<story><title>Ask HN: What do you think when companies ask for gritty people?</title><text>When I see this I immediately think the work will be the kind of grind that requires lots of Grit to survive.</text></story><parent_chain><item><author>simonebrunozzi</author><text>Just to name names: “Flexport is hiring smart, gritty People who get stuff done” - [0] (Flexport is a YC company [1], and therefore they get to list job offers on Hacker News from time to time)&lt;p&gt;Honestly, I can think of two things.&lt;p&gt;1) They&amp;#x27;re bad, looking for smart people to grind them down with 70-80 hour workweeks, with no end in sight, with the illusion of small stock grants that will be diluted a few more times before IPO.&lt;p&gt;2) They just needed a short title for the job posting (HN limits titles to 80 characters), and they tried to summarize the fact that they look for people who are motivated, willing to work hard. But it doesn&amp;#x27;t say much about their attitude, their desire to exploit workers, vs simply trying to find good hires to add value to the company.&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t know if it&amp;#x27;s #1 or #2, or a #3 that I can&amp;#x27;t think of right now.&lt;p&gt;A wise prospect employee will do the homework to understand what&amp;#x27;s the company culture, what&amp;#x27;s the cap table situation, etc. There are plenty of resources to get a better sense of whether it&amp;#x27;s a good idea to work for a company or not.&lt;p&gt;[0]: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.flexport.com&amp;#x2F;company&amp;#x2F;careers&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.flexport.com&amp;#x2F;company&amp;#x2F;careers&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[1]: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;companies&amp;#x2F;flexport&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;companies&amp;#x2F;flexport&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>dang</author><text>The guidelines we give to YC startups posting job ads explicitly ask founders not to use such language in titles. It&amp;#x27;s embarrassing.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;jobguide.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;jobguide.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t think anyone is flouting these rules deliberately. It&amp;#x27;s just hard to get people to behave differently than they&amp;#x27;re used to. Founders gonna found.</text></comment>
<story><title>Ask HN: What do you think when companies ask for gritty people?</title><text>When I see this I immediately think the work will be the kind of grind that requires lots of Grit to survive.</text></story><parent_chain><item><author>simonebrunozzi</author><text>Just to name names: “Flexport is hiring smart, gritty People who get stuff done” - [0] (Flexport is a YC company [1], and therefore they get to list job offers on Hacker News from time to time)&lt;p&gt;Honestly, I can think of two things.&lt;p&gt;1) They&amp;#x27;re bad, looking for smart people to grind them down with 70-80 hour workweeks, with no end in sight, with the illusion of small stock grants that will be diluted a few more times before IPO.&lt;p&gt;2) They just needed a short title for the job posting (HN limits titles to 80 characters), and they tried to summarize the fact that they look for people who are motivated, willing to work hard. But it doesn&amp;#x27;t say much about their attitude, their desire to exploit workers, vs simply trying to find good hires to add value to the company.&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t know if it&amp;#x27;s #1 or #2, or a #3 that I can&amp;#x27;t think of right now.&lt;p&gt;A wise prospect employee will do the homework to understand what&amp;#x27;s the company culture, what&amp;#x27;s the cap table situation, etc. There are plenty of resources to get a better sense of whether it&amp;#x27;s a good idea to work for a company or not.&lt;p&gt;[0]: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.flexport.com&amp;#x2F;company&amp;#x2F;careers&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.flexport.com&amp;#x2F;company&amp;#x2F;careers&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[1]: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;companies&amp;#x2F;flexport&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;companies&amp;#x2F;flexport&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>raverbashing</author><text>Yeah I wonder how&amp;#x27;s the turnover there if they keep reposting the same positions over and over&lt;p&gt;Asking for &amp;quot;gritty people&amp;quot;, sorry, I&amp;#x27;m not sandpaper</text></comment>