Ask HN: Who is hiring? (April 2025)

Hacker News Discussion ↗

April 2025’s Hacker News “Who is hiring?” thread showcases a wide range of engineering-heavy openings, from early-stage AI, robotics, and devtools startups to more established fintech, healthtech, climate, and infrastructure companies. Roles span backend, full-stack, ML/AI, data, platform, and founding engineer positions, with a mix of onsite (often SF, NYC, London, Amsterdam) and remote opportunities across the US, Europe, and beyond. Alongside the job posts, candidates raise recurring concerns about slow responses, “always-open” requisitions, and lack of rejection feedback, highlighting ongoing friction in the tech hiring market.

Hiring Landscape & Role Types

  • Wide range of companies from seed-stage startups to large, established firms; many YC alumni and Series A–C startups.
  • Heavy concentration in:
    • AI/ML (agents, LLM infra, evaluation, AI copilots, healthcare AI, legal AI, code AI, voice AI).
    • Developer tools & infrastructure (APIs, observability, CI/CD, DBs, dev platforms, code search, cloud infra, workflow engines).
    • Robotics, hardware, and spatial/AR (industrial robots, warehouse robots, gaming, robotics simulation, 3D/graphics).
    • Fintech & data (FP&A, trading infra, payments, DeFi, credit analysis, tax/lease/insurance tooling).
    • Healthcare, genomics, climate/energy and industrial analytics.
  • Most in-demand profiles: senior/staff full‑stack and backend engineers, infra/SRE/DevOps, data & ML engineers, and some design/product and GTM roles; relatively few junior openings.

Location, Remote vs Onsite

  • Many roles are “remote” but geographically constrained (US-only, Canada-only, EU-only, or specific states).
  • Strong cluster of onsite/hybrid roles in SF Bay Area, NYC, London, Amsterdam/Utrecht, Berlin, Stockholm, and a few in Bangalore, New Zealand, and Madagascar.
  • Several commenters point out mismatches between “remote” labels and later fine print requiring hybrid or specific locations.

Candidate Experience & Hiring Practices

  • Repeated frustrations about:
    • Companies not responding or failing to send rejections after substantial effort (e.g., take‑home projects, multi-stage processes).
    • Roles reposted for months, leading to suspicion of “ghost jobs” or low intent to hire quickly.
    • Application funnels that require installing the company’s product or using buggy third‑party forms.
  • Some companies respond directly, acknowledging volume and trying to clarify that roles remain open and standards are high.
  • Moderators intervene to detach off-topic or overly negative accusations and remind posters of thread rules.

Trust, Authenticity & Criticism

  • Multiple accusations that specific postings are “fake” or scams; in at least one case the poster is challenged on factual grounds or admits a mix-up.
  • One role draws concern for requiring “personal support-raising” (fundraising for one’s own nonprofit salary).
  • Ongoing discussion about salary realism in EU startups and transparency around compensation and hiring geography.