No CS OK
A jobs board for developers without degrees
On my first day I got top of Hacker News and that brought a lot of traffic. I also got in the top ten of Product Hunt. I made $198 in sales from job listings.
These didn't require any outreach etc.
I cut my pricing from $100 to $75 but haven't had more sales so I'm going to have to explore ways to increase interest such as outbound emails, getting press etc.
So I released No CS OK, my job board for developers without degrees last Wednesday. I got a lot of email sign ups on the first day after getting top of Hacker News and staying on the top page for 2 days. I then launched on Product Hunt at the start of this week and finished in the top 10 with over 200 upvotes.
I had a nice simple email CTA in the header of my website so that definitely helped. I also added that the unsubscribe rate was less than 1%. I always update how well a newsletter is doing as that creates herd behavior. So if people see 500 people have signed up in three days then that demonstrates value. I also didn't go for the boring "subscribe" button but a "get a job" CTA which is obviously a lot more grabby.
I also promoted the newsletter in the separate newsletter for my other website No CS Degree where I interview people Wes Bos about how they learned to code.
Naturally I used Twitter a lot as well and I've pinned landing pages for my newsletter campaigns to the top of my profile.
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great! thanks for sharing your learnings, "Get a job' CTA is a great idea
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Definately a strong idea.
For example, people like me that lives in places where developer jobs are limited and needs a degree, this is pure gold.
Case example:
Myself, no cs degree and I live in the Åland Islands...
5H boat to Helsinki on boat and 2- 3 H on car or 12 H boat.
2H boat to sweden and 1,5H car
30Minutes fly to both of them but really expensive.
Conclusion the hob remotes showed on the site are pure gold..
Good work pete, and have a good day !
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That's awesome! the idea is extremely solid and relevant, especially since most programmers now are self taught.
Are the jobs you list gathered via scraping various job boards, and looking for jobs that do not mention an education as a requirement?
Just curious :)
Regardless, great stuff!
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This comment was deleted 3 years ago
I've had a good launch so far and I'm very glad to have taken a different approach this time and spread it out. It means I've been able to improve my pitch, add new listings and listen to feedback instead of putting everything out there in one day. I've just launched on Product Hunt today so I'm excited to hear what they think of it. https://www.producthunt.com/posts/no-cs-ok
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Upvoted here and PH, Pete! Congratulations!! My strategy with team building is to focus on no CS folks. Hungrier, more business experience, etc.
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Upvoted you Pete, congrats on the launch!
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Thanks Courtland! Will be interesting doing B2B.
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With Remote OK a problem for me was that the postings did not appear too often;
Hope this will not be the case with No CS OK! Good luck-
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No problem! I'm going to update on my gym days so that's three times a week 😀
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Product Hunt is an amazing place to showcase your product and find some really interesting viewers. Wish you good luck with your product.
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Thanks Haman!
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Following the site for some time now. Upvoted. Congrats on Product hunt launch.
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Cheers!
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Just upvoted you! Looks great can't wait to see how you progress.
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Thank you!
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Upvoted! Great idea and something that's going to be as valuable as No CS Degree itself.
How did you come up with the name No CS OK? My guess would be that it's based on how Pieter Levels created a job board called Remote OK (branched off of NomadList).
The feedback I would give here is that, when I see the name, it doesn't quite look as smooth. Maybe it's because they're all short words and sort of all look like acronyms? I might suggest alternatives like No CS Board or No CS Jobs but I don't know if it's too late!
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Agreed. I had difficulty putting the pieces of the name together. If you are going to stick with the name, make sure your messaging clarifies its meaning.
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Hey, yeah that's a fair point. It's definitely inspired by Pieter. Since he upvoted it and hasn't messaged me I guess he doesn't mind :) I may well take it back into the No CS Degree brand so it's on the same website as my blog. I sort of made it separate so I could get an extra launch but we'll see.
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I'm sure he wouldn't mind :) My point wasn't that there's some infringement on what he's doing ;)
Looking at it again, I think "Remote OK" worked because it was almost like a positive rhetorical question - ie "is remote OK?". Your equivalent could be "is self-taught OK?" whereas No CS OK just sounded a bit contradictory.
Just my thoughts :) in any case you're having some good success so keep it up!
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Also, how did you change your approach this time when you say spread it out?
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Nice one Pete. Big fan of what you're doing, upvoted and commented on PH. Good luck.
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Congratulations Pete!
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cool - congrats!
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In 7th position so far. Glad to be in the UK as it means launching at 8am and there is usually a nice hike in traffic once West Coast wakes up!
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This comment was deleted 7 years ago
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No problem - good luck! There is a blog as well where I interview devs without degrees - https://www.nocsdegree.com
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This comment was deleted 7 years ago
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I had 40 subscribers before I launched. This was something I learned with No CS Degree- test the waters by putting out a mailchimp landing page to gauge interest. I got top of Hacker News and stayed in top ten for two days so that obviously helped a lot! I think it's a simple call to action and obviously lots of people want jobs!
I was unsure about how to price my job listings. Some people were saying super low, like even $1 to get interest. I was thinking more $50. I spoke to a self-taught developer/CTO and he said that companies pay so much on hiring that $50 was still too low so he suggested $99. So that's what I settled on. I got two sales on my first day which was amazing! I added them to the site, highlighted them in yellow at the top of the job board and then tweeted links to their vacancies. If I had charged $1 I would have had to make 198 sales for the same amount so I think I made the right call. I didn't get sales on my second day so I am experimenting with reducing prices down to $75 for a limited period.
I posted my site to Hacker News at about 3:30 pm UK time. It was sort of a good luck charm and not based on time zones etc. Last time, when I launched my blog No CS Degree I happened to launch at that time and that got to #1 as well so I figured I would do the same. I stopped reading comments after 100 or so. Yes, there is going to be negativity but not everyone is going to like what you do so you just have to have a thick skin. I got two sales from this and 12,000 page visits in two days.
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