Devpost, which is known to developers for running contests and hackathons, both online and in person now has a recruiting platform built exclusively for software developers. At the moment it is only in New York City, but there are plan to expand to other cities.

Hackthons and online contests where there's a leaderboard and onlookers can see your work, such as the IARPA Mapping Challenge on TopCoder and Kaggle contests, have proved to be a good way for employers to find the talented developers they need. So DevPost diversifying into recruitment is a natural progression.

What is different about Devpost's jobs site is that it gives developers the opportunity to find out about the companies that have jobs on offer and simplifies the application process.

Back in May when Brandon Kessler, Devpost founder/CEO announced the jobs initiative, then called Team Pages, he explained:

"Hackathons are a crucial way to discover talent, and to get a look not just at what candidates say on their resumes but at what they build. Similarly, we believe companies must improve their careers sites and job listings so that developers can get an inside look at the people and learning opportunities that exist at each company."

Although it is still in beta, Devpost jobs has now added useful functionality and is working with over 30 of NYC’s best startups including Meetup, Clarifai, DigitalOcean, Genius, and Plated and others:

What makes it stand out from other recruitment agencies, apart from the fact it's developer-specific is that the information on every company and the job content of the positions they have open comes directly from each company’s dev team, not HR.

This information includes as standard:

• Salary, equity, benefits, developer work hours

• Tech stack & the team’s development process

• Individual profiles of team members, diversity stats

• Job duties, what you’ll need to succeed, what similar devs have done

• Hiring & interview process

Companies provide plenty of images to give the flavor of the working environment, extending to the food you can expect in some cases. Charts convey diversity stats making comparisons easy.

The application process is also different. There are no cover letters but instead just two questions: “Why are you excited about this job?” and “How is your past experience applicable to this job?”

To visit Devpost Jobs NYC you have to be either in NYC or able to relocate there. There are also other pre-screening questions before access is granted. 

Once there you can filter by Role, Techstack, Experience and so on. With the filter used here there were two jobs available, one of them with Devpost itself!

This seems a good approach both for employers and potential employees. Its scope is currently limited and it will be interesting to see if it attracts the large organisations where the majority of developer jobs will continue to be. 

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