7 ms·

Show HN: Get discreet job interviews with your LinkedIn connections

25 points by victoriap 13y ago

Robin_Message 13y ago
>Help us spread the word [...] make the first move towards a job interview in a discreet way. That might be a bit contradictory. Also, it's not clear from your website – do you contact the people I select in step 1 out of band (by e-mail or something) and ask them if they are interested in interviewing any of their LinkedIn connections? How does this actually work, end-to-end? If you're relying on my contacts also signing up for jobrupt, then, to a close approximation, that's never going to happen. In a two-sided market like this, and with the anonymity constraint on top, it's really hard to see how it can succeed. Some ideas: Focus on a niche you can target to get reasonable usage [1][2] (ideally >50% of users who might be selected, but at least 10% might be good enough). Provide a concierge-type services to job-seekers – track down the people they select then find out if they are offering jobs (its possible but not clear if this is already what you are doing.) [1] http://joel.is/post/39659497239/how-to-gain-traction-in-two-sided-markets http://joel.is/post/39659497239/how-to-gain-traction-in-two-... [2] http://cdixon.org/2010/08/21/the-bowling-pin-strategy/ http://cdixon.org/2010/08/21/the-bowling-pin-strategy/
- victoriap 13y ago
  Thanks for the great feedback. We don't contact people in your selection or connections. We want to focus on the small verticals where there is a high chance of match, like academicians, senior executives, developers, kernel developers etc. By spreading the word, you don't mention your selections. But if that still disturbs you, to be seen on jobrupt, you better not spread the word as privacy comes first. Thanks for the great ideas on focus, niche, getting traction etc. They are great hints going forward.
Kliment 13y ago
I think it's horrible that the only way to log in is via antisocial networking. It's only one step removed from being a facebook login. If you want it to be discreet, make it anonymous (email address only).
- victoriap 13y ago
  Currently there is only LinkedIn signup available. But we plan an email signup going forward. Mainly we need you to be able to see and select connections, which is easier on LinkedIn. In email it is only possible through a list of emails entered by the user. That's still a good option with some small caveats. Thanks for the feedback.
nns 13y ago
So this is basically speed dating for job interviews ! This is how most speed dating events work (atleast in London) - you indicate your interest in the other person anonymously and if they 'like' you back, the system sends out an email to both. This kinda breaks when someone ends up clicking 'like' for everyone they met at the event ! This someone in your case will be recruiters who'll use the information to hunt probable passive candidates. So in search for discreteness, the job-seeker would end up falling prey to the game of head hunters.
- victoriap 13y ago
  Thanks for the comparison and feedback. You are right with the risk, but we have some soft limits for selections as an anti-spam measure. Also in our case the set of people are not finite but open ended. Someone today suggested using it for intracompany hiring in large consulting companies like Accenture etc. This is still experimental, we don't definitely aim to be a mainstream tool. We just hope it will benefit some people in some situations.
  - nns 13y ago
    Sorry if the first comment sounded a bit discouraging. I think you folks have made a great start and would be on the verge of a breakthrough. Good luck and I hope it works! :)
    - victoriap 13y ago
      Any comment is always better than 'No comment' . I appreciate your feedback.
khoury 13y ago
Ok, let me play the devils advocate here. We get the point, I guess. People will feel less "desperate" in the eyes of the contractor, since they obviously also showed their interest. But at the end of the day, and this is why I will keep my skepticism for now, the contractor has many many more seekers out there who are willing to do the job, than the other way around. Honestly, in a competitive market, this feel too weak from the contracter's point of view. I you want a job, show it properly that you can do the job well, not bitch around playing some sort of social game, trying to play hard to get or whatever. Tl;Dr: There's no time for this shit. On the other hand: Great! Like a "Bang with friends" for job hunting! You get matched with whoever is looking for similar talents/positions, and then you evaluate the other part, whereafter you either secretly show your interest or not. If the normal way is the hard way, this is the curling way where it doesn't hurt as much to get dissed, because maybe they just didn't notice you, right? But hey, you'll never know because you're too much of a pussy to find out. My two cents.
- victoriap 13y ago
  I hope that side would serve some small, highly skilled circles, such as Ruby Developers, Kernel developers, Ember.js people, Academicians, Corporate software sales people etc. We plan to keep out headhunters, contractors and other mass-hiring entities. The idea is to select whom you want to work with and leverage your connections in addition to other methods.
Peroni 13y ago
You are interested in a job interview with them, if they're too Best not to truncate "they are" in this instance. Select anyone with whom you are interested in a job interview. It is anonymous and private; your connections will not see you are interested unless they are too. I don't get it. How will they find out I'm interested? Surely there needs to be a separate system for employers to register interest in people who they would willingly interview? The current format suggests that they would have to also use your site and select ME as someone THEY want to be interviewed by which makes no sense. How do I select people I would willingly interview? How will I ever find out if another user wants me to interview them? So many questions.
- victoriap 13y ago
  Thanks for the grammar feedback, the site just launched 2 weeks ago, hope to make everything better. The matching is currently based on LinkedIn connections of yours. So, we hope Jobrupt to be used within some circles inside LinkedIn. If you have a match, we notify you through your email registered in your LinkedIn account. We don't particularly contact your selections, or connections.
  - Peroni 13y ago
    If you have a match, we notify you through your email registered in your LinkedIn account. That's the part I'm struggling to understand. How will I ever get a match? Say I select Director A as someone I would be interested in being interviewed by. How would Director A ever find out? Surely Director A would need an "employer" account where they can select Potential Employee A as someone they would willingly interview?
    - victoriap 13y ago
      That's part of the 'Robin_Message's points here on this thread and it is a valid concern. We want to focus on small circles inside employment network, where your Director and you end up being there independently. Yes, the chances appear to be low, but we don't have a time limit. Just think you are running a Scala or Ruby development team, and regularly meet a lot of developers in conferences. You are a small group, and you are connected to each other. However you don't want to offer jobs explicitly. In such cases Jobrupt may help. It's our hope, and it is still an experiment.
marknutter 13y ago
So far this morning we've had two Show HN's with similar titles: "Job searching/hiring turned upside down" and "Show HN: Dating turned upside down - Tomonotomo" I'm wondering if this is just a coincidence or its the same person/entity. They both use cheesy stock photos on their landing page and have very similar layouts.
- victoriap 13y ago
  Actual I entered the second one, after seeing Tomonotomo's title first. I liked it as a nice expression of their ideas, and wanted to reuse it, so no coincidence indeed. But we are not at all related. Sorry if that was disturbing in any way.
dccoolgai 13y ago
I sort of like the "discrete" part, but what happens when the manager at your current job logs in and feigns "interest" in you, just to see if you're looking?
- victoriap 13y ago
  Your manager will not know anything unless you also select her/him. And if you both select each other, that's just a re-validation of your synergy :)
bmcd 13y ago
It's Tinder (gotinder.com) for the job search!
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
jmasonherr 13y ago
This is cool, but I'd be worried that it wouldn't line me up with enough of the right jobs. For that reason, I still prefer mightyspring for anonymous job searching. A big part of the problem is matching the right people with the right opportunities, and their algorithms are a lot more robust.
- victoriap 13y ago
  You are absolutely right in pointing out Mightyspring. They help especially when you focus on what you want to do. In Jobrupt's case, the focus is on 'with whom you want to work'. It may be your ex-boss or ex-employee, your ex-colleague, your classmate, your competitor, your customer, your service provider etc. Mightyspring definitely deserve their place, Jobrupt is just a different and additional type of job search tool. You don't need to choose one or another, you may use both.

