4 ms·

I've thought of letting profiles be more detailed, e.g. letting people post their resumes, and having them be searchable. Would people like something like that

by pg 18y ago

I've thought of letting profiles be more detailed, e.g. letting people post their resumes, and having them be searchable. Would people like something like that?

Zarathu 18y ago
Yes! This would be a great way to increase opportunities.
Shamiq 18y ago
Generally, I like more informative profiles, but specifically with resumes, I don't think it's a good idea. I get the feeling that it'll help bump up the noise as individuals come here to post resumes and then try to enter conversations for which they are unqualified to speak. How about a special "Hacker News" hash that I can hide in the resume along with my profile name? So if anyone cares to find my HN profile and/or my resume, they'll just have to search for that hash+username to bring it up.
- jwilliams 18y ago
  try to enter conversations for which they are unqualified to speak What makes one qualified?
  - Shamiq 18y ago
    Don't ask me -- I don't know enough to say.
- patio11 18y ago
  Simple solution: require X metric of participation before you can post a resume (or before your resume is searchable, take your pick). That could be owned account for N days or N karma or whatever you like. (Personally I don't know if "Don't let lurkers solicit opportunities" is desirable but, eh, simple to implement if you decide it is.)
mickt 18y ago
Yes that would be useful. Also, might want to allow an option as to how public people's resumes or profiles are. Maybe an option that only allow logged in users can view other user's resumes. Also, not everyone wants their resume cached by Google, nor publicly searchable, nor have their opinions or comments traced back to whom they actually are.
- mickt 18y ago
  Oh, yeah: Gissa job! ;)
harpastum 18y ago
I can see how this would be very helpful in some cases, but I can't help but worry that there will be an immediate flood of users simply coming to spam their resumes. The only way I can see to keep this from being abused would be to add a karma barrier. It wouldn't have to be that high (50-100?) to be a pretty good filter.
- weaksauce 18y ago
  The karma barrier to entry is a good first pass. Though, if someone wanted to get their resume on the site they could find ways around the karma. (Automated upvoting of a story/comment that they made for example.) There should be a way for the top 100[0] people to flag the profile as spam which would strip them of the right to post a resume.
vaksel 18y ago
can't they already put a link to their resume in the profile?
- teej 18y ago
  You can put a URL, I don't believe it automatically links.
  - pg 18y ago
    It did once, but not anymore. Spammers started using HN profiles as landing pages.
unalone 18y ago
I wouldn't. I like minimal profiles. I like seeing what other people link to. I like that here, conversation is all about intelligent conversation and not about the people. I love that people address me as "unalone" rather than by name because that's the handle I use.
chris11 18y ago
That would be great. I'm looking for an internship this summer, and linking my name to my resume would be great. What's the general standard for using HN for finding internships/work anyway? I've only seen one thread for an internship, and while it seemed successful, I'm not wanting troll the very community I'm looking for a job from.
alain94040 18y ago
Having some more detailed profile is not the main point. What would be great is if people in need of a job could add a little symbol ("*" or whatever else you want) that appears next to my name on each of my posts. If I'm currently laid off and looking for a job, someone may read a smart comment I make, then notice: "hey, this guy is smart, and he is looking for a job? Let me check his profile". If you just have the profile part, it's inefficient. When I want to hire someone, I'll keep looking at profiles of plenty of people not looking for jobs, and I'll miss the ones who could use the help. And if I browse resumes, it's not connected to their comments (at least not in context of a thread), so I don't have the impulse to like them. An alternative would be to sort resumes by karma, but it's kind of orwellian...
- tocomment 18y ago
  Excellent points. I like the idea of a * or something by the names.
- pbrown 18y ago
  Maybe instead of an asterisk we could use orange names.
lallysingh 18y ago
It'd be a great way to look for potential partners, as well. A lot of us lone hackers could use one for our startup ideas :-) But, I am afraid of a sudden influx of people posting resumes and advertising them by posting excessively. I'm not sure it's worth it. If we could prevent that, it's worthwhile. Else not. Frankly, I'd prefer to see that in a separate site. A marker (or set of markers, for looking-for-job, looking-for-employee, looking-for-partner, etc.) by the username here would be enough. I think it'd be useful without making HN a target.
brandonkm 18y ago
It would certainly make for an interesting experiment, but I think it would definitely alter the nature of this site. I really enjoy the 'minimalist' nature of HN profiles. They are short and sweet. I can see how opening profiles here up for more details or letting people attach resumes could provide benefits (more information being shared about each other, people getting jobs). Ultimately, its really hard to predict what will happen when new features are introduced here, but if people are landing jobs as a result, it can only be a good thing.
dfranke 18y ago
I think this would probably encourage people to use HN for the spammier variety of self-promotion.
giles_bowkett 18y ago
I wouldn't mind a link to my blog but I never fill out profiles in any level of detail beyond that.
pclark 18y ago
I like minimal profiles that let the user do whatever they want. No reason you couldn't turn your resume into txt and stick it in your profile. I'd love to see a form of official "Ask YC" category, with a subcategory of "Review my App" -- make it so it requires n karma to post to [to prevent spam] and then we can easily see what all hackers are upto. If we can see what other users are working on -- that'll encourage us to click their profile.

by pg 18y ago

I've thought of letting profiles be more detailed, e.g. letting people post their resumes, and having them be searchable. Would people like something like that?

