Ask HN: Anybody Work in Technical Recruiting? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Anybody Work in Technical Recruiting?

7 pointspolalavik1 comment

Looking to pick some brains of people in the recruiting world. If I sound naive to this world, I am - please help me with what I dont know so i can ask better questions!

I'm working on a couple niche job boards for a subdomain of engineering, mostly for fun. My theory is that if I can generate enough traffic I can charge for job postings. But how does the recruiting side work?

1. what do budgets look like (per job, per year, etc)?

2. do you ever post on niche job boards? which ones and why? what is the value they provide?

3. what would make you choose to post on a new job board? what quantifiable metrics would you need to see?

4. ??? any other info you might think

Thanks! and let me know if im asking the wrong things off the bat!

I have hired dozens of engineers for remote and hybrid roles. I would be happy to chat. My email is in my profile.

Some quick answers:

1. All over the place, depending on the role, company, and budget. Anything from a few hundred dollars per role (even less officially), to 20% of the annual salary.

2. I have. A while ago I was recruiting for Django roles, and have posted on https://djangojobs.net/ when they were starting out. I have also used regional job boards.

3. If the niche was tight enough, I would probably do it. If I could de-risk the spend, I would do it. I don't mind paying per placement, but getting a bunch of low-quality leads is annoying. Why won't I do it most of the time? If it costs money, there is a chance it will get flushed down the drain. Each job board also requires me to learn a different interface, way of reading about candidates, and possibly "credit" or funds managements structure. This is cognitive load and going with bigger ones reduces the number of "places" I interact with.

4. In the end, the goal is to find a good person to fill a role, onboard them, and get them to contribute. Many recruiters get paid when they place a candidate, but if the candidate does not work out after a trial period, they refund the money. Well, not really refund, but find another candidate to replace them without taking another fee. The closer you can align your payment structure to this goal, the more you'll be able to charge.

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