[HN Gopher] Show HN: I built didtheyghost.me, open-source tool f...
___________________________________________________________________
Show HN: I built didtheyghost.me, open-source tool for your next
job search
(not sure why my previous post didn't appear on Show HN even though
I included it in the title, mods please remove if not allowed)
Ever applied for a job and never heard back? Many companies just go
silent instead of sending rejection emails, leaving you guessing
whether to keep waiting or move on. I faced this frustration
during my own internship search, especially when there was no real
point of contact (automated replies don't count, lol). So, I built
didtheyghost.me, a simple open-source tool that crowdsources job
application responses. This isn't a job scraper or another job
board. It's a community-driven way to share real-time updates on
job applications, so you're never left guessing. It helps answer
questions like: - Has anyone heard back from this role? [1] - How
long does it usually take to hear back? [2] - What are the online
assessments/interview rounds like for company X? [3][4] - And the
big one: Did they ghost me? How it works: 1. See a job listing
(e.g. on LinkedIn), apply for it, and haven't heard back? 2. Use
the platform to check if others have received replies, interviews,
or offers. 3. Find out if you're in the same boat or if you
might've been ghosted. It's completely free, open-source, ad-free,
and community-driven. Check it out: https://didtheyghost.me
GitHub: https://github.com/didtheyghostme/didtheyghostme Happy to
answer questions or discuss ideas! -------------------- [1]
https://www.reddit.com/r/leetcode/comments/1hhfhck/amazon_sd...
[2] https://www.reddit.com/r/leetcode/comments/1h8qm4j/how_long_...
[3] https://www.reddit.com/r/csMajors/comments/1enubgb/tiktok_ne...
[4] https://www.reddit.com/r/csMajors/comments/1f6e84t/shopify_w...
Author : dtgmzac
Score : 24 points
Date : 2025-03-08 13:45 UTC (9 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (didtheyghost.me)
(TXT) w3m dump (didtheyghost.me)
| codingdave wrote:
| It feels unfocused. Application tracking makes sense, but that
| isn't the same problem as understanding a company's interview
| process or talking to other applicants about their experience.
| And frankly, unless you get the entire industry using this for
| every job application, the community-based features are not going
| to have meaningful info. Also, the actual problem implied by the
| title - have I been ghosted - can be answered with static HTML:
| "If it has been 2 weeks, yes."
|
| So if I were in your shoes, I'd decide what problem I really want
| to solve, and build an app laser-focused on a solution for that
| problem. Bring everything else in later, once you know you have
| PMF for whichever core problem you choose.
| dtgmzac wrote:
| Really appreciate the honest and straightforward feedback.
| You're right that the community-based features are definitely
| hard to be useful without a community. It's actually one of my
| main problems right now, exploring who my target audience is
| and what the main goal should be before the next iteration.
|
| I actually started this because I wanted to track my own
| applications but also wanted to solve the problem of making the
| process more transparent for applicants. Just like the "static
| HTML" part, a 2 weeks rule is a general guideline, but surely
| we can do better than that. Especially when there is no
| recruiters' contact after applying, going beyond a simple
| yes/no answer by providing community-driven data (historic and
| current) would help a lot (as seen in the links I cited).
| Thanks again for the insights!
| trod1234 wrote:
| The issue with community-based/crowdsourced features as well
| is that you inevitably have some bad actors that join up to
| poison your features.
|
| If the noise floor threshold is too high, the signal you are
| looking for can't be differentiated.
| pogue wrote:
| I wonder if you could implement some features used by the
| advertising industry and when you submit an application,
| include a tracking pixel/web beacon that would trigger when
| your application was viewed and returned some analytics like
| if it was viewed in an email client or web browser. You would
| then be able to see what's going on with the other end of
| your job application.
| trod1234 wrote:
| I disagree, in the past I've seen positions where they may sit
| on applications for a month or more. One of my last jobs
| actually ended up being one of these, and we went through 9
| different interviews (over 2 1/2 months after that) before I
| was hired at the time.
|
| Its not so cut and dry.
| demarq wrote:
| This has to be Microsoft!
| toomuchtodo wrote:
| I love the direction and attempt. What I think is needed to
| encourage good behavior is a system that scans company job
| postings, archives them (Internet Archive), performs analytics as
| to whether these jobs are being filled (compare to LinkedIn data
| as best as you can, there will always be leakage), and
| potentially report non compliance around salary transparency to
| whomever in each state regulates that. LinkedIn doesn't care,
| state regulators aren't going to do this.
|
| Think in systems. If the desired outcome is more honest and
| transparent behavior from job posters, the way to get there is
| public data and analytics to suss out signal of undercurrent
| intent internally. It's an observability platform at its core.
|
| Consider partnering with the hiring.cafe folks (search HN for
| relevant threads) if you want to achieve scale wrt feedback
| capture from applicants to drive analytics.
| Schiendelman wrote:
| I could be mistaken, but doesn't Indeed do this already?
| toomuchtodo wrote:
| Indeed is an interested party, and their incentives do not
| align with the general public and jobseekers.
| sea-gold wrote:
| Related tool: https://rolepad.com
|
| Oct 2023, 130 comments:
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37792507
| trod1234 wrote:
| Interesting, I was thinking about doing something similar just
| the other day given all the shennanigans going on with ghost
| jobs.
|
| There's a lot of time wasted individually by candidates vetting
| companies. For instance I've had to resort to using OSINT
| techniques and public records to weed out fake jobs because my
| cold interview->conversion rate is abyssal (1:1000+).
|
| I've seen companies and positions being advertised where when you
| look up the secretary of state info, its either been shut
| down/suspended, or the directors/owners listed are dead people
| (i.e. semi-recent obituaries +- 1 year). The positions posted are
| always newer than the deceased person. I've also seen a lot of
| business info posted resolving to a UPS store address. Definitely
| presents as red flags when looking.
|
| It would be useful to be able to crowdsource a lot of the due
| dilligence that must be done individually that could easily be
| automated as well as see the average turnaround time before
| rejection, and identify job postings that continuously roll
| (identical and reposted every 3-6 months)
| pogue wrote:
| Can you share some of the techniques you used? It might be
| helpful to get some simple scripts up to check if the address
| listed is a UPS store or registered agent or something and
| create a browser extension for job search sites that would
| automatically hide listings on job search sites that meet those
| criteria.
| hidelooktropic wrote:
| I would love it if this tool exposes job postings where the
| company has no intention of actually filling them, just trying to
| collect resumes. But does it do this?
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2025-03-08 23:01 UTC)