Loren wants to work at Airbnb

[M1573RMU74710N]

Hey, I hate to be "that guy"...but since you're applying for a front-end job, here goes:

- You're loading scripts in your head tag, and a crap-ton of them. At least some of these could be concat'd together. HTTP request carry a lot of overhead, so fewer is better. I bet at least some could be moved to the bottom as well, with some CSS/JS to avoid the dreaded Flash Of UnBehavioured Content.

- In a similar vein, you're loading a lot of images, more overhead again. At least some of these (like the clouds) could probably be combined into one file and then separated out with CSS.

- You're not setting long expire headers on your resources, bad for caching.

- You don't seem to be serving up gzipped resources.

- Some of the scripts aren't even minified.

Take clouds.js for example, you use a whole HTTP request on this one file, and it's small. It's also not very DRY, you have a bunch of repeats of basically the same code, it probably could have been re-written to something like:

    $('.clouds').each(function(){
      $(this).animate({
           /* ...  */
      });
    })

I realize some of this stuff is not entirely necessarily on a site like this, but considering how easy it is and the fact that you're applying for a front-end engineering job, I'd think you'd want to follow best practices.

Overall it's a cool idea, very fun and nice looking. Good job.

(BTW, I'm available for work. If anyone from Airbnb is reading this, I can haz Job plz? )

[SeoxyS]

Ever heard of premature optimization? Doing things like concatenating images into sprites and using css to display them is overkill for pretty much anything except Google's doodles. I also find it to be very inelegant.

Best practices is one thing. Overkill is another.

[immad]

Its a one use website. I think if he had done all those things it would have been overkill.

[marcamillion]

You could have easily walked away from this comment.

Sure, it might not be 100% optimized...but does it matter, really ? He showed initiative, gumption, and creativity.

If I were looking for a front-end engineer and AirBnB doesn't want him, I would definitely hire him.

Also, adding that you are available for work, does NOT help your case.

Just makes the sign on your back even bigger. The sign that reads "I'm THAT guy".

[minikomi]

Perhaps it was a conscious decision not to minify and concat. - to show how he works when developing.. in which case, a comment acknowledging so might have been extra-cool. Also, although not the be all and end all in Front end decision making.. http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.lorenburt... just food for thought. Most are to do with unescaped ampersands in links.

[cipherpunk]

You're automatically "that guy" when you criticise one candidate and then beg for a job at the end. Do one or the other, but not both.

[marknutter]

Most irritating comment I've read on HN in a long time. This type of comment is simultaneously the best and worst thing about geeks.

[paulnelligan]

I think this matters not. His imagination, initiative, and drive is what matters the most here IMHO.

[crystalis]

One of the benefits of being on a team is that you just need one guy to know how to do all of that and everyone gets the benefit.

[BitMode32]

This is what you call a HATER!!!!!!! Stop being mad at the guy because he came up with a creative way to attract an employer!!! You could obviously tell your downgrading his skills by your ending comment "BTW, I'm available for work. If anyone from AirBnb is reading this.... etc" Please dude get a hold of yourself and stop HATING!!!!!! If you follow best practices and your so HOTSHOT, then why are you not working for a company right now? Why are you available for work?

[appendix_a]

my chrome browser froze upon "inspect element" - perhaps that is intentional of the author to prevent me from seeing how he made those cute clouds move.

However, M1573RMU74710N makes a good point - engineers are tested on their code.

M1573RMU74710N just gave Loren the answers to the interview questions "how would you optimize this site?"

[josephcohen]

Hey dude. About the job - email me at joseph at coursekit dot com.

[guynamedloren]

Inspired and motivated by some fantastic advice from the HN community, I’ve decided to pursue a frontend engineering position at Airbnb. I’m an entrepreneur at heart, but I love what they’re doing and could see myself working as a part of the team. In fact, Airbnb is one of the only companies I’ve really felt the urge to work with.

In addition to submitting a resume and cover letter, I thought it would be fun to put together this little project. I’m not personally sending a link to Airbnb, so any chance they have at seeing this is entirely up to the community. I guess this is an experiment of sorts - we’ll see how it goes. Thanks HN!

[iamdave]

Hire this man.

[pg]

I just emailed the founders. I expect they'll contact you soon.

[guynamedloren]

Thanks pg - I appreciate it!

[mbesto]

To all of the naysayers in this thread, I think you can pretty much read this comment and be ultimately disproved.

[corin_]

I assume you won't be willing to but... any chance you'd shed light on how you worded your email, ranging from just a link to "you have to hire.."?

[mwbiz]

Just taking a wild guess that PG is Paul Graham, so any negative comments to the post are irrelevant at this point.

[tptacek]

See, now, this is great stuff. How do you not hire this guy? A near-perfect example of the form:

* It's gorgeous

* It's simple

* It's precisely targeted and relevant

My only critique is that he didn't find a way to work Pocket into it; the story about his six-year-old sister using it is a winner.

