Ask HN: Who is hiring? (May 2018)

Be careful during their interview. The interviewer will trick you (with a witty "all candidates fail on this case") in a corner case mentioned orally but missing from the written test cases to support.

Also, be careful, the while the code for the pre-interview features all the logic to run tests case, the "human" interview will miss this feature and you'll lose time re-implementing a makeshift system during the call.

Please don't do this. The rules of this thread (see top text) include: "Commenters: please don't reply to job posts to complain about something. It's off topic here."

We detached this comment from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16967563 and marked it off-topic.

This didn't read like a complaint at all, but, rather, merely helpful advice on how to navigate their interview process.

Over the years of perusing this thread, it seems that more and more commentary has been deemed off-topic. As such, I'd ask that the rules at the top text be more explicit in what is actually permitted here, which is clearly much narrower than the rest of HN.

Alternatively, maybe just make it post-only with no comments permitted, since I, for one, would no longer even mention something like an typo'd URL for fear it would be considered complaining.

There's an entire genre of people bringing hard feelings from job interview processes into these threads and sticking them to the companies posting ads. Some of this must surely be justified, some one-sided, and some completely misleading. The trouble is that we have no way to tell which is which, and getting into detail would only take the threads further into the weeds. So I don't see what choice we have but to treat all of it as off topic.

In a way it's too bad, because job searching sucks and hiring sucks and it would be good if there were a process to sort through all this. But I'm skeptical that any internet forum can function as that kind of courtroom, and certainly the Who Is Hiring threads cannot.

It's really important to be able to fairly criticize a company for their interviewing/hiring practices. I think it's in-context if they are a poster on Who is hiring. Some of us recognize the regulars on here. We want to figure out if they are just trolling for resumes, a recruiter that is trying to be stealthy, or if they are just plain not serious about hiring (a waste of time).

I think it's facetious to say that the Who is hiring thread should be held to a courtroom's standard. A lot of companies have a hiring process that is definitely nowhere near that, no matter how much they may believe in it. It is certainly important to tell the truth. It is also inappropriate to call out individuals by name (as has happened a few times).

I think it's also pejorative to say that there is a "genre" of people bringing hard feelings from interview. We are just people. The hiring process is very cynical these days and most of us trying to get a job are on our best behavior, and we have similar expectations from the other side.

(By 'genre' I meant the type of comment, not the type of people.)

I don't disagree, but it doesn't answer the point: we have no way to tell what's true vs. false in these posts. Bad hiring practices are a thing and disgruntled applicants are a thing. Who Is Hiring threads are in no position to tell one apart from the other. Just imagine the mess if people started litigating the details here?

But they can't, anyhow, because no matter what someone posts, the person representing the company can usually only reply with something generic. A situation in which it's impossible to hear both sides and impossible to determine the facts is not one that is possible for the rest of us to decide fairly.