Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (April 2025)

Hacker News Discussion ↗

Overview & Thread Structure

  • Thread is a standard “Who wants to be hired?” post: almost entirely self-introductions from job seekers.
  • Posts follow a loose template: location, remote/relocation preferences, tech stack, résumé/portfolio, and short bio.
  • There is minimal back-and-forth; a few replies call out a broken résumé link and recognize a known open-source maintainer.

Geography & Work Arrangement

  • Very global: strong representation from US and Canada, UK and broader Europe, India, Nigeria and other African countries, Latin America, and parts of Asia/Oceania.
  • Remote work is overwhelmingly preferred; many specify “remote-only,” often with willingness to align to US/EU time zones.
  • Relocation attitudes vary: some explicitly “no relocation,” others open within region (EU, US, Canada) or “for the right offer.”

Roles & Seniority Levels

  • Majority are software engineers across backend, full-stack, and frontend, with significant clusters in:
    • Web (React/Next.js/TypeScript, Node, Rails, Django).
    • Data/ML/AI (data engineers, ML engineers, AI researchers, MLOps).
    • Mobile (iOS/Android/Flutter/React Native) and embedded/firmware.
  • Also present: product designers and UX, product managers, project/engineering managers, CTOs/founders, DevRel/technical writers, QA/automation, DevOps/SRE, security engineers, and a few students seeking internships.
  • Experience ranges from junior/new grad to 20+ years, staff/principal level, and ex-founders.

Technologies & Domains

  • Common stacks: JavaScript/TypeScript + React/Next; Python (Django/FastAPI/Flask); Java/Spring; C#/ .NET; Go; Rust; Ruby on Rails.
  • Infra/DevOps: AWS/Azure/GCP, Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform/Ansible, CI/CD, observability.
  • Data/ML: PyTorch, TensorFlow, scikit-learn, LLMs, LangChain/agents, MLOps, computer vision, recommendation systems.
  • Niche areas: HPC and scientific computing, robotics, game dev, WebRTC/video streaming, blockchain/Web3, digital twins, fintech, healthcare, edtech, climate and social-impact work.

Values, Constraints & Preferences

  • Many emphasize impact: healthcare, education, fintech, Africa-focused development, or “positive social impact” generally.
  • Several explicitly avoid certain sectors (environmentally harmful, questionable ethics, “AI slop”).
  • A subset seek specifically AI/ML/AI-safety or research-adjacent roles; others explicitly want non–gen-AI work.
  • Quite a few stress mentoring, clean architecture, testing, documentation, and long-term maintainability.

Notable Patterns

  • Numerous candidates highlight open-source leadership, conference talks, or published books/papers.
  • Several are ex- or current founders and senior leaders now open to IC or advisory roles.
  • Email obfuscation and anonymized résumés are used to limit spam, indicating prior negative experience with posting contact info publicly.