Ask HN: What your experience with the monthly "who wants to be hired" thread? (self)

I have had the same email address continuously since 1994 - pre-dating the PIR database of domain registration dates. At a rough estimate I receive about half of the spam email that exists on the internet. Some of it is pretty funny or helps narrow down data leaks to the source. I have been able to connect a few targeted campaigns to the HN hiring threads:

  - Business development spam (finance, lead generation, marketing, staffing), all of it addressed entities unrelated to me personally.
  - Stalking from estranged family members, leading to restraining orders.
  - Multi-level-recruiter referral pyramid schemes
  - Fake sextortion threats from third-world spammers
  - Grand total of Zero actual recruiters or hiring managers.

Still worth it for me for the interesting reading.

The number of posts there is skyrocketing while the number of posts to “who is hiring” is flatlined https://micjm.github.io/hn-hiring-index/

I found some fantastic people through this mechanism. Highly recommended.

I'm getting a lot more E-mails referring back to the content of my posts recently. I've been using ChatGPT to help me figure them out.

It has never been useful to me, so I stopped posting after a few tries

Got one or two nice interviews which made me realize I like visual design and music much more than coding, which was helpful.

I have been hired twice from it, but not very recently. I have to assume posting anything up there these days earns a hiring manager a few thousand AI nonsense responses peppered with actual people trying to get placed, and no real way to distinguish the two without exhausting effort.

I was contracted once to do some freelance work and they ghosted me. Later I found out from other comments here that they have a reputation for being a flake.

I just got spam (which I keep getting to this day), plus one actual offer that was probably lost in their spam folder.

I put some screenshots in an old blog post in case you're interested: https://7c0h.com/blog/new/who_wants_to_be_spammed.html

Edit: Hey, 195.178.110.247, fix your crawler!

I've found work and contracts in the past. But recently I'm just getting very occasional tire kickers, and spam.

I've received two full time roles via that feature, one in 2016 and one in 2025. It's generally a very high signal route, and my first choice when venturing outside of existing contacts/network and onto the wider internet.

I hired someone from the thread about six years ago. So it worked for someone at least once.

I was hired once from one of those, in 2019

It led to one interview once maybe? Not worth the effort.

In years past I had one success, but just spam and garbage now

Been posting there every once in a while for last few years.

Few times got a freelance projects from there because people who contacted me been very specificly interested about my game development experience.

I'm generalist without cool looking CV and I honestly tell that last 6 years been mostly gamedev so it can be much less useful for me. No idea.

After last few times it's started to be 10s of AI spam messages and dumb "hire me" ai spam because mailbox is [email protected].

Surprisingly out of AI spam there been like 2 actual founders reaching out via AI messages, but unless I manage to find people on Linkedin I just ignore it as potential scam.

PS: If you use AI for initial reach please make it short and to the point. I dont want your fucking AI agent cite experience from my own post.

Re-commenting from a comment written in another post a few moments ago:

~~~

A few minutes ago I just got a third (from a first and second emails that were sent half an hour earlier than that) about a "Business Partnership Invitation" for "AI Training Projects" from "Anthony Harrison" <[email protected]>. No need to say what you're supposed to do in that "business" but later in said email they claim they will get 70% of the earnings and you get 30%. The funny part is that they most probably got my mail from the "Who wants to be hired?" post from here and most probably they're using some sort of ai tool to scan those emails, even those that are "hidden" by a 'please see my portfolio to get my mail' like mine.

It's been the same story for the last few months - I post on HN's "Who wants to be hired?" and a few days later I get no real job offers but scam slop like that.

~~~

Still I'm grateful to HN because it was for it I got the best job I ever had and got to have money to pay for the bills and the beans, but sadly it folded (or so they told me).

I got hired off of it, the company was a shambles, I ended up going back to a previous employer rather than waiting for the inevitable (they folded about 6 months later). Overall I appreciate the experience, they were good people but they didn't know how to build software and they wouldn't let people who did know get anything done.

got more of the same "I made a job board and want you to be listed on it", which I assume are driven by AI

There appears to be an AI biz using an LLM bot to spam me pitching me on a supposedly paying role to help them train their LLM (to better replace me out of my own field), and as part of their "application" process I merely have to email some rando strangers a bunch of critical PII as well as do something which would de facto be helping them to train their LLMs. except unpaid, cuz part of their "application" process

they tweak their names and exact wording each time but pattern/template is consistent

(scumbags)

I never commented there, but I imagine it's as hot or as cold as any given job market. Comment there in 2021 and you'd need to beat all the legitimate offers and enthusiasm off with a stick. Anyone with some basic tech experience and in the right area will at least start some interviews.

Comment in 2024 and we're just yelling into a void. Maybe some truly exceptional personalities can still get calls, but it's just that: the exception (or you're well established in the hot AI field).

I still get spam from a 2024 entry.

How this got into the main page having 3 points in 3 minutes only? Hmmm...

You put your email online - you get spam. Easy.