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Comment by argumentum | Hacker News Reader

It wouldn't have been that bad had they made one simple change .. from (20% of College Students) to (20% of <some big name school>) or (20% of a major public university).

It would have actually been more impressive if they weren't so vague .. now they are probably going to turn off a lot of good prospects.

I say this as a YC alum whose 1st job post was fairly ill-advised (though not dishonest). Believe me, it is quite tempting to play around, so I wouldn't be too hard especially on the smaller teams who haven't been recruiting/employing for too long.

They will learn, soon enough. It's also important to note that many teams consist of 17-22 year olds, and as this app is aimed at college students it seems like it could be one of those teams. So cut them some slack.

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I figured they would learn by getting called out like this. And since the post was anonymous, it doesn't really hurt them anyway. Free learning experience.

And also useful feedback for other YC companies that are queuing up job posts.

There have been previous discussions about the state of some YC job ads (though I can't find them right now), so this isn't the first time people have felt compelled to say something.

edit: Link to previous job post discussions (I know there are others but can't dig them up).

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5230892

I agree with this (particularly since it's anonymous), but piling on seems kind of mean.

Another option would be to simply email the given address and state your complaints. For example that you may have been interested (if you were), but felt mislead by the posting.

The reason I publicly posted this is because it is an issue about community standards, not just a personal issue between me and the company.

It's interesting to think about my own motivations -- I wonder if I would have been gentler if their post hadn't been anonymous. If so, should I have been gentler even though their post was anonymous? Anyway, I apologize if this caused unnecessary hurt, I didn't mean to.

I didn't mean to imply that you were piling on, and I don't doubt your intentions one bit. . The problem is that once this is posted, you have little control over the outcome in the comment threads and piling on is inevitable. Again, not a criticism of you at all, my reply was aimed at the comments in the thread.

Perhaps, but part of the reason for making a post like this is to bring attention to the format. We can cut them some slack, but being 17-22 doesn't require linkbait job posts. Plus, it's not like it requires so much experience to understand why linkbait is not in your favor on Hacker News. Some of the linkbaitiest titles are the ones I see consistently reposted - it doesn't work and it's somewhat annoying.

A really good format would be, as another commenter said:

{YC Company} {Season Number} is looking for {Job Title}. Join us!

Bam. Doesn't that just look better? Sexier? More appealing and respectful? You don't have to be 25+ to get that, it just has to be introduced.

So, now that it's the top story on HN, and has been introduced, let's maybe try to codify it for future job postings?

I think that's a decent format (assuming the startup is launched), but it doesn't encapsulate the spirit of some jobs. For example, I actually like posts like the following (right now the 2nd post on the board):

Help us build the mobile app farmers really want https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6266489

It intrigues me a lot more than "FarmLogs (YC sXX) seeks iOS developer". If that was the title, I might think it was some stupid iphone game and ignore it.

But if you click on it, it's a really interesting startup that could help a lot of people not normally helped by technology.

Help us build the mobile app farmers really want

Interestingly, that headline first read "John Deere sucks at software. Help us build the mobile app farmers really want." Someone must have edited it because it is not a good idea to alienate a possible future partner/acquirer. These are new companies, and they are still learning how to handle publicity and marketing. It is also possible that they intended to cause a stir with the controversial headline and generate buzz.

they are still learning how to handle publicity and marketing.

I think this is a crucial observation. Anyone who is recruiting (or fundraising, selling etc) wants to generate buzz, but those without experience do not naturally know where exactly to draw the line for what type of audience.

Looks like they made an edit: "Disrupt Education: Seeking Lead Engineer for Platform with Traction & Revenue"

well what if it's 20% of the National University of Singapore? That's not exactly a big name school in the Bay Area. (By now I have an idea which company this is)

The ad says "small team based in the Bay Area" so I doubt it's the National University of Singapore.

NUS and Berkeley have both the similar number of students ~30,000. Berkeley might be good for getting close to the users, but NUS would be better if one wants to remain stealthy or study adoption a la Google Fiber not being in California. Still you are probably right since there doesn't seem to be any asians on the team. If it's Berkeley, Marty Nemko should be involved, but can't find clues to that yet, although the original post contains two smoking guns, methinks.

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