Ask HN: Who is hiring? (May 2025)

Prevalent Themes in Job Posts

• Heavy concentration of roles in AI/ML, dev tooling, infrastructure, and security; many companies pitch themselves as “AI + X” (healthcare, legal, logistics, finance, defense, etc.).
• Most technical roles skew senior: staff/principal, “founding engineer,” or “could build the whole product alone”; relatively few explicit junior openings.
• Mix of fully remote (often constrained to US/Canada or EU), hybrid, and strict onsite; several startups strongly emphasize in‑person culture despite remote trend.
• Many posts highlight strong funding, rapid growth, and “PMF already, now scaling,” trying to offset broader macro gloom.

Ethics and Mission Debates

• Healthcare billing AI drew criticism for focusing on hospital revenue and “enhancing metrics” rather than patient care; some commenters called this upcoding and noted long‑standing abuse risks.
• The company defended itself by arguing chart-quality improvements and tighter hospital margins vs. insurers make their work net positive; that justification was received skeptically by some.
• Digital identity tools in low‑income countries raised concerns about exporting “dystopian” identity management rather than solving local problems.
• Several people lamented the scarcity of “deep mission” startups, blaming VC hypergrowth for pushing shallow but profitable use cases.

Hiring Practices and Candidate Experience

• Passport photo requirement in one EU job application was justified as a visa‑support necessity; others pushed back that collecting full passport scans pre‑offer is unnecessary and risky.
• One employer was accused of asking for intro videos and then ghosting; they responded that videos were a filter against fake applications and claimed to be actively hiring.
• Multiple companies require video applications; some candidates dislike this, while companies defend it as a way to cut LLM‑generated resumes and test comfort on camera.
• Persistent skepticism about long‑running, never‑filled roles (e.g., a Windows desktop position repeatedly advertised) led to accusations of “fake positions”; the company denied this and said the role is simply hard to fill.

Remote Work, Geography, and Access

• US/Canada‑only or “US + Canada remote” roles prompted complaints about implicit exclusion of Latin America; employers cited legal entities, payroll complexity, and time zones as main constraints.
• Some remote‑first firms explicitly highlight APAC/ANZ or global hiring to differentiate from “fake remote” roles bounded to US time zones.

Perception of the Job Market

• Despite the sheer number of postings, candidates report difficulty getting interviews; one commenter with past success described this market as worse than 2008.
• Others note many companies appear to be in “resume collection” mode—same roles reappear for months—reinforcing skepticism about how many posts correspond to active, urgent hiring.