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So obviously I have a huge amount of respect for the team here, and the idea sounds really great - it seems like a path to becoming one of the best in the world

by mcintyre1994 11y ago

So obviously I have a huge amount of respect for the team here, and the idea sounds really great - it seems like a path to becoming one of the best in the world and that's obviously hugely appealing. However, could you address a concern regarding negative hiring signals? I'm concerned that you're going to collect a huge amount of data as I play - and some of it will reflect badly and stop me either ever getting seen by your process for introductions or will lead to your employers throwing me away when you pass me to them. I guess my question is - does starting without the skills you're looking for mean that while I might have fun and "level up" I'll never get the hiring benefits? Does a 'bad level' caused by, say, trying "that language/framework/problem space/etc you’ve been meaning to learn" (quote from Patrick's original announcement post) stick out and mean it's game over from the hiring perspective? If I decide to learn Ruby to write some REST API (again, an example referenced in Patrick's announcement) on some level, and my newbie Ruby is rubbish - isn't that going to mean anyone who looks at that thinks I'm rubbish? Sure I had fun and learnt something, did I also stop myself ever getting an intro? You say you'll show them exactly what happened when I implemented that REST API, which is great - but I can't use it to learn some new skill if I want to look good right? Sorry, this has got a bit long. To summarise - I'm concerned about the clash between on the one hand the claim I can play to learn new things, to get better - but on the other that you'll show employers exactly what I did. Of course the hiring thing is just extra and I can have fun without it, but if I'm interested in the hiring bit how do I experiment with new things without flooding myself with negative signals? To be clear, the game sounds awesome. I'm just concerned I'll either screw up by not being world class yet or by trying new things and lose opportunities.

patio11 11y ago
Remember, our incentive is to find reasons you're hireable, not find reasons you're not. Employers won't get arbitrary read on your history with us -- most don't want it and it is, frankly, waaaaay too valuable to sell. The REST API thing lets me tell employers "The reason I'm bringing Bob to your attention is you asked me to keep a lock out for API devs. Do I have a story for you..." As to whether someone recently learning something new and useful makes you seem less valuable to the SF founders when we do our internal "Do we try to reach out to this person to get the ball rolling?" calculation, just trust us to not be idiots on that score. (I acknowledge idiots are widespread in the industry.)

patio11 11y ago

Remember, our incentive is to find reasons you're hireable, not find reasons you're not. Employers won't get arbitrary read on your history with us -- most don't want it and it is, frankly, waaaaay too valuable to sell. The REST API thing lets me tell employers "The reason I'm bringing Bob to your attention is you asked me to keep a lock out for API devs. Do I have a story for you..." As to whether someone recently learning something new and useful makes you seem less valuable to the SF founders when we do our internal "Do we try to reach out to this person to get the ball rolling?" calculation, just trust us to not be idiots on that score. (I acknowledge idiots are widespread in the industry.)