5 ms·

I actually did apply, The mere application takes hours upon hours, and for what a generic rejection email. This isn't the worst though, I recently went through

I actually did apply, The mere application takes hours upon hours, and for what a generic rejection email. This isn't the worst though, I recently went through an interview with another startup company, and after six interviews and a take-home project I found myself getting the same generic rejection. The CEO went out of his way to tell me he didn't like my resume since I've had to hop around a little bit to stay employed. Concerns that should have been handled in the initial call, somehow get pushed back till after I've wasted monumental amount of time. Things are looking up though, I'm starting a job soon and the entire interview process was more or less a 30 minute phone call with the technical manager. That's it, two days later or so I had a verbal offer. I don't need to change the world, I need to pay my rent.

grim_io 9mo ago
You're not changing the world either way, you would just be working for a more demanding guy. Fuck em.
- webdevver 9mo ago
  [flagged]
- 999900000999 9mo ago
  This is my favorite response in the thread. We aren't talking about getting a job at doctors across borders or something, we just want to manipulate bits of silicon to increase our networth.
  - WD-42 9mo ago
    When you say "we aren't" I hope you realize you aren't speaking for everyone. Even doctors across borders probably needs an IT person. There are jobs available for less pay that are fulfilling in other ways. I know I have taken them and am better off for it.
    - smfjaw 9mo ago
      Yea agree, I worked at a bank during covid and helped do some work that tangentially helped relief/social security payments go through. Warmed me heart it did
    - 999900000999 9mo ago
      I'm pretty sure VC backed companies are by and large doing it to increase the networth of the founders, and hopefully investors. I don't lie to myself, I know why I do this.
    - emmelaich 9mo ago
      Aside, there is a tech equivalent of MSF: Télécoms Sans Frontières https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C3%A9l%C3%A9coms_Sans_Fronti%C3%A8res https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C3%A9l%C3%A9coms_Sans_Fronti...
gedy 9mo ago
> Concerns that should have been handled in the initial call, somehow get pushed back till after I've wasted monumental amount of time. Honestly these "reasons" they give are usually BS excuses when it basically amounts to they don't like your personality or looks.
- 999900000999 9mo ago
  Did I mention no one told me what the compensation package was at any point during the process. It's a contractor life for me, I work for money, not "purpose" or anything else. Hell my Facebook (technically a fully owned subsidiary to be fair) interview loop was easier. I didn't get the job that time either, but at least it was straight up.
  - Aurornis 9mo ago
    > Did I mention no one told me what the compensation package was at any point during the process. In previous HN threads they said something to the effect that they expect their applicants to have read what’s online about their equal base salary. Equity is not equally applied though.
    - 999900000999 9mo ago
      I'm not talking about Oxide here, this was a different company.
- ghaff 9mo ago
  Eh. I've been on a bunch of hiring committees. It hasn't been personality or looks. But a combination of things that we probably didn't all agree on and that may not have been able to fully articulate in a short message.
sevensor 9mo ago
A generic rejection is more than I got for feedback; I never heard back. Still, I thought the process of writing the materials was great. I don’t usually take the time to think about the arc of my experience in a holistic way. Do it for yourself if you do it at all; don’t go into it with high expectations for feedback and you won’t be disappointed.
- mlacks 9mo ago
  I just reached out to them after the 4 to six weeks had passed. got my decision a few days later
  - sevensor 9mo ago
    Yeah. I tried that at the eight week mark, but I heard nothing back. Obviously not a process-heavy company, but that’s part of their appeal.
pfraze 9mo ago
If you went through multiple rounds it likely means they were seriously considering you but ultimately they didn’t get to a yes. If it’s any comfort that means you did pretty well. The short stints on a resume is likely not the only reason you didn’t get to 100%, but unfortunately you should know that it’s seen as a pretty bad signal. The general expectation is 2 years minimum at a gig. If you have multiple short non-contract jobs it raises the concern that a candidate doesn’t commit to their jobs, or that they don’t do well at their jobs and are getting let go.
- 999900000999 9mo ago
  Okay, but if my resume is a concern let's talk about in the first interview. I can't exactly rest and vest for 2 years when the company is running out of money. I had the bad luck of this happening 3 times in a row. Company A got their funding pulled and shut down. Company B, where I was actually at for about a year and a half, switched owners and shutdown my entire office. Company C merged into it's main competitor and effectively fired most of us. I will admit I was at one fantastic job and after around 3 years I probably could of stayed indefinitely. But back then I didn't recognize the value of a solid job. If you land somewhere and you're well liked by people, and able to do quality work, you really should just stay there instead of chasing slightly more money.
  - Pet_Ant 9mo ago
    After my dates of employment I will parethetically add (bankrupt) or (shutdown) to indicate that it wasn't related to me personally. My best job was 18 months.
    - skrtskrt 9mo ago
      Yeah I had a manager grill me like crazy about short stints on my resume while I was interviewing for DigitalOcean. He told me it looked like I wasn't dedicated or trustworthy. He wasn't my manager so I brushed over it and 6 months into working at DO they started 3 rounds of enormous layoffs that were handled so poorly even the executives doing the layoffs got removed by the board. So I left and got to add another short stint at a company run by craven morons to my resume :)
pengaru 9mo ago
Don't underestimate the importance of timing, for both the company you're applying at and the industry/economy as a whole. As they say, you can't get blood from a turnip. Writing this comment reminded me of a personal experience, story time: Many moons ago I interviewed at a mature startup in silicon valley, they shipped a tiered storage appliance and were in the process of pivoting to a new storage medium (think transitioning from spinning rust to SSDs, something like that). This was in-person, and everything went swimmingly well, before departing they stated an intention to make an offer and I should expect an email w/offer attached within a week. I got an offer letter, and accepted immediately, as I was super excited about the stack I'd be playing with. A week before the start date I get a call from a founder, they said I couldn't start because their funding round didn't come through. The economy was going through some sort of financial crisis and it was one of the many blood baths where silicon valley startups shuttered by the hundreds overnight. So in essence, this was a job I got fired from before I could even start, wee! What followed was a pretty frustrating few months of interviewing and not getting anywhere. But there is a silver lining to this story, that founder who called me sat on the board of other storage startups. One of them managed to get some water in this funding desert, and its founders reached out to me at his recommendation. I ended up building some great stuff over 4-5 years at that company.
zeroonetwothree 9mo ago
Usually the stated reason is not actually the real reason. They just state something generic that isn’t illegal to admit. The real reason might be “they didn’t like your vibes” or something like that
- loeg 9mo ago
  Vibes aren't a protected category.
  - nerdsniper 9mo ago
    They aren't explicitly, but, if you ever find yourself in a position where you're part of the hiring decision, it's best to categorize vibes as protected for anything written or otherwise recorded. SCOTUS has found non-protected categories can still be protected because they are "proxies" for protected categories. One of the classic examples of this are zip codes[0], which was found to be a proxy for race, because it has a "disparate impact" on people of particular races. For some people, the 'wrong vibes' are often proxies for cultural things - all kinds of body language contribute to vibes and it's easy to accidentally (or on purpose...) discriminate against a whole categories based on vibes. If you tell a candidate "Hey we just didn't like your vibes as much as this other guy", it could affect your exposure to claims that you discriminated against them based on their race. 0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Department_of_Housing_and_Community_Affairs_v._Inclusive_Communities_Project,_Inc https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Department_of_Housing_an....
    - zozbot234 9mo ago
      Do "vibes" really matter all that much when you're going to be working 100% remotely? Maybe we should be moving to fully blind auditions for such jobs, where the interview might still be proctored in some way to prevent outright cheating, but the people who make the hiring decision aren't even put in a position where they might "vibe" with the candidate.
      - mynameisvlad 9mo ago
robinhood 9mo ago
So basically you wanted to have it easy - joining a company with a certain prestige and be over the recruitment process in 30 minutes or less.
- deleted 9mo ago
  [deleted]
deleted 9mo ago
[deleted]

