- spolsky 15y ago
  Right, no pressure. That said, we are really running low on 30" monitors, and you might have to use an old 13" SVGA monitor if you don't accept by midnight tonight
tptacek 15y ago
1. Small companies don't recruit at colleges. 2. We're "small" by any reasonable definition and have structured ourselves so that we don't need to make expiring offers. It can be done. 3. Spolsky is talking about a very specific kind of hiring that bigger companies do, where the schedule is explicitly "interview in Q3-Q4, choose in Q4-Q1, start in Q2-3". It's this environment where exploding offers make sense.

brown9-2 15y ago

It's not a new message from Joel. This was originally posted on his site in 2008: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2008/11/26.html http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2008/11/26.html

benatkin 15y ago

Spolsky's companies are getting big, but this article was written a long time ago. He worked for Microsoft, so he has some experience with a big company, and he has definitely spent a lot of time thinking and reading about big companies. I think he wants to get the right number of employees but he'd rather have people genuinely interested in his companies than play the game. I think he also notices that some of the most promising candidates stop looking due to accepting one of these exploding offers, so he isn't able to conduct a thorough search.

raganwald 15y ago

He’s discussing the kind of company that recruits using mass-interviews of college students. Some are small companies, but most are BigCos with cubicle farms to fill.

rmc 15y ago

IME Small companies usually have a hard time hiring people, and sometimes it's months between "Hey we should hire someone" and when that person starts. Hence they have already waited a few months from when they started looking to your interview, and as such a few more weeks isn't going to kill them.

thedufer 15y ago

I've been sitting on a Fog Creek offer since late August and there's been no pressure whatsoever to respond. They seem to take more of the approach of giving out offers to anyone they like, on the assumption that they'll be able to find something for them to do if they all take it. Joel definitely sticks to his guns on this one, but I wouldn't call either of his companies big (pretty sure they both fall in the < 50 people category).

spolsky 15y ago
Right, no pressure. That said, we are really running low on 30" monitors, and you might have to use an old 13" SVGA monitor if you don't accept by midnight tonight

tptacek 15y ago

1. Small companies don't recruit at colleges. 2. We're "small" by any reasonable definition and have structured ourselves so that we don't need to make expiring offers. It can be done. 3. Spolsky is talking about a very specific kind of hiring that bigger companies do, where the schedule is explicitly "interview in Q3-Q4, choose in Q4-Q1, start in Q2-3". It's this environment where exploding offers make sense.