Anyone want to put odds on how long Loren stays on the market? I give it a week. :)

[wheels]

I suppose the Matasano version would be the same thing, but it'd be on your intranet? ;-)

[guynamedloren]

Thomas - thanks for the kind words and support! Highlighting Pocket totally slipped my mind, but I did include it as a project on my resume.

[rimantas]

Your points are all true and he may make a great web designer. As for front-end engineer position there is a room for improvement. Luckily it's not me hiring so all the best to Loren.

[_harry]

That's awesome Loren!

There are only four of us on the frontend team right now. We need more!

We like engineers with passion. People who get excited talking about the new frontend development frontier. Conversations like this happen all the time:

- Think Node.js would be cool for a realtime dashboard? Yes, do it.

- Maybe we could try using backbone.js and a fat client for this feature? Fork it and let's go.

- What's SASS? Install the gem. We're using it.

Our fourth frontend engineer just started last week. We sat him down, showed him how we were doing things and we asked him, "What do you think?" and he says, "Have you guys heard of Jammit? It's used for asset packaging. It's pretty cool" -- A couple hours later he was showing us the page load speed increase and how to use it.

If you're a frontend engineer wondering what it's like to work at Airbnb, feel free to email me: [email protected] or if you prefer character limits I'm on Twitter: @hshoff.

[nsfmc]

So, while this is novel and all, it seems to me that these "resume 2.0" applications indicate a real failure of systems like "jobvite" or whatever backend air bnb is using to simplify their hiring decisions.

On HN we've been seeing a bunch of these hyper-targeted reverse resumes in the past year because I suspect people have gotten tired of submitting waves of resumes and hearing nothing back within a reasonable timeframe from companies that advertise open positions on their websites but never, for whatever reason, respond.

What i'm seeing here, is that traditional recruiting practices are failing in some way because priority is achieved by a) making it to the hn frontpage which b) gets pg to vouch for you. Which is basically no better (or efficient) than the traditional method of hiring folks that you've networked with via friends/school/etc or what have you.

I understand that historically those online resume systems are a real losing proposition for applicants, but this suggests that they're more like a black hole rather than a mail slot.

Again, this is a critique of these automated systems which seem to be visibly failing because people are going out of their way to subvert them in order to achieve any success.

[tptacek]

Systems like "jobvite or whatever" are at odds with this approach, which, for lack of a better term, I'll call the "What Color Is My Parachute"† (WCIMP) Technique.

In the WCIMP mindset, you make a shortlist of specific companies you'd like to work for. You brainstorm a pitch about how you believe you'd like to add value to their company. Then, treating every step of the hiring process up to "interview with decision maker" as an obstacle, you run the ropes course for each company.

Jobvites and Resumorps and Interfleebs are all obstacles. Is there a system you know about that truly accepts the fact that HR is an obstacle between engaged hiring managers and engaged candidates? I don't know about it. For the most part, these tools all seem geared towards reducing the cost for companies of maintaining their existing obstacle courses.

And that's fine, because most people don't take the WCIMP approach to job hunting. Instead, they have a role in mind, and their overall goal is to hunt for a satisfactory place to practice that role. Those people are never going to think about your company and put you on a shortlist and devise a sales pitch, but are only marginally less likely to be awesome as the WCIMP candidates. Your job is only partly one of attracting candidates; it's also to filter them.

Personally, I don't see WCIMP tactics as evidence of the failure of obstacle course hiring; rather, they're just particularly graceful ways of navigating the course.

† Not endorsing the book, it's just the first one of its kind that I read, 15 years ago.

[kmfrk]

Nota Bene: Loren also made the Snowpocalypse T-shirt site, which garnered a lot of HN attention and praise: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2173155.

[rkalla]

This is an excellent example of what I'll call "Resume 2.0" or "How to get a job in our new economy".

It's always boiled down to an employer knowing if you can handle yourself and get the job done. The only facilities we had available to try and assess that in the past were those stump-the-chump questions and interviews at a desk sitting across from a committee.

I love what technology has enabled us to do. It has enabled everyone to be a self-starter and enabled us to brandish our accomplishments in really damn creative ways (e.g. this Loren fellow rocking the AirBNB application).

HN is a bit of an echo-chamber for these types of cutting edge job acquisition moves, I don't expect most people to try and get a job this way, but it is the beginning of a trend that I think will make everyone happier as a result.

Loren, best of luck to you. You certainly got an upvote for me and it sure looks like ABNB would be lucky to have you.

[patio11]

The ROI on these in terms of career growth absolutely ROFLstomps effort at improving a traditional resume and playing spray-and-pray. (The ROI of networking is probably better than both but, hey, what can you do.)

[jimbokun]

This is maybe closer to networking than it is to a traditional resume.

[csomar]

Loren, that's a very nice resume page. But I think it's missing something, which is quite important: Your portfolio.

