Ask HN: Are YC startups *actually* hiring?

Hacker News Discussion ↗

Many engineers report that applying to Y Combinator–affiliated startups yields few or no responses, fueling skepticism that these companies are genuinely hiring rather than collecting résumés or signaling growth. Founders and hiring managers counter that they are hiring but are overwhelmed by automated, AI-generated, and low-quality applications, so they rely heavily on referrals and outbound recruiting instead of job boards. The exchange highlights a broader breakdown in the tech hiring pipeline, where public postings attract massive noise, candidates feel ignored, and both sides question the value of cold applications.

Overall picture

  • Commenters report both: some YC startups do hire from public postings, but many roles feel fake, stale, or impossibly selective.
  • The hiring market is described as “a mess” with automation, spam, and misaligned incentives on both sides.

Ulterior motives & fake / stale postings

  • Job ads may be used for:
    • Signaling health/prestige (“we’re growing”).
    • Building future candidate pools when no role is open.
    • Meeting formal posting requirements while an internal favorite already exists.
    • H‑1B/immigration games and general data collection.
  • Some claim many postings, including on big boards, are outright fake or created by job boards themselves.
  • Posts can remain up long after budgets or optimism have evaporated, making them effectively dead.

Applicant experiences

  • Multiple people applied to hundreds of YC / HN roles and got zero or near-zero responses, even when seemingly well-qualified.
  • BS rejection reasons (“not velocity-focused”, “not a culture fit”) and late-stage rejections fuel cynicism.
  • Some do report success via YC’s WorkAtAStartup and HN “Who’s Hiring”, though it’s seen as a pure numbers game.

Startup / hiring side perspective

  • YC startups describe:
    • Hundreds to >1000 applicants per role within days.
    • Most applications as low-effort, AI-generated, or outright fraudulent résumés.
    • Many candidates unable to pass relatively simple real-world coding screens.
  • This volume pushes teams to:
    • Brutal early culling.
    • Focus on outbound recruiting and referrals; job posts mainly serve as shareable URLs.
  • Small teams lack dedicated recruiters and can’t thoroughly screen huge inbound pools.

Referrals, selectivity, and fairness

  • Several argue most startup hires are referrals; cold applicants are the last resort.
  • Advice: don’t rely on passive applications; hustle for warm intros.
  • Critics ask why companies keep public postings if they ignore them, calling it “make-believe” that wastes applicants’ time.

Automation, AI, and spam

  • Applicants use tools to auto-apply and generate AI résumés/letters; companies use ATS and ML filters.
  • This arms race leads to:
    • Candidates stuffing keywords to please algorithms.
    • Hiring managers filtering out anything that “sounds like AI” or generic enthusiasm.
  • There’s disagreement over expecting “mission enthusiasm” vs focusing on technical competence.

Compensation & incentives

  • Some founders complain applicants “want too much money”; others note YC startups offering very low pay/equity for high-risk roles.
  • Mismatch between startup comp and big-company expectations is seen as a source of friction.

Proposed improvements

  • Ideas floated: transparency about how long roles have been open, time-to-hire stats, response SLAs, vetting of job posters, centralized candidate databases, even “name and shame” lists.
  • Skepticism exists that platforms like LinkedIn already tried this and drifted toward spam and monetization.