Brilliant move: YC company 42Floors publishes a job offer on its blog

We’ve seen people post very public “resumes” in hopes of landing the perfect job with the company of their choice, but I can’t say that I’ve ever seen a public job offer posted by a company itself.

That appears to have changed today as YCombinator company 42Floors has posted a very public job offer to entrepreneur Dan Shipper on its blog from its co-founder:

Dear Dan Shipper:

Please join us. Consider this a job offer to work at 42Floors. Because you have never applied for this position, this may come as a little bit of a surprise. But you have known for awhile that I have been really impressed with your work.

You’re only a sophomore in college, but you’ve already started several companies. You’ve taught yourself to code, and you are a maker at heart. And you have that rare gift of having a sense of style in your design work as well. AND, your blog posts that reach Hacker News are eloquent and well thought out. It would be an honor to have you join us here at 42Floors.

Here is your job description: You will make gorgeous products that help entrepreneurs find their dream office. There are dozens of things we need built — you will pick what you most want to work on or come up with your own project.

If you ever decide you want to go back to working on your own startup, you have my full support, and I will personally do everything I can to help you be successful as an entrepreneur.

You will never be asked to sign a non-compete. You will be free to contribute to open source, free to blog about anything and everything, and never be required to submit a patent that could be used offensively.

This offer has no expiration and, regardless of whether you decide to work with us, I hope to personally be there on your side in everything you do.

Most sincerely,
Jason Freedman
Co-Founder, 42Floors

In the current age of recruitment and the need for amazing talent in tech, this is a brilliant move on the part of Freedman and 42Floors, which is a company that helps startups find uniquely awesome office space.

What’s the reason for reaching out to someone in such a public way? Freedman shared this though process:

I share this letter with you all today because: 1) it’s really good publicity for Dan and I hope for his sake you all compete with me to hire him; and 2) I wanted to showcase how we think about hiring here at 42Floors.

Here at 42Floors, we believe hiring is dead. You simply can’t go hire guys like Dan anymore. And if you allow me to generalize for a moment, you can’t hire anyone capable of running their own startup. They don’t submit resumes. They don’t fill out job applications. They don’t call up recruiters.

“The very best can’t be hired. They must be courted.”

A move like this is bound to turn the recruitment process on its ear, and whether you agree with the practice or not, talented developers and tech-savvy folks like Shipper who have a history of success, should start to expect a stronger recruitment push than ever before.

This move doesn’t surprise me, but it does feel a lot like an NFL team trying to reach a prized free-agent quarterback. Tell the world that you want them and hope for the best that they accept.

Whether Shipper joins 42Floors or not is anyone’s guess, but we’ll definitely keep you updated on whether this full-court press style of recruitment was successful or not. If anything, it draws more attention to the company and the fact that it values the people who work for it.