Show IH: Culture-first approach to finding an engineering job
I'm building Key Values, a website that helps job-seeking engineers identify what they care most about in a job and find teams that share those values.
I posted here on IH a few weeks ago and got great feedback (thank you!). Hopefully I've addressed those concerns and can learn what else I can do to improve my website.
Is the homepage clear?
How can I make the product better?
This is a neat idea.
Thanks pranav7!
I'm a fan of the updates Lynne!
I've got to get a newsletter out for tomorrow morning so I don't have a lot of time to give you a comprehensive review but the one nitpick I'll raise is that I'd change "Pair Programs" to "Pair Programming".
I'll try to dig in a little deeper tomorrow.
I agree that the value tag names could be improved. They're not all consistent but I tried to where possible: eats lunch together, actively practices inclusion, supports physical wellness, pair programs, etc.
Maybe "programs in pairs"?
Perhaps. To be honest I'd just go with "Pair Programming" — it's become a term of art at this point, so slight deviations on it might confuse people at first.
For consistency's sake, you could always go with something like "Fosters Pair Programming" (if you have the screen real estate for it).
Please seek out NYC-based companies as well :-D
I definitely want to add NYC-based companies. If you know of any eng teams in NYC that prioritize culture, send them my way! Or if you have any that you're specifically curious about, tell me. I'll reach out :)
Can you update the URL when a filter is added so clicking an opportunity and then the back button takes us back to the same results? If not, can you add target=blank to all links so we at least don't lose our place? This should not require a session or cookies or a profile to achieve. Thanks!
I asked @RyanL this below -- Is saving your selected value tags enough motivation to create a profile?
(Also, are you using your desktop? Why not just open profiles up in different tabs?)
Regardless--using local storage to save selections is on my list. I'll get to it eventually!
Hey I really like this approach. It rhymes with how I like to approach finding a job. I have two thoughts.
A way to filter on remote first / remote friendly positions.
I guess you're only focused on the US market, but it'd be nice to see which companies allow other locations, like Europe or Asia for a job "located" in the US.
Both thoughts stem from the want to find remote friendly jobs.
...a month later...
I wanted to follow up and tell you that "Remote-OK" is now a company property. I'm continually adding teams that are either all-remote or remote-friendly too!
Awesome! You should write a follow-up article/forum post. :)
Hi Marcus!
I definitely want to include this and will do it soon. It'll make more sense too once I have more teams that are remote only or remote friendly. Keep an eye out for it!
This is the same suggestion that RyanL (below) made and it's a really good one. As I include more teams that are based in different areas and/or have multiple offices, I will definitely prioritize location filters. So far though, the majority of teams are looking for engineers in the US (and San Francisco specifically).
Thanks for taking the time to give me feedback and suggestions -- it's really informative and helpful!
Cheers!
This is a great website! Looks great, lots of content in an easy to read format. I have three quick comments/suggestions:
It'd be great to put in a location or remote option, so I can filter out the unobtainable jobs (Boston vs SF).
When I drilled down into a company and used the Chrome back button, my ~5 filters were de-selected.
Listing the interview style and difficulty would be great, as some companies require algorithms vs homework, etc.
Hey Ryan, so glad you wrote all of these out!
I've been thinking about this! Right now, I have so few teams and most are based out of SF that I just haven't prioritized this. But I definitely will.
Would you be willing to create a profile in order to save your selected value tags? :) I'm thinking that this is great motivation for people to create a profile on my site -- do you think that?
How perfect, I've been working on collecting this information! You'll see information about the interview process on each team's profile within the next few days. (The tricky part is that a lot startups and smaller companies experiment with their interview process, so they don't always feel comfortable saying that they'll do X if they're likely to change it. In these cases, I'll just omit that section on their profile page.)