grim_io 9mo ago

You're not changing the world either way, you would just be working for a more demanding guy. Fuck em.

webdevver 9mo ago
[flagged]
999900000999 9mo ago
This is my favorite response in the thread. We aren't talking about getting a job at doctors across borders or something, we just want to manipulate bits of silicon to increase our networth.
- WD-42 9mo ago
  When you say "we aren't" I hope you realize you aren't speaking for everyone. Even doctors across borders probably needs an IT person. There are jobs available for less pay that are fulfilling in other ways. I know I have taken them and am better off for it.
  - smfjaw 9mo ago
    Yea agree, I worked at a bank during covid and helped do some work that tangentially helped relief/social security payments go through. Warmed me heart it did
  - 999900000999 9mo ago
    I'm pretty sure VC backed companies are by and large doing it to increase the networth of the founders, and hopefully investors. I don't lie to myself, I know why I do this.
  - emmelaich 9mo ago
    Aside, there is a tech equivalent of MSF: Télécoms Sans Frontières https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C3%A9l%C3%A9coms_Sans_Fronti%C3%A8res https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C3%A9l%C3%A9coms_Sans_Fronti...

gedy 9mo ago

> Concerns that should have been handled in the initial call, somehow get pushed back till after I've wasted monumental amount of time. Honestly these "reasons" they give are usually BS excuses when it basically amounts to they don't like your personality or looks.

999900000999 9mo ago
Did I mention no one told me what the compensation package was at any point during the process. It's a contractor life for me, I work for money, not "purpose" or anything else. Hell my Facebook (technically a fully owned subsidiary to be fair) interview loop was easier. I didn't get the job that time either, but at least it was straight up.
- Aurornis 9mo ago
  > Did I mention no one told me what the compensation package was at any point during the process. In previous HN threads they said something to the effect that they expect their applicants to have read what’s online about their equal base salary. Equity is not equally applied though.
  - 999900000999 9mo ago
    I'm not talking about Oxide here, this was a different company.
ghaff 9mo ago
Eh. I've been on a bunch of hiring committees. It hasn't been personality or looks. But a combination of things that we probably didn't all agree on and that may not have been able to fully articulate in a short message.

