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Zonino – A project to automatically find every job at a startup in London
We built a system that scrapes the websites of a bunch of London startups and aggregates their jobs. None of that recruiter nonsense.
- woah 12y agoDoesn't seem to work that well. Typed in 'node', got no results.
- samirmenon 12y ago'node.js' works, but that is pretty silly.
- 500and4 12y agoYeah, the search can be a little bit precious sometimes if you don't pick one of the pre-defined skills. Need to work on that. For now this should do the trick: http://zonino.co.uk/search?q%5B%5D=Node.js http://zonino.co.uk/search?q%5B%5D=Node.js
- justincormack 12y agoNot sure what the definition of a "startup" is here - Dennis Publishing was founded in 1974 and they are on the list...
- 500and4 12y agoGood spot. We've ended up playing a little fast and loose with the definition. Dennis made the cut because we've seen them at silicon milkroundabout (https://www.siliconmilkroundabout.com/ https://www.siliconmilkroundabout.com/) but by that definition we'd let the BBC in, too. Should probably tighten it up - not sure the likes of Ocado really qualify, either.
- justincormack 12y agoSilicon milkroundabout is very expensive to participate in so I think it has a larger number of non startups. Have you mined the HN who's hiring lists for London places? There are usually a fair number...
- 500and4 12y agoI think you're exactly right about SMR. Haven't tried mining the HN lists yet, but that kind of seemed like cheating! All of these jobs come straight from the startups' own sites.
- justincormack 12y agoI just meant in order to find some more sites! There are quite a few this month I don't think you have...
- 500and4 12y agoOooo, good thinking! I'll have a butcher's...
- caoilte 12y agoVery hard to define what a startup is these days and it would be great if you were able to define criteria and post them on your website. Too many "Startups" have been going for years and don't offer equity to new employees. So what's the point? Might as well have an SME tech companies site...
- twic 12y agoStretching the definition of 'London' slightly: http://zonino.co.uk/job/1397 http://zonino.co.uk/job/1397
- 500and4 12y agoLondon based companies who are hiring in other countries are a real ballache. You think New York is tricky - Ustwo are hiring in Malmö, too (http://zonino.co.uk/job/1132 http://zonino.co.uk/job/1132). And I can't even point at Malmö on a map. All joking aside we decided not to try to filter out jobs in other countries because knowing where a startup is hiring might actually be interesting or useful. We're hoping to improve how the site handles different locations soon.
- djhworld 12y agoSame with this one http://zonino.co.uk/job/1360 http://zonino.co.uk/job/1360 Unless Ocado have moved their development operations since last time I checked, I believe the job is actually located in Hatfield which is not even in the M25 Whilst this might be a generalisation, most workers in London don't own a car, so public transportation is obviously a key deciding factor when taking into consideration the commute.
- Brajeshwar 12y agoYourvine.com, a London Startup, is hiring a front-end developer and a full-stack software engineer.
- 500and4 12y agoSweet, I'll pop it the list. Thanks!
- qqg3 12y agoSaw a job based in Berlin, a little different perhaps
- mattmanser 12y agoDefiniteky a niche I'd like filled. A few comments. Mobile doesn't show what you just searched for. Also the description here is wrong: http://zonino.co.uk/job/337 http://zonino.co.uk/job/337 Overall pretty good.
- 500and4 12y agoHey, thanks. I've deactivated that job and I'll fix it up later. Really appreciate the heads-up!
- acron0 12y agoWhy 'London' and not 'UK'?
- 500and4 12y agoMore locations coming soon! London is just an easy place to start because we live here and know some people at various startups here.
- zura 12y agoAt least some site that can filter "C++" skill. Thanks!
- davodesign 12y agoAnd that understands the difference between Java and Java script! :)
- tomp 12y agoI think a lot of these job ads would be much more attractive if they actually listed the average/expected salary or at least the range. I kind-of understand why they don't, but it still frustrates me.
- jwmoz 12y agoYep. It's literally a waste of time for me as I know the salaries will be so low.
- yulaow 12y agoAgree, I personally immediately ignore all the offers that at least don't show the salary range. I had enough of places when the interview ends like "Well, you are our perfect candidate! But we cannot pay you atm. So if you want to work for us for free just for the next few months we'll surely give you all the salary arrears when we start to be on the wave" No thanks, I do not live only of air and hopes.
- 500and4 12y agoI think there's something fundamentally strange about the UK and the startup scene in particular where it's considered poor form to discuss salaries. Startups are unwilling to be up front about it and engineers are reluctant to discuss it with each other. I think each of those things feeds the other and we end up with a lack of transparency that is as much cultural as anything else.
- TeamMCS 12y agoI'd hardly call some of those companies start-ups. Take Blinkbox for example, that's backed by a FTSE 100. On a more serious note, what do other devs feel about working at startups themselves (freelance + perm)? The only I nearly got involved in was folded within 6 months. I'd have potentially been in a very bad situation as a result had I gone through with it. [edit] I'd do piece meal work. Throw in hours along side my regular job but going full time without a decent golden parachute would worry me.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- davodesign 12y agoI work with 500and4 on Zonino, and we all met working at a startup. I joined when we the total number of employees was 13 and now we are 10x that number and growing. I don't think there is any other working experience out dear that can give you that level professional and personal growth. On the other hand we have been lucky and if was a company like the one you got in touch with we would be toast. I guess that's one of the reason we liked the idea of providing an easy way to find and compare startups that are hiring for your skill set, hence the integration with crunchbase, but of course it could be better and we would love your feedback!!
