Ask HN: Who is hiring? (September 2025)

Hacker News Discussion ↗

Meta: Rules and Moderation of “Who Is Hiring” Threads

  • Moderators repeatedly detach job‑seeker complaints (e.g., “no reply to my applications”) from specific job posts, pointing to long‑standing rules that WIH threads are for listings and clarifying questions only.
  • Linked to many past explanations: HN doesn’t have resources to adjudicate disputes about hiring practices or to police whether companies are “really” hiring.
  • Some users feel the rules favor companies (“rules for job seekers, carte blanche for companies”); mods argue the rules also protect good actors and avoid flame wars they can’t moderate effectively.
  • One exchange involved a moderator mis-attributing a quote; they later corrected themselves and apologized, showing some transparency about moderation mistakes.

Ghost Jobs, Repeated Ads, and Skepticism

  • Multiple commenters note seeing the same companies post identical roles month after month, sometimes for years, with little visible headcount change.
  • This fuels suspicion that some listings are “ghost jobs” or long‑running candidate collection funnels. Users ask why such companies aren’t blocked or flagged.
  • Moderation response: some firms are genuinely always hiring; distinguishing bad faith from high growth is infeasible without intrusive verification.
  • A few users propose “let the market decide” by allowing public call‑outs in-thread, but moderators say such a rating system would itself need heavy governance and HN is not positioned to provide that.

Remote Work, Location and Compensation Issues

  • Many clarifying questions center on whether “remote” means worldwide versus limited regions, and whether salary is localized (e.g., Zurich vs. Munich, US vs. EU).
  • Some companies explicitly state EU/UK/EEA‑only or US‑only, or that they don’t sponsor visas; others are pressed to clarify mismatches between “remote (worldwide)” in the HN post and “US only” on their ATS pages.
  • A few threads touch on fairness: one commenter challenges location-adjusted pay as perpetuating low wages in cheaper regions.

Candidate Experience and Communication

  • Several users report applying (sometimes multiple times) to the same employers (e.g., education platforms, AI startups) without any response, questioning whether applications are even read.
  • In one notable case, a candidate describes progressing through multiple interview stages, discussing comp and start date, then being silently dropped; they still recommend the company but criticize the lack of closure.
  • Some hiring managers respond directly, inviting follow‑up by email and promising to “read all resumes,” or quickly fixing broken email addresses / job links when applicants point them out.

Product and Company Feedback

  • Scattered comments express strong enthusiasm for specific products (e.g., trail apps, analytics platforms, captcha alternatives, education sites), sometimes saying the product culture inferred from small UX touches (like a cookie banner) motivated them to apply.
  • Others report minor technical issues with careers sites (JS errors, broken forms, unclear submission confirmations) and are generally met with quick acknowledgments and fixes.