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Ben Halpern
Ben Halpern

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Do you have any input on the functionality of the hiring tag?

We're currently building out the #hiring tag on dev.to. This has been a requested feature from the community and is also falls well inline with our business-oriented objectives. Like most of the sub-projects of our operation, we launched something basic and we'll be refining it over time.

There will be a fee for posting in the tag, but it's free for the foreseeable future. It's one of the ways we plan to keep the lights on.

The tag is only really useful if it's easy to narrow down based on your needs, so any input on filtering parameters are welcome, and if you have any UI patterns that might work well for this kind of problem, we're all ears.

We're approaching this problem with the same value-oriented long term thinking we apply to the rest of the dev.to project, so while we don't want to build fast, we want to offer a real platform for longterm growth.

If your company is hiring, you're welcome to post in the tag for free. Doing so will become more useful over time, but early adopters are super appreciated and will be rewarded in the future for your awesomeness.

Top comments (20)

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rhymes profile image
rhymes

A "freelance/contract" option. They could just write "contract" or "freelance" in the title but a filter might be useful.

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ben profile image
Ben Halpern

Yeah agreed. The dev.to tie in can eventually help provide some social proof of an individual's appropriateness as a contractor, which could take away a lot of the overhead in this situation.

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kayis profile image
K

I'd be in favour of "contract" or "consulting"

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bengreenberg profile image
Ben Greenberg

re: filters -- These are probably obvious, but just in case: a) location, b) remote/in person/combo, c) seniority level (junior, intermediate, senior), d) tech stack

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vgrovestine profile image
Vincent Grovestine

With respect to "remote" postings, in particular; applicable citizenship/VISA requirements are good to know in advance.

Nothing quite so disappointing as to troll remote-friendly job sites only to find out that because I'm a Canadian citizen, I'm ineligible for many US opportunities. I suspect this boils down to the difference between contract and on-payroll/salaried hiring practices.

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ben profile image
Ben Halpern

Thanks. We already had this general use case in mind, but if you could provide some insight into exactly where the job listings might fall off in this regard, that would be really helpful. We hadn't really thought beyond the general filtering of "sponsor's via". Any details into the issues you've run into with any different types of classifications is great.

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ben profile image
Ben Halpern

Thanks, yeah. They may be "obvious" but always helpful to get basic feedback on even the little things. I'd hate for everyone to think something's obvious and then nobody ever brings it up.

We're definitely not trying to completely reinvent the wheel, as we think our value to each side lies in the subtle benefits of being a platform, and we're going to try to be helpful in the little ways.

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bengreenberg profile image
Ben Greenberg

I think a definite benefit is the fact that if someone applies through here, hiring managers can easily check out the candidate's posts and that gives a nice fuller picture of the person's interests, etc. Love that you're building out this feature!

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ben profile image
Ben Halpern

Yeah. A lot of the motivation comes through experience. I've been looking to hire people and if you're unsure about someone, you're going to look into them on the Internet, and it is always a major plus if they are engaging in code in a way that shows they care. I'm not sure whether it's a perfect indicator, but it's a part of the process no matter what. We think your dev.to profile and activity is going to be a better representation of the important qualities than a lot of other online representations.

Companies also see a major benefit in the fact that everyone on the platform has self-selected to be early adopters in a community that seriously geeks out over software development and also holds values around inclusiveness and constructive dialogue. In talking to companies, this is always a major plus.

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bengreenberg profile image
Ben Greenberg

I've been seriously geeking out over this site since I discovered it. It's great to be part of a community of fellow code geeks, but even more importantly, a place where I felt confident to contribute. Not easy to create a space that is in one breath both rigorous and welcoming.

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ben profile image
Ben Halpern

Thanks so much. That's exactly the value we try really hard to hit on.

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imthedeveloper profile image
ImTheDeveloper

Couldn't agree more with Ben. This has been a ridiculously welcoming and approachable community. It will be interesting to see what happens in the future as some features may bring in the typical crowds I've walked away from. Prime example is the lifecycle of a question on stack overflow which typically results in arguments and 1 upmanship of late.

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rapidnerd profile image
George

Perhaps something where they could easily put in a form for those who wish to apply to fill out with any relevant information added by those looking, embedded into the thread itself so they can fill it out there and then?

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bgadrian profile image
Adrian B.G.

Yes, don't put it 😂.
There are thousands of openings each week but only a few good articles here,the ratio can get out of hand and become a spamfest.
I rather saw services,paid articles,ads,cloud accounts with regrets, product Amazon links etc than 10 US jobs.

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ben profile image
Ben Halpern

This is valid feedback. For what it's worth I'm 100% with you and our implementation will limit this service to those who follow the tag and/or opt in to this. 100% don't want to inundate people with listings that are not relevant to them.

If you ever see a job listing without you telling us you want to see it beforehand, we've probably made a mistake.

We have other business models in mind to supplement this, so we're not going to have to lean on this too hard.

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lpasqualis profile image
Lorenzo Pasqualis

I am not entirely sure to spot the difference between a "normal" post, and a post tagged with "hiring".

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damcosset profile image
Damien Cosset

I would have to second this I think. Right now, there is a discuss post with the hiring tag that has nothing to do with a company posting a job description.

Would it be better/easier if the "hiring" tag, or whatever tag is used, can only be used by companies who want to hire / used to post a job description? I suppose every question about hiring developers might have could go under another tag, and keep the hiring one strictly for this functionality?

Probably not a big deal, but Lorenzo's comment made me think about this.

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ben profile image
Ben Halpern

Yeah, right now hiring post "functionality" is restricted, but we aren't appropriately handling non-appropriate posts use of the tag at all. It's an early case we are ironing out now.

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dfellini profile image
Dan Fellini

Disallow job listings that don't include a salary range. I find it obnoxious when companies won't even give a hint as to what they're offering.

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geoff profile image
Geoff Davis

Perhaps some sort of anonymous posting or replying, so devs can have the confidence in privacy when perusing or inquiring in this section.