Ask HN: Employers of HN – Would you hire a career changer without experience?
3 tejonutella 5 6/26/2025, 8:24:04 PM
I’m curious how hiring managers and founders here weigh relevant vs demonstrated ability.
For instance, suppose an applicant spent the last five years as a civil engineer and applies for a data science job or a high school teacher who self taught backend Go at night and ships side-projects. Or a graphic designer who’s built and sold a few small apps but has no formal CS background, etc etc.
what evidence or signals convinced you of a career changer being the right fit and which proof points mattered most (certs, projects, references, something else)?
Also, if you passed on someone like this, what was missing?
He turned out to be one of my best hires.
The latter often mean “I’m willing to fake pretend because I want to be employed, not because I have any passion”