And, something off topic that I'd very much like y'all not to interpret as sexist (it's quite the opposite): I love how many women are in engineering in Romania. 3 out of the 13 on that list, if I'm not mistaken, a ratio which matches my personal experience (my employer in the Netherlands has 100 engineers of which 3 are female).
Somehow, I feel that being nerdy is simply more generally a part of mainstream society in Romania than in most of the rest of the western world. If only the pay wasn't so ridiculously low, I'd gladly move over. In the summer. I think.
It's like that in the former USSR as well. Curiously, there is strong reverse correlation between political correctness and number of women in high-tech.
Curiously, there is strong reverse correlation between political correctness and number of women in high-tech.
I've seen a correlation between "non-Western country" and number of women in tech, but I don't even know how you would measure political correctness to measure a correlation.
It seems to me that the US (regarded as one of the less politically correct western countries) has quite a low level of women in tech, while (based on my limited research) countries that most would regard as more politically correct (eg Scandinavian countries) have similarly low levels.
That contrasts notably to places like India and Eastern Europe, where women in tech levels seem much higher.
I used to work for a company, before I got to build my own product, and we were more like 50-50. I'm not sure if it's like that in every company, but for sure it's not all guys.
Keep in mind that IT in Romania is still a male-dominated world, women developers are around 10% (I don't have any sources on that). But it's not unnatural for women to choose an engineering degree, I think 20%-30% of my year of colleagues were women.
This, i think, comes from our communist past. Back then, jobs were allocated by the state and if you were unlucky, you could have ended up somewhere in the country side. An engineering degree would guarantee a job in a factory in a city. Also add the communist propaganda and Ceausescu's dream to make Romania a heavily industrialized country.
"I love how many women are in engineering in Romania. 3 out of the 13 on that list" - if that's what you based your assumption on, you are quick to jump to conclusion... I'm not saying there aren't many female software engineers in Romania - perhaps there are, it's just that 13 people is too small a sample to say much about that. I have to admit that I'm actually quite curious if anyone could provide some meaningful statistics on the subject (female labor force participation in IT in different countries) - something more than anecdotal evidence
They have some of the best internet in the world (started as literally running cat5 between homes in urban areas IIRC), despite being one of the poorest countries in Europe, which might have some effect on that.
Also, technical + low wages sounds like a great place to hire workers for your startup.
I'm not a big fan of Loic Le Meur's personality (too much "in your face" for my taste), but this is very nice of him.
I have heard and read the "I'll do everything I can to help you find something else", "do not hesitate to reach out to me", "I can make some introductions if you want", etc. from CEOs and VCs, to little actual help.
Here, he's pointing out and recommending the employees specifically and by name, with contact info. Much much better than what's typically done.
I love that he has named each member individually, and listed their specialty with how to get in touch with them. It makes the whole process of seeing what talent is available very open, and very appealing for new employers.
More so than that, I think it's great that he has resisted the urge to make this about Seesmic. It doesn't round up with any sort of "We'll be carrying on their great work..." line etc.
The post is just about these people, exactly the way it should be.
I used to work at Seesmic, I don't know all of the team but I worked with most of them remotely (from SF and Paris) and spent a few weeks with them in Romania.
I keep awesome memories working and hanging with the team.
Check the Seesmic products on IOS, Android and WP7; you maybe won't love the product but the software is very good.
It's a great move from Loic and a real opportunity for any company looking for a mobile developer (or team).
I'm sure everyone involved wishes that it didn't have to happen this way, but this is a super nice move of Loic to promote each employee individually on his blog. His personal reach will give these employees a big boost in their ability to find new jobs. I've only met Loic once, but this seems perfectly in line to me with how he operates, he is a good guy.
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Seems like I was asking what was special about this under the assumption that I was missing something. As evidenced by the words in my post. Considering that employment ads generally don't make the front page of HN, I assumed that I was missing something. You're saying that I'm wrong?
If it's classic HackerNews, what are you complaining for? I thought the problem was that HackerNews getting less and less like it was in the old days...
As long as I've been visiting here, the herd mentality has been fairly common, at least in certain cases. If you say something challenging the majority, it's pretty likely that once you get the first couple downvotes, the rest will continue to downvote, also. As an example, I'm at about -10 so far for asking why a post, which I can only assume is from the CEO of a popular startup, is actually interesting. Obviously, I missed some other post in the last few days that provides context, which is apparently more of an egregious crime than I anticipated. I stand by comment, though.
And, something off topic that I'd very much like y'all not to interpret as sexist (it's quite the opposite): I love how many women are in engineering in Romania. 3 out of the 13 on that list, if I'm not mistaken, a ratio which matches my personal experience (my employer in the Netherlands has 100 engineers of which 3 are female).
Somehow, I feel that being nerdy is simply more generally a part of mainstream society in Romania than in most of the rest of the western world. If only the pay wasn't so ridiculously low, I'd gladly move over. In the summer. I think.