I Never Expected to Start This
Back in June, my wife and I were driving back from an outdoor birthday party. It was a lovely summer night, and we were happily tired after all the physical activities we did there.
We were getting close to home when I got an email pop up on my phone:
I’ve been getting a steady stream of these for a while. I mainly ignored these emails because I wasn’t sure just how genuine these are and whether it is worth spending some time figuring out whether it’s an opportunity I will like.
What I did that night was a bit different, though. Instead, I thought: “enough is enough; can I fix this?” and asked my wife if it is okay if I stay up late tonight.
If you’re a bit like me, you know what I just did. I just bought a domain name I liked.
Well, I also had an idea: I can make the recruiter-candidate fit work better.
What if recruiters had a better understanding of the candidates before they reach out to them? What if candidates had a better perception of companies?
What I came up with that night looked genuinely horrible.
However, it was something, and it was public.
So I shot an email back to the recruiter saying I am perhaps not interested in the opportunity, but I have this project I am working on, and it will improve their life.
To my delight (and a bit of a surprise, too), I’ve got a positive response.
And that’s how HackerIntro started. Shortly after the start, a friend of mine came up with a brilliant idea, and I just had to implement it.
What if HackerIntro can help developers manage their inbound interview solicitation emails? Imagine being able to filter out the noise and see only those emails that can be relevant and interesting to you.
What if recruiters knew better when to contact you? What if?…
Well, after a few days of tireless hacking, HackerIntro started offering myname@hackerintro.com mailboxes that intend to do a bunch of things. For starters, by default, it’ll only allow e-mails from registered users only, ensuring you don’t get spammed with a mass e-mail blast. The senders will receive an invitation to sign up, and when they do, their e-mails will pass through.
What’s coming is even more enjoyable.
You will be able to flip your work availability switch. Then, those who contact you will get an automatic response that suggests subscribing to your availability status so that you can get contacted when you’re looking again.
As Ben Northrop rightly wrote on his blog:
“The problem is our typical developer resume is a multi-page chronicle of every system, component, and library we’ve ever worked with over the course of our entire careers. Information overload. If the reader had only a few minutes to skim our resume (which is usually the case), it’d be really hard for them to come away with an accurate picture of what we know or what we’ve done.”
Yep, you got it. Dynamic, auto-tailoring resumes will change the way recruiters find people. And by very nature, HackerIntro will have these — they are very critical in establishing a better understanding of candidate match. Both you and recruiters will benefit from this.
<here go a few paragraphs describing more plans, but I had to cut these out>
I am still working on most of this stuff. But you can get two things from HackerIntro today:
myname@hackerintro.commailbox — sign up at hackerintro.com- HackerIntro Insights newsletter. It helps companies get away from the job ad format and instead make themselves more transparent and, well, entertaining! So check it out and subscribe.
I also need your help! First, you can follow HackerIntro on Twitter. Second, you can spread the word about the newsletter. Finally, you can give me feedback (even if it is negative!)
P.S. In case you were wondering, the website does look better today.