Thanks so much for your feedback!! I really appreciate it :)
Let me know if you would like to integrate this with Code For Cash. People could optionally take Key Values surveys and get matched if there is a very very high match. We have 380 members, many of whom are on the market and potentially available for fte. We would need to work out a hiring fee. zack@codefor.cash
Hi Zack! I'm so thrilled that you even suggested this but I'm not quite ready for this. I'll send you an email anyway but I'd love to revisit this in a few weeks or so when I'm farther along with my project. Thanks for reaching out though! I'm incredibly intrigued :)
Wow this is awesome! And I love the logo. Sharing this with my colleagues as we speak..errr type.
Where are you getting the data from? Are you scraping some other site or is it all manually entered?
Hi RyanB! These are all manually entered. Every profile takes a lot of time to write actually. Teams have to decide what their 8 values (from my curated list), think about how to rank them, and then have to evaluate whether or not they follow through with them in their daily operations/routines. The feedback I get from CEOs/CTOs/engineering managers/engineers is that it's a tough (but fun) exercise.
Some of the companies listed are pretty big names; if you don't mind me asking, how'd you get in touch with the c-suite and what was the major motivation for them to complete the exercise if it's tough/time-consuming?
Sorry for the slow reply, I was traveling all weekend! And please, ask me anything :D
I didn't work directly with executives for all of the teams' profiles. In some cases, I worked with the engineering manager or lead who does the majority of the hiring for their team. In a couple of cases, I worked with engineers (who don't do the hiring) and their internal technical recruiter (never external recruiters).
I've been reaching out through my network to get in touch with all of these teams (friends, previous coworkers, previous clients of mine, etc.) and have recently been getting in touch with teams that I didn't have a previous connection to (which is really exciting!).
While time consuming, there are clear motivations for teams to create profiles. It's really hard to hire engineers. It's really expensive to do phone screens, onsite interviews, and review take home tests, and almost every employer has gone through all of that with someone who is exceptionally talented technically, but clearly not a good fit. It's hard for both sides (job-seekers and companies) to invest so much time assessing one another and it can be really frustrating if things don't work out for pretty obvious reasons.
Lastly, I think most people believe company culture is really important for both hiring and retaining employees. Companies are just like job-seekers too in that they want to say, "Hey, I'm different! I'm special!" They're as diverse as the engineers they're hiring. Creating a profile is a really good way to identify what makes you you and tell everyone why that is.
I'll end just by saying that not all engineers care about culture. I'm friends with some engineers (well...not many...haha) who only care about salary, benefits, and equity, so there are certainly companies out there who don't prioritize culture either. You won't find them on Key Values ;)
That's awesome that you have such an expansive network. I think that's something I need to work on. Congrats on getting in touch with new teams - that's a huge feat!
I totally see the value in the site, and I think it's an awesome idea. But it's the classic cold start dilemma; without company listings, no consumers will be on the site. With no consumers on the site, there isn't much value for the companies. So I was more curious if a lot of companies rejected your original request because your site didn't have significant traffic. I guess it's more of the promise about what the future holds?
Re: network, I think I should have tended to my network a lot more over the years but luckily, it's never too late! I'm close to drying out my current network though, as I message the guy-I-used-to-see-sometimes-at-the-climbing-gym-last-year-and-I-think-he-still-works-at-X-company for an intro to his CTO or manager haha.
Re: cold start, no you're right. I'm already forgetting the first several weeks. It was painful. I spent a lot of time writing the very first profile and thought that people would just use it as an example and write their own. Even if they said they would, I'd follow up every Tuesday to check in for weeks and weeks. Writing is really hard. I eventually moved to asking people to select their top 8 value tags and then scheduling a 1-hour interview (phone, video, in-person), which I record. I then transcribe, edit, and send them a draft. It's much easier to correct writing about something you know very well then just writing from thin air.
I still do this though I've come across a few teams who want to take control of writing themselves (they're my favorite ones haha). I'm still improving this process for sure.
I also am not charging yet!! So it's a free service and people who really care about their culture love free advertising (which is basically what this is). Another thing I didn't do at first (which I regret) is saying up front, "This is a free service and I am free labor." It's hard for any company to say no to that!