- 500and4 12y agoI've had a really positive experience working for a startup. I was the first engineer hired and it's been amazing to see a company grow from 4 founders to over 100 people. Naturally I'm biased because it all worked out splendidly but I'm really really glad I did it. Sure, it's a risk but I think it all boils down to weighing up the risk with how much you think the founders and the business can succeed. I think engineers are in a better position now that the London startup scene has matured as there is no stigma attached to being a part of a startup that didn't work out. I think a lot of employers value those experiences and the lessons learned!
- greysteil 12y agoNice. You're missing a couple of our (GoCardless's) open opportunities though - I'll ping you an email.
- jwmoz 12y agoCould be really nice. Please add contract positions and get the damn rates displayed else it's a waste of time. Anyone looking for a PHP/Python dev contract, shout me up!
- linker3000 12y agoI get the intention of all these these scrapers-type comparison/search sites, and all the best with the venture - having had a quick look things are very tidy and well organised, but I always feel they miss the root cause of their existence; wouldn't it be much better to develop a central site with a client API so that all these diverse organisations can submit their job apps straight into the mix? Establishing harmony among competitive organisations can be difficult - but these are all tech/design companies so they should 'get it' to some degree, and it's not as if they are giving away secrets - a centralised, standardised portal would just make life much easier to engage with talent - especially if there's a standardised application form instead of a mess of different online/word versions all wanting the same information but in different order or structure - that drove me mad when I was job hunting a few months back; I suppose it indicates commitment making someone slog through 'yet another' document format, but spending 4+ hours on 4 different applications, with multiple cuts and pastes AND dealing with fill-in lines created using rows of underscores (aargh!) is soul destroying. There's also the implication that one should print, fill-in, scan to PDF and email back but..seriously!? If anything needs 'disrupting' its online job applications - I know there are a few sites that handle such things, but most of the ones I have seen belong to specific sectors (public health, military etc.) or just one large company. Wired Sussex is an example of progress in this respect: http://www.wiredsussex.com/ http://www.wiredsussex.com/ Perhaps phase #2 could be to get all the target companies to agree you can host a standard application form that users could pre-populate and save to use as a template for specific job applications, tweaking things here and there as needed to highlight specific skills (or let users build a custom submission from pre-saved building blocks). It would really save a lot of time. ..anyway, good luck!
- 500and4 12y agoThanks for the kind words and good observations! What we set out to try and do was to build something that didn't rely on companies posting their jobs. Free tech job boards are a dime a dozen. We wanted this to be an up to date account of the jobs that are available as a useful tool to job seekers. That said, you make a really good point about building a client API and I think that's the route we should go: Seed the site with scraped stuff but enable companies to upload their jobs, too. I totally agree about applications being a nightmare. Some systems are starting to simplify this but it would be great if there was some standard for it. That's something we've talked about, too and we think would be useful. But this actually requires getting startups on board which will take time - but hopefully a few mavericks will want to join in!
- jamiequint 12y agoYou're missing at least one big startup in London: OneFineStay
- 500and4 12y agoOneFineStay's site is a bit of a thorn in my side... But I'm working on it!
- SandB0x 12y agoSo what salary does a mid-level developer earn at a London startup at the moment? I know a bunch of people at more traditional software places (i.e. not startups) in the £40-60k range. I know a some people who've gone through accelerator programmes as founders and are barely drawing enough salary to eat.
- _random_ 12y agoI would be _very_ surprised if it is any more than 60k for a senior developer. This isn't Silicon Valley, unfortunately (well, at least property prices are on par!). PS: except for start-up Hedge Funds I guess :).
- ig1 12y agoPlenty of (funded) startups hire senior developers in 60-120k range.
- CmonDev 12y agoCould you please provide a list of plenty of 90k+ right here? I am sure many HN Londoners will really appreciate.
- ig1 12y agoI suggest looking at post-series B venture funded startups they're the ones who have enough money and the need for senior engineers. That's around the level I'd expect a VP eng with domain experience (i.e scaling a high-growth consumer product, deep ecommerce experiences, etc.) to be able to make. I'd recommend approaching startups who just raised a significant round (>$10m) as that's the point when many companies make key senior dev hires.
- CmonDev 12y agoAt this level of compensation they would be competing with financial sector. I have not seen any evidence of this so far in London. I have not seen start-ups openly offer that kind of money so far. I think this is just a speculation from your side. Shame we don't have an AngelList.
- djhworld 12y agoAll the positions for SoundCloud appear to either be in Berlin, New York or San Francisco?
- replete 12y agoNice job div :)
- pea 12y agoGreat! Chuck us on too if you'd like: www.kivo.com/jobs
- 500and4 12y agoWill do!
- peteretep 12y agoBug: http://zonino.co.uk/job/572 http://zonino.co.uk/job/572
- 500and4 12y agoGood spot, thanks! That pesky 'job' won't be bothering anyone any more...
- theblackswan 12y agoGetting a 502...??
- reledi 12y agoGreat timing. I'm heading to the UK, south of Greater London, in August and want to start working in September (I'll be travelling in August). At this point I'm unsure if I should start freelancing, attempt to create a business, work remotely, or find a job in or near London.
- _random_ 12y agoBetgenius is not a start-up. They don't even offer any equity AFAIK (salaries are average).
- 500and4 12y agoSeems that you're right. I'll look into it!