25 points by victoriap 13y ago

>Help us spread the word [...] make the first move towards a job interview in a discreet way. That might be a bit contradictory. Also, it's not clear from your website – do you contact the people I select in step 1 out of band (by e-mail or something) and ask them if they are interested in interviewing any of their LinkedIn connections? How does this actually work, end-to-end? If you're relying on my contacts also signing up for jobrupt, then, to a close approximation, that's never going to happen. In a two-sided market like this, and with the anonymity constraint on top, it's really hard to see how it can succeed. Some ideas: Focus on a niche you can target to get reasonable usage [1][2] (ideally >50% of users who might be selected, but at least 10% might be good enough). Provide a concierge-type services to job-seekers – track down the people they select then find out if they are offering jobs (its possible but not clear if this is already what you are doing.) [1] http://joel.is/post/39659497239/how-to-gain-traction-in-two-sided-markets http://joel.is/post/39659497239/how-to-gain-traction-in-two-... [2] http://cdixon.org/2010/08/21/the-bowling-pin-strategy/ http://cdixon.org/2010/08/21/the-bowling-pin-strategy/

victoriap 13y ago
Thanks for the great feedback. We don't contact people in your selection or connections. We want to focus on the small verticals where there is a high chance of match, like academicians, senior executives, developers, kernel developers etc. By spreading the word, you don't mention your selections. But if that still disturbs you, to be seen on jobrupt, you better not spread the word as privacy comes first. Thanks for the great ideas on focus, niche, getting traction etc. They are great hints going forward.

Kliment 13y ago

I think it's horrible that the only way to log in is via antisocial networking. It's only one step removed from being a facebook login. If you want it to be discreet, make it anonymous (email address only).

victoriap 13y ago
Currently there is only LinkedIn signup available. But we plan an email signup going forward. Mainly we need you to be able to see and select connections, which is easier on LinkedIn. In email it is only possible through a list of emails entered by the user. That's still a good option with some small caveats. Thanks for the feedback.

nns 13y ago

So this is basically speed dating for job interviews ! This is how most speed dating events work (atleast in London) - you indicate your interest in the other person anonymously and if they 'like' you back, the system sends out an email to both. This kinda breaks when someone ends up clicking 'like' for everyone they met at the event ! This someone in your case will be recruiters who'll use the information to hunt probable passive candidates. So in search for discreteness, the job-seeker would end up falling prey to the game of head hunters.

