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

Hacker News Discussion ↗

Geography & Work Setup

  • Very globally distributed: heavy representation from US, Canada, UK/EU, India, LatAm, plus Africa, Middle East, and APAC.
  • Strong bias toward remote: many insist on fully remote; some open to hybrid or specific cities; a minority prefer on-site.
  • A number limit relocation (e.g., within EU, specific countries or states); others are explicitly relocation-friendly, often with existing visas/PR.

Roles & Seniority

  • Wide range from interns/new grads and juniors to staff, principal, directors, and ex-CTO/founders.
  • Common engineering roles:
    • Backend / platform / distributed systems and infra.
    • Full‑stack web with a front‑end or backend lean.
    • Data engineering, ML/AI engineering, and data science.
    • Embedded, firmware, robotics, real‑time and safety‑critical systems.
    • Mobile (iOS/Android/Flutter) and game/graphics engineers.
  • Many are comfortable as early founding engineers, tech leads, or fractional CTOs; several explicitly seek 0→1 product work or small, fast‑moving teams.

Technologies & Domains

  • Backend stacks: Python, Go, TypeScript/Node, Java, C#/.NET, Ruby on Rails, Elixir; strong presence of C/C++ and Rust for systems work.
  • Frontend: React/Next.js, Vue, Svelte, Angular, HTMX, Tailwind, design systems, accessibility.
  • Infra/DevOps: AWS/GCP/Azure, Kubernetes, Terraform, CI/CD, observability, SRE/Platform roles.
  • Specialized niches include: GIS/airspace, compilers, DSP/audio, graphics/WebGL/WebGPU, XR/visionOS, fintech, legal tech, healthcare, embedded security, HFT, robotics, and bioinformatics.

AI/ML & Data Focus

  • Significant cluster focused on LLMs and agents: RAG systems, fine‑tuning, MCP, LangChain/LangGraph, evaluation, AI infra and orchestration.
  • Others emphasize traditional ML (computer vision, NLP, reinforcement learning, scientific computing) or data platforms (Spark/Flink, dbt, Snowflake/BigQuery, Kafka).
  • Several describe concrete AI products built (radiology, legal drafting, email workflows, document analysis, tutoring, trading, etc.).

Non-Engineering & Hybrid Roles

  • Product managers (including very senior and growth‑oriented), product‑minded engineers, technical founders, and strategy/architecture consultants.
  • UX/UI and product designers, brand designers, creative technologists, motion/3D designers.
  • QA automation, DevRel, security/pen‑testing, AML/compliance analytics, and technical marketing.

Work Style & Preferences

  • Many stress: autonomy, high trust, talking to users, shipping quickly, and reliability in production.
  • Multiple people note long remote histories and comfort with async, cross‑time‑zone collaboration.
  • A few mention difficulty getting past automated CV/AI filters and explicitly invite direct human contact.