Collect some of your best work, and create a slider in one of your clouds. If you have also worked in some companies in the past mention it. Stackoverflow, Github, Dribble... links are also useful.

hint: Change the white up arrow color, so that it contrast well with the background. You can detect this with scrolling and assign colors. This will show that you put lot of attention to small details ;)

[guynamedloren]

Fumbled around with integrating a portfolio, but ultimately decided to leave it out and keep things simple (for aesthetics, primarily). I was sure to include relevant projects and descriptions in my resume, however.

[blehn]

This is one of the better "hire me" micro-sites I've seen... and it still made me cringe.

[paulnelligan]

Wow, why? ... To me it's a statement that Airbnb would get someone who cares deeply about their product.

[pclark]

I'll bite. Is this actually that good? Spending a lot of time on it, sure, but other than it being quirky (which is hugely valuable) is it doing it's job? No specific accomplishments, core skills, and no software in the wild for us to see.

You could have linked to your Airbnb profile ("hey i use it!") linked to your google map ("hey i travel!") and then listed all your software projects and links and things about each that you are especially proud of, and that'd have been awesome.

[guynamedloren]

Thanks for the feedback. Without proper context, I see where you're coming from - but the reality is that this was created in an addition to a submitted resume + cover letter, both of which listed specific accomplishments, core skills, personal projects, and experience. This was certainly not meant to be a standalone "Hey look, hire me!" page, and would be rather incomplete as such.

Edit: Also, one of the primary goals of this project was to display the things that are commonly difficult to convey in a resume - passion and personality.

[nametoremember]

How would linking to a Google Map prove that he travels or add to this resume in any way?

[kenjackson]

Nice. And renders on a few browsers I tried. I'm always surprised with how many people consider themselves professional web devs, but can't bother to get IE to work properly.

[basugasubaku]

Looks perfect in Lynx too, which was a pleasant surprise.

[joelhooks]

with his narrowly targeted audience I would venture a guess that excluding IE was a safe move.

[dools]

Worked a treat on the iPad :)

[sixtypoundhound]

Awesome!!!

Not going to critique the technical quality of the work (particularly since I'm not a front-end web guy), but as a hiring manager, I'd be frigging floored if someone spent an evening (maybe more? Although I suspect you're pretty quick by now, based on your comments) putting together a tight on-point microsite for my consumption.

The big job boards are a joke since they have reduced the entire process to buzzword bingo - and a fairly poor form of one at that. There's basically zero insight into how good someone actually is. Looking at someone's blog or contributions to open source projects is potentially an indicator, but there are a number of solid folks for whom that isn't a serious options (significant risk of their old economy management freaking out - a problem when you have a couple of dependents you need to keep fed, housed, and healthy).

So you get interviews like the one I conducted two weeks ago - "you have written free form SQL before?"...."yes, many times"... " Excellent, I have a little problem for us to solve..."

[walks to board, draws three data tables - one transaction file and two dimensions - and outlines a requirement for a basic report that involves joining, summing, and filtering data - I validated it with a recent hire, took him 3 min]

"uh"... twenty minutes later we bring the painful exercise to a close.... "I didn't think you would have me write code"

Huh? Huh? The job description explictly mentions that you need to know free form SQL COLD and asks that you have higher level programming experience (real languages). Do you seriously expect to get a role like that w/o coding?

Shoot - beats the cracker jack wanna-be pricing analyst we had apply off monster who explicitly mentioned his pricing experience...at Walmart... as a positive...

The one decent player in the online recruiting space that I've seen is linkedin - most of the contacts I've had off of that which show serious intent (eg. tailored message) are pretty promising. Especially if they are a connection of someone you trust.

Linkedin's biggest problem is that all participants get the same view of a candidate, including your corporate HR people (don't laugh - I was hauled in and yelled at about this a couple of years ago) - if there was a way to make more of this platform private, the value of the network would increase.

[jmtame]

I tried getting a meeting with him several times back when I was still a student at UIUC, I read how he launched a t-shirt web site and made some money from it, and it seems every response I got was: "sorry man, I didn't get any sleep last night, I was busy working on something. Can we try again next week?" Seems like a hustler.

[briggsbio]

How does standing you up for multiple meetings equate "hustler" instead of "flake"?

[cemregr]

I was interested in working for Airbnb too. Last January I tweeted out about how much I love them, and through the tweet I ended up visiting their offices and chatting with Joe, one of their founders. They were very generous with their time.

Took me 10 seconds writing out the tweet, but the face time I got out of it was very valuable. This is another thing one might look into to get the attention of companies.

http://twitter.com/newinyork/status/23146168087224320

http://twitter.com/newinyork/status/23154242558623744

[sucuri2]

Awesome way to get their attention. Hope you get hired :)

[mbrzuzy]

Beautiful.

I didn't realize the clouds at the top of the page were moving until after. Nice touch.

[mvs]

Very Cool! hope you now believe 4 yrs weren't a total waste after all:-)

[bvandusen]

Lauren, what is it about airbnb that you love so much? There are a lot of amazing san francisco startups doing incredible things that would probably all love to have you on their team.