victoriap 13y ago
Thanks for the comparison and feedback. You are right with the risk, but we have some soft limits for selections as an anti-spam measure. Also in our case the set of people are not finite but open ended. Someone today suggested using it for intracompany hiring in large consulting companies like Accenture etc. This is still experimental, we don't definitely aim to be a mainstream tool. We just hope it will benefit some people in some situations.
- nns 13y ago
  Sorry if the first comment sounded a bit discouraging. I think you folks have made a great start and would be on the verge of a breakthrough. Good luck and I hope it works! :)
  - victoriap 13y ago
    Any comment is always better than 'No comment' . I appreciate your feedback.

khoury 13y ago

Ok, let me play the devils advocate here. We get the point, I guess. People will feel less "desperate" in the eyes of the contractor, since they obviously also showed their interest. But at the end of the day, and this is why I will keep my skepticism for now, the contractor has many many more seekers out there who are willing to do the job, than the other way around. Honestly, in a competitive market, this feel too weak from the contracter's point of view. I you want a job, show it properly that you can do the job well, not bitch around playing some sort of social game, trying to play hard to get or whatever. Tl;Dr: There's no time for this shit. On the other hand: Great! Like a "Bang with friends" for job hunting! You get matched with whoever is looking for similar talents/positions, and then you evaluate the other part, whereafter you either secretly show your interest or not. If the normal way is the hard way, this is the curling way where it doesn't hurt as much to get dissed, because maybe they just didn't notice you, right? But hey, you'll never know because you're too much of a pussy to find out. My two cents.

victoriap 13y ago
I hope that side would serve some small, highly skilled circles, such as Ruby Developers, Kernel developers, Ember.js people, Academicians, Corporate software sales people etc. We plan to keep out headhunters, contractors and other mass-hiring entities. The idea is to select whom you want to work with and leverage your connections in addition to other methods.

Peroni 13y ago

You are interested in a job interview with them, if they're too Best not to truncate "they are" in this instance. Select anyone with whom you are interested in a job interview. It is anonymous and private; your connections will not see you are interested unless they are too. I don't get it. How will they find out I'm interested? Surely there needs to be a separate system for employers to register interest in people who they would willingly interview? The current format suggests that they would have to also use your site and select ME as someone THEY want to be interviewed by which makes no sense. How do I select people I would willingly interview? How will I ever find out if another user wants me to interview them? So many questions.

victoriap 13y ago
Thanks for the grammar feedback, the site just launched 2 weeks ago, hope to make everything better. The matching is currently based on LinkedIn connections of yours. So, we hope Jobrupt to be used within some circles inside LinkedIn. If you have a match, we notify you through your email registered in your LinkedIn account. We don't particularly contact your selections, or connections.
- Peroni 13y ago
  If you have a match, we notify you through your email registered in your LinkedIn account. That's the part I'm struggling to understand. How will I ever get a match? Say I select Director A as someone I would be interested in being interviewed by. How would Director A ever find out? Surely Director A would need an "employer" account where they can select Potential Employee A as someone they would willingly interview?
  - victoriap 13y ago
    That's part of the 'Robin_Message's points here on this thread and it is a valid concern. We want to focus on small circles inside employment network, where your Director and you end up being there independently. Yes, the chances appear to be low, but we don't have a time limit. Just think you are running a Scala or Ruby development team, and regularly meet a lot of developers in conferences. You are a small group, and you are connected to each other. However you don't want to offer jobs explicitly. In such cases Jobrupt may help. It's our hope, and it is still an experiment.

marknutter 13y ago

So far this morning we've had two Show HN's with similar titles: "Job searching/hiring turned upside down" and "Show HN: Dating turned upside down - Tomonotomo" I'm wondering if this is just a coincidence or its the same person/entity. They both use cheesy stock photos on their landing page and have very similar layouts.

victoriap 13y ago
Actual I entered the second one, after seeing Tomonotomo's title first. I liked it as a nice expression of their ideas, and wanted to reuse it, so no coincidence indeed. But we are not at all related. Sorry if that was disturbing in any way.

dccoolgai 13y ago

I sort of like the "discrete" part, but what happens when the manager at your current job logs in and feigns "interest" in you, just to see if you're looking?

victoriap 13y ago
Your manager will not know anything unless you also select her/him. And if you both select each other, that's just a re-validation of your synergy :)

bmcd 13y ago

It's Tinder (gotinder.com) for the job search!

deleted 13y ago
[deleted]

jmasonherr 13y ago

This is cool, but I'd be worried that it wouldn't line me up with enough of the right jobs. For that reason, I still prefer mightyspring for anonymous job searching. A big part of the problem is matching the right people with the right opportunities, and their algorithms are a lot more robust.

victoriap 13y ago
You are absolutely right in pointing out Mightyspring. They help especially when you focus on what you want to do. In Jobrupt's case, the focus is on 'with whom you want to work'. It may be your ex-boss or ex-employee, your ex-colleague, your classmate, your competitor, your customer, your service provider etc. Mightyspring definitely deserve their place, Jobrupt is just a different and additional type of job search tool. You don't need to choose one or another, you may use both.