sevensor 9mo ago

A generic rejection is more than I got for feedback; I never heard back. Still, I thought the process of writing the materials was great. I don’t usually take the time to think about the arc of my experience in a holistic way. Do it for yourself if you do it at all; don’t go into it with high expectations for feedback and you won’t be disappointed.

mlacks 9mo ago
I just reached out to them after the 4 to six weeks had passed. got my decision a few days later
- sevensor 9mo ago
  Yeah. I tried that at the eight week mark, but I heard nothing back. Obviously not a process-heavy company, but that’s part of their appeal.

pfraze 9mo ago

If you went through multiple rounds it likely means they were seriously considering you but ultimately they didn’t get to a yes. If it’s any comfort that means you did pretty well. The short stints on a resume is likely not the only reason you didn’t get to 100%, but unfortunately you should know that it’s seen as a pretty bad signal. The general expectation is 2 years minimum at a gig. If you have multiple short non-contract jobs it raises the concern that a candidate doesn’t commit to their jobs, or that they don’t do well at their jobs and are getting let go.

999900000999 9mo ago
Okay, but if my resume is a concern let's talk about in the first interview. I can't exactly rest and vest for 2 years when the company is running out of money. I had the bad luck of this happening 3 times in a row. Company A got their funding pulled and shut down. Company B, where I was actually at for about a year and a half, switched owners and shutdown my entire office. Company C merged into it's main competitor and effectively fired most of us. I will admit I was at one fantastic job and after around 3 years I probably could of stayed indefinitely. But back then I didn't recognize the value of a solid job. If you land somewhere and you're well liked by people, and able to do quality work, you really should just stay there instead of chasing slightly more money.
- Pet_Ant 9mo ago
  After my dates of employment I will parethetically add (bankrupt) or (shutdown) to indicate that it wasn't related to me personally. My best job was 18 months.
  - skrtskrt 9mo ago
    Yeah I had a manager grill me like crazy about short stints on my resume while I was interviewing for DigitalOcean. He told me it looked like I wasn't dedicated or trustworthy. He wasn't my manager so I brushed over it and 6 months into working at DO they started 3 rounds of enormous layoffs that were handled so poorly even the executives doing the layoffs got removed by the board. So I left and got to add another short stint at a company run by craven morons to my resume :)

pengaru 9mo ago

Don't underestimate the importance of timing, for both the company you're applying at and the industry/economy as a whole. As they say, you can't get blood from a turnip. Writing this comment reminded me of a personal experience, story time: Many moons ago I interviewed at a mature startup in silicon valley, they shipped a tiered storage appliance and were in the process of pivoting to a new storage medium (think transitioning from spinning rust to SSDs, something like that). This was in-person, and everything went swimmingly well, before departing they stated an intention to make an offer and I should expect an email w/offer attached within a week. I got an offer letter, and accepted immediately, as I was super excited about the stack I'd be playing with. A week before the start date I get a call from a founder, they said I couldn't start because their funding round didn't come through. The economy was going through some sort of financial crisis and it was one of the many blood baths where silicon valley startups shuttered by the hundreds overnight. So in essence, this was a job I got fired from before I could even start, wee! What followed was a pretty frustrating few months of interviewing and not getting anywhere. But there is a silver lining to this story, that founder who called me sat on the board of other storage startups. One of them managed to get some water in this funding desert, and its founders reached out to me at his recommendation. I ended up building some great stuff over 4-5 years at that company.

zeroonetwothree 9mo ago

Usually the stated reason is not actually the real reason. They just state something generic that isn’t illegal to admit. The real reason might be “they didn’t like your vibes” or something like that

loeg 9mo ago
Vibes aren't a protected category.
- nerdsniper 9mo ago
  They aren't explicitly, but, if you ever find yourself in a position where you're part of the hiring decision, it's best to categorize vibes as protected for anything written or otherwise recorded. SCOTUS has found non-protected categories can still be protected because they are "proxies" for protected categories. One of the classic examples of this are zip codes[0], which was found to be a proxy for race, because it has a "disparate impact" on people of particular races. For some people, the 'wrong vibes' are often proxies for cultural things - all kinds of body language contribute to vibes and it's easy to accidentally (or on purpose...) discriminate against a whole categories based on vibes. If you tell a candidate "Hey we just didn't like your vibes as much as this other guy", it could affect your exposure to claims that you discriminated against them based on their race. 0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Department_of_Housing_and_Community_Affairs_v._Inclusive_Communities_Project,_Inc https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Department_of_Housing_an....
  - zozbot234 9mo ago
    Do "vibes" really matter all that much when you're going to be working 100% remotely? Maybe we should be moving to fully blind auditions for such jobs, where the interview might still be proctored in some way to prevent outright cheating, but the people who make the hiring decision aren't even put in a position where they might "vibe" with the candidate.
    - mynameisvlad 9mo ago

robinhood 9mo ago

So basically you wanted to have it easy - joining a company with a certain prestige and be over the recruitment process in 30 minutes or less.

deleted 9mo ago
[deleted]

deleted 9mo ago

[deleted]