Here are the main issues I see with something like this:
1. As with any social network system, the most difficult part is that you need a critical mass of users before the system becomes worthwhile, but to be able to get users, you already have to have traction in the first place, so it's a bit of a chicken/egg issue.
2. You say you're building a directory that features experienced devs. The next question is naturally - how are you going to verify these devs? Everyone is going to have their own definition of what it means to be an "experienced dev".
The fact that everyone just "lists themselves" means that by definition there's really no trust or verification in the process itself from a potential employer perspective.
3. It sounds like your goal is to basically be the white pages of experienced devs which is laudable enough, however, I'm still not sure I understand the buy value from an employer perspective. Why would they take the time to visit this random website as opposed to just running searches on people's LinkedIn resumes filtered by years of experience?
The chicken and egg is real. My plan to counter that is to only focus on the dev side first and find leads for them by brute force, i.e., initially I don't expect any employers to go to the platform.
I want to keep the verification light by design. Most employers aren't going to trust a platform's verification anyways. All these guarantees of top 2% devs are bullshit. I believe that basic resume review and occasionally asking an extra question or two takes care of the 80%. I think that's not a bad place to be since no platform is going to be perfect. My goal with verification is to make sure the platform isn't infiltrated by early career or devs who wouldn't pass the muster of most recruiter resume reviews.
You're exactly right. I want to build the whitepages of experienced devs. I'm not under any delusion that employers will just flock to this. I think if it at all works, much of the finding will have to be done on behalf of the employer, i.e., they tell what they want and we go scour the directory and send them leads.
1. As with any social network system, the most difficult part is that you need a critical mass of users before the system becomes worthwhile, but to be able to get users, you already have to have traction in the first place, so it's a bit of a chicken/egg issue.
2. You say you're building a directory that features experienced devs. The next question is naturally - how are you going to verify these devs? Everyone is going to have their own definition of what it means to be an "experienced dev".
The fact that everyone just "lists themselves" means that by definition there's really no trust or verification in the process itself from a potential employer perspective.
3. It sounds like your goal is to basically be the white pages of experienced devs which is laudable enough, however, I'm still not sure I understand the buy value from an employer perspective. Why would they take the time to visit this random website as opposed to just running searches on people's LinkedIn resumes filtered by years of experience?