Hacker News Reader

Comment by simonebrunozzi | Hacker News Reader

For Brian:

On Dec 13th, 2012, I wrote the following email to you, after having applied for a “Head of Community” position at AirBnB. I didn’t get any reply either. Note that I cannot claim I became the big success that AirBnB has after these “rejections”, but it still surprises me that you or your org didn’t even wanted to talk to a Technology Evangelist from AWS. I guess you did a similar type of mistake with me.

"Hi Brian, I know you’re busy, therefore I’ll keep it short.

My name is Simone, I work in San Francisco for Amazon Web Services, and I’m interested in becoming the Global Head of Community at Airbnb.

I think I have what it takes to be successful in that role, and I’m a big fan of Airbnb.

Let me know if we can discuss, or if you want more details.

Have a great day,"

View on HN

There are many potential reasons you didn't get a response, but I want to highlight one in particular:

There was no value proposition in this email. For an email like this to be worth responding to, you have to provide a brief, no BS, explanation as to what compelling value you're bringing to the table. The only exception to this rule is if you're famous for your accomplishments in that specific role (in which case, they're probably pitching you already anyway).

Finally, nobody owes anyone a response to a cold-call email. Especially not people that get hundreds if not thousands of emails a day. Don't take it personally.

I'm wondering why the downvotes - can someone care to explain? I'm honestly curious on why.

Just my guess.

You were sorta putting your situation on a par with investors missing out on investing in the early stages of a company now worth $24bn. That is to say, them not paying attention to you is equivalent to missing out on an absolutely mind boggling amazing opportunity (in hindsight).

Now, you might truly be as awesome as that but people tend to vote down comments where people are blowing their own trumpets, for better or worse.

Seems like an ugly, passive aggressive trash talk of Simone. The whole point is that they don't know what value he can bring. I hope he does something totally awesome just to show this comment up. :P

Your inference is incorrect. I don't know them and have no reason to judge them.

They said "I'm honestly curious on why [the comment was downvoted]". I conjectured the original heavily downvoted comment may have been interpreted as boastful through comparison of a personal situation to AirBnB's and that's why people may have voted it down. I received 17 upvotes for this speculation which may (or may not) support my hunch.

May Simone, and everyone, do "something awesome." But not merely, as you, passive aggressively (and quite needlessly) conclude, to "show" anything up.

I was not passive aggressive. I call that actively aggressive. Because you were using vague indirect statements to say that this guy is worthless. I openly described it as such.

I don't know Simone either, but I'd say there's a fair chance he can contribute more than some illegal hotel scheme. I was pretty disgusted that you value this hype above a human being, and I don't care what 17 other similarly amoral individuals may have said.

Because you were using vague indirect statements to say that this guy is worthless.

No, I didn't.

The nature of being "vague" or "indirect" means it's impossible to accurately determine an objective meaning. Thus, any conclusion is conjecture.

And what about this sentence then? "Note that I cannot claim I became the big success that AirBnB has after these “rejections”"

The problem is you've addressed your post to Brian, complaining about the fact that you cold-emailed him in 2012 about a job opportunity and never heard back. First, the advice from the article would be to keep trying and not get discouraged, so his non-response is not in any way hypocritical. Second, if you really wanted the job, what were you doing sending an email anyway? Go and talk to the man and take it as far as sleeping outside his door so you can pounce on him if he absolutely won't respond to you. I believe that some persistent phone calls would have at least gotten you coffee.

So, you've got some hurt feelings (this is understandable, nobody likes being ignored), your post sounds a bit like sour grapes, it's only tangentially related to the article, and that's probably why people downvoted you. What's the point of trying to embarrass the guy here? It just looks bad for you, I would just delete everything honestly.

You got a point. I actually tried with him, with Joe, and with the recruiter - multiple times. I didn't insist as much as you suggest, perhaps due to the fact that my Visa back then (L1) didn't allow me to work for them in the US, and my green card was still several months away.

It sounds like a frustrating situation. If you still want a position, keep on trying to get through to them. Worst case you get to a definitive no and then you can drop it.

Why do you think they owe you a response? Your comment sorta sounds like you think you're something special, maybe that's why people downvoted?

Thanks. I think what you say makes sense, as far as how my comment might be perceived.

Also, it was an ice cold intro whereas the investor intros were warm.

The article is not complaining about the fact that some investors did not reply. Neither should you as a job seeker.

1) It's not related to the topic. 2) You're using a forum for discussing the topic to force a response from Airbnb regarding an interaction that should only be taking place between you and Airbnb

Reply on news.ycombinator.com