Zarathu 18y ago

Yes! This would be a great way to increase opportunities.

Shamiq 18y ago

Generally, I like more informative profiles, but specifically with resumes, I don't think it's a good idea. I get the feeling that it'll help bump up the noise as individuals come here to post resumes and then try to enter conversations for which they are unqualified to speak. How about a special "Hacker News" hash that I can hide in the resume along with my profile name? So if anyone cares to find my HN profile and/or my resume, they'll just have to search for that hash+username to bring it up.

jwilliams 18y ago
try to enter conversations for which they are unqualified to speak What makes one qualified?
- Shamiq 18y ago
  Don't ask me -- I don't know enough to say.
patio11 18y ago
Simple solution: require X metric of participation before you can post a resume (or before your resume is searchable, take your pick). That could be owned account for N days or N karma or whatever you like. (Personally I don't know if "Don't let lurkers solicit opportunities" is desirable but, eh, simple to implement if you decide it is.)

mickt 18y ago

Yes that would be useful. Also, might want to allow an option as to how public people's resumes or profiles are. Maybe an option that only allow logged in users can view other user's resumes. Also, not everyone wants their resume cached by Google, nor publicly searchable, nor have their opinions or comments traced back to whom they actually are.

mickt 18y ago
Oh, yeah: Gissa job! ;)

harpastum 18y ago

I can see how this would be very helpful in some cases, but I can't help but worry that there will be an immediate flood of users simply coming to spam their resumes. The only way I can see to keep this from being abused would be to add a karma barrier. It wouldn't have to be that high (50-100?) to be a pretty good filter.

weaksauce 18y ago
The karma barrier to entry is a good first pass. Though, if someone wanted to get their resume on the site they could find ways around the karma. (Automated upvoting of a story/comment that they made for example.) There should be a way for the top 100[0] people to flag the profile as spam which would strip them of the right to post a resume.

vaksel 18y ago

can't they already put a link to their resume in the profile?

teej 18y ago
You can put a URL, I don't believe it automatically links.
- pg 18y ago
  It did once, but not anymore. Spammers started using HN profiles as landing pages.

unalone 18y ago

I wouldn't. I like minimal profiles. I like seeing what other people link to. I like that here, conversation is all about intelligent conversation and not about the people. I love that people address me as "unalone" rather than by name because that's the handle I use.

chris11 18y ago

That would be great. I'm looking for an internship this summer, and linking my name to my resume would be great. What's the general standard for using HN for finding internships/work anyway? I've only seen one thread for an internship, and while it seemed successful, I'm not wanting troll the very community I'm looking for a job from.

alain94040 18y ago

Having some more detailed profile is not the main point. What would be great is if people in need of a job could add a little symbol ("*" or whatever else you want) that appears next to my name on each of my posts. If I'm currently laid off and looking for a job, someone may read a smart comment I make, then notice: "hey, this guy is smart, and he is looking for a job? Let me check his profile". If you just have the profile part, it's inefficient. When I want to hire someone, I'll keep looking at profiles of plenty of people not looking for jobs, and I'll miss the ones who could use the help. And if I browse resumes, it's not connected to their comments (at least not in context of a thread), so I don't have the impulse to like them. An alternative would be to sort resumes by karma, but it's kind of orwellian...

tocomment 18y ago
Excellent points. I like the idea of a * or something by the names.
pbrown 18y ago
Maybe instead of an asterisk we could use orange names.

lallysingh 18y ago

It'd be a great way to look for potential partners, as well. A lot of us lone hackers could use one for our startup ideas :-) But, I am afraid of a sudden influx of people posting resumes and advertising them by posting excessively. I'm not sure it's worth it. If we could prevent that, it's worthwhile. Else not. Frankly, I'd prefer to see that in a separate site. A marker (or set of markers, for looking-for-job, looking-for-employee, looking-for-partner, etc.) by the username here would be enough. I think it'd be useful without making HN a target.

brandonkm 18y ago

It would certainly make for an interesting experiment, but I think it would definitely alter the nature of this site. I really enjoy the 'minimalist' nature of HN profiles. They are short and sweet. I can see how opening profiles here up for more details or letting people attach resumes could provide benefits (more information being shared about each other, people getting jobs). Ultimately, its really hard to predict what will happen when new features are introduced here, but if people are landing jobs as a result, it can only be a good thing.

dfranke 18y ago

I think this would probably encourage people to use HN for the spammier variety of self-promotion.

giles_bowkett 18y ago

I wouldn't mind a link to my blog but I never fill out profiles in any level of detail beyond that.

pclark 18y ago

I like minimal profiles that let the user do whatever they want. No reason you couldn't turn your resume into txt and stick it in your profile. I'd love to see a form of official "Ask YC" category, with a subcategory of "Review my App" -- make it so it requires n karma to post to [to prevent spam] and then we can easily see what all hackers are upto. If we can see what other users are working on -- that'll encourage us to click their profile.