From my experience, traditional (IRL) career fairs are so inefficient. We're offered to attend some on occasion and pass because of the time commitment. Small startups often don't have the time to travel and host a booth to meet and review a relatively small number of candidates.
We've been using A-List to hire at Fieldbook, and it's good. Lots of students on here with great backgrounds. Definitely recommended for companies hiring 2017 grads.
@as_austin@daniellenewnham
We are taking applicants from all schools, but we wanted to limit to a few schools when we launched.
This is something that we are actively trying to figure out. I agree that top school is not necessarily the best indicator of a engineer's aptitude. Interviews and code samples also have bias, but they can be better indicators.
Unfortunately, startups that hire are busy and interviewing is extremely time consuming. With a candidate from a top CS program, a recruiter can take some shortcuts. They generally know what kind of education the candidate got and that the candidate had to pass as set of standardized filters to get there.
However, we are working hard on figuring this out. There are tons of very good engineers without name brands on their resumes. We need to a) figure out how to demonstrate their aptitude and b) convince companies that our judgement is good.
It's a hard problem and we want to solve it
@amitm@as_austin@daniellenewnham "With a candidate from a top CS program, a recruiter can take some shortcuts." That's a dangerous statement. There are so many social factors that can grant a person access to a school, none of which relate to the education that person received.
@amitm@as_austin@daniellenewnham An AngelList credential/certification that measures proficiency in several fields accurately...that would be a fantastic feature.
I wish this did something different than amplifying the existing recruiting pipeline that manufactures homogeneity and an artificial talent shortage. Also, it's not like people from these schools are not inundated with offers anyway. I don't see anything new here.
Elitist. Unlike hiring a MBA, a skillset of software engineer can be demonstrated and tested with rounds of interview process with near precise accuracy. It also discourages diversity. Ivies are not a great place to look if you want to hire a fresh talented black CS grad. My $0.02
@ankscricholic sadly it does discourage diversity. But many startups supposedly "need" the name and prestige these graduates can bring with their alma mater.
@bentossell We wanted to recruit A-List caliber recent grads but don't want to go to career fairs. So we built a virtual career fair for startups... @narang_rishi 's passion.
@bentossell happy to share!
Before graduating last year, I was heavily involved in the startup scene at Princeton and other schools across the country via Dorm Room Fund. I've felt really strongly that new grads should have more ways to join great startups out of school.
Facebook, Google, and other big tech companies have experienced university recruiting teams that have relationships with schools & student organizations, and make offers to top seniors early in the fall. As @rrhoover mentioned, most startups don't have time for campus recruiting.
We're launching A-List University to level the playing field.
Hi. I am a CS & Philosophy major with 1 year left. I write well, work hard, and taught myself the basics of Swift, Javascript, and currently Rails but I just go to a small liberal arts school in NY. Is this for me?
Love the idea, but sad AngelList is looking to make a quick buck from their 'top tier' profiles. It is hard for me to have confidence in your selection algorithm when you have already discriminated by alma mater.
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