Thread

1. Aurornis · 1790183094 · focus · HN ↗

   This statistic constantly confuses people who haven't done hiring.

   If we decide we're going to grow headcount by 10 senior software engineers, we don't copy and paste the same job listing 10 times. We leave it open and collect resumes through that. At a large or fast growing company, we might never stop interviewing and hiring senior software engineers. The listing stays open for a year or more.

   There are also specialty roles where hiring takes months. I've had niche roles open where we didn't get any applicants with any experience on the topic for over 90 days on multiple occasions.

   1. alightsoul · 1790183192 · focus · HN ↗

      So you should apply to old job postings? Consensus in LATAM seems to be, they just forgot to take them down and they already have someone or in Latin America if you repost the same opening over and over the consensus seems to be the company is toxic they have a turnover problem, maybe you should say outright you're looking for 10 people

      1. Aurornis · 1790183493 · focus · HN ↗

         Some common sense goes a long way. If the job listing is from a company with 10,000 people, you can assume that they're always hiring. Submit away.

         If the listing is generic like "senior software engineer" and all of the requirements are generic like being able to program or do teamwork, it's probably a generic listing.

         Applying anyway is a safe bet, but I wouldn't invest as much energy into tailoring your resume if it's a 6 month old posting from a 50 person company with a website that looks like it's from 2009. That company probably forgot to take the listing down.

         > maybe you should say outright you're looking for 10 people

         This wouldn't help because you have no way of knowing if they've already hired 9 people or 1 person.

         The target can also change constantly. At a large enough company you continuously lose people for natural reasons, like retirement, moving for a spouse, moving to be closer to family. Past a tipping point you're just always hiring.

         1. locknitpicker · 1790184558 · focus · HN ↗

            > Some common sense goes a long way. If the job listing is from a company with 10,000 people, you can assume that they're always hiring. Submit away.

            Common sense would dictate that a company with 10,000 people has a need for a diverse set of roles, and it would be completely stupid to recycle the same template pretending the role was always the same. In fact, repeating a stale advert suggests the company does in fact not have positions opened and either forgot to pull an old advert or some recruiter is trawling for applications to pretend to be productive.

            1. Sharlin · 1790187209 · focus · HN ↗

               I don’t think common sense suggests that at all. It’s like saying that the US armed forces requires soldiers with many specialized skillsets (which is true) so clearly it should recruit to every individual role and post separately.

               A large company may have a handful of actually-very-special-role positions open for every hundred generic "our tech stack is this and isn’t going to change" developer roles.

               1. platevoltage · 1790192479 · focus · HN ↗

                  Perhaps the armed forces are doing something right, and the tech industry is not.

                  1. shagie · 1790194453 · focus · HN ↗

                     The armed forces have a service commitment of several years (if I read this correctly, US Army is 8 years). People will sometimes change jobs within months.

                     They have the time to train someone into a role and typically don't have to worry about going to work for a competitor after they get out of AIT or A school.

                     1. platevoltage · 1790196659 · focus · HN ↗

                        People used to spend their entire careers at a single company. Something changed, and it wasn't worker attitude.

                        1. locknitpicker · 1790231195 · focus · HN ↗

                           > People used to spend their entire careers at a single company. Something changed, and it wasn't worker attitude.

                           The US-style neoliberal attitude towards decimating the workforce at a drop of a hat for PR purposes does have a chilling effect on any employee's trust.

                           But don't fool yourself: one of the most important tools anyone has to improve their life and wellbeing is the ability to switch jobs. It can create career opportunities you would otherwise not have, and even unblock career progression by sidestepping your current job's corporate constraints.

                           1. red-iron-pine · 1790271588 · focus · HN ↗

                              > unblock career progression by sidestepping your current job's corporate constraints

                              no shit I work with multiple people that dipped out of their old gig, did 2 years somewhere else, and came back at a much more senior level to their old job because HR limits how often you can get promoted or increases inside a bracket.

                              jumping matters, as does the potential threat of jumping.

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