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My company would love to post open jobs on Stack Overflow. We're currently about 750 people. When I try to open an account on Stack Overflow Talent, I get a canned response saying:

"Unfortunately, we don’t have product solutions that are a fit for you at this time. Our products are suited for mid-size or large companies that have employer branding and company awareness needs. We aren’t selling job slots to advertise job openings."

However, when I look at open Jobs on Stack Overflow, I immediately see jobs posted from companies smaller than ours. For example, the very first job when I look on the jobs page is for a company with less than 200 people: https://stackoverflow.com/jobs/331741/senior-backend-engineer-at-sustainable-mobility-finnauto.

The only information they ask for on signup (other than contact info) is company size, company name, and whether I'm a recruiter (I'm not). So, it seems like they must be basing the decision to turn us down on company size, while other smaller companies appear to be getting in.

So what's the deal?

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    Syndication possibly: meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/380410/…
    – user1937198
    Commented Jul 16, 2021 at 11:04
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    Probably a big recruiter with several companies as clients. They use their account as recruiter to create listings for smaller companies.
    – Braiam
    Commented Jul 16, 2021 at 17:37
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    @user1937198 I hadn't known that SO was syndicating, but I think that is unlikely to be a full explanation. The job posting I linked has answers to the Joel test, which I assume is not going to be a part of a job posting on any other site.
    – Evan Pon
    Commented Jul 18, 2021 at 4:47

1 Answer 1

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You cannot, per the last part of that message:

We aren’t selling job slots to advertise job openings.

That sentence stands alone and conveys its own message. We made the difficult decision to pivot away from the traditional job board and we are no longer selling subscriptions with Job Postings/Slots or Profile Search. You can read more about the decision in this blog: Accelerating Stack Overflow’s transformation

As of now, we are only continuing to sell our Employer Branding pieces of Talent, which are targeted towards mid-size or large companies as mentioned in the message you received.

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    I think that the confusion here is that seemly smaller companies are able to do so.
    – Braiam
    Commented Aug 23, 2021 at 15:03
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    @Braiam All companies could potentially get a new listing posted if they still have contracted slots available from before we stopped selling. But no company, regardless of size, can acquire new slots. The focus on small companies isn't especially relevant here, as that wording only applies to our products we still sell.
    – animuson StaffMod
    Commented Aug 23, 2021 at 15:05
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    Oh, so there was a product which smaller companies could use to achieve this result, which doesn't exist anymore. Gotcha.
    – Braiam
    Commented Aug 23, 2021 at 15:36
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    @Braiam Yes. Job Postings/Slots and Profile Search were open to everyone, not restricted by company size. We just don't sell them anymore.
    – animuson StaffMod
    Commented Aug 23, 2021 at 15:38
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    put another way, marking yourself as looking, makes you visible to a pool of companies that isn't growing?
    – Kevin B
    Commented Aug 23, 2021 at 16:34
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    @KevinB That is an inevitable component of a product being discontinued.
    – animuson StaffMod
    Commented Aug 23, 2021 at 18:18
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    wouldn't it be at least a little bit more clear, if that was the response?
    – Kevin B
    Commented Aug 23, 2021 at 18:25
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    In my opinion the email is not clear. That is why I have ended up here. So.. Is Talent being wound down? Without the ability to take on new customers I don't see how it has any future. That's a shame. It was a highly valued service that we have been advised to use by several happy customers.
    – Mat Fergusson
    Commented Aug 26, 2021 at 17:52
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    @MatFergusson The jobs board is being discontinued. The Jobs section as well as Developer Story will eventually be removed from the site, no later than April 2022.
    – animuson StaffMod
    Commented Aug 26, 2021 at 17:57
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    Thanks for the clarification @animuson. I do wonder is perhaps the company should update the talent website to not pretend they are still open for new business though.
    – Mat Fergusson
    Commented Aug 27, 2021 at 8:54
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    @animuson I am seconding that this is not clear. I am also quite confused why if the whole Jobs board will be shut down, it does not have a notice posted to that effect, Various meta chatter appears to be the only place that is explained. Given an active jobs board exists and no notice appears, it's reasonable to think you could post a job, right?
    – Namey
    Commented Sep 15, 2021 at 5:19
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    Why is the stack overflow jobs discontinued? It's one of the better tools for devs imho to find developer oriented jobs. Also, why discontinue the developer story, it's a great way to present yourself.
    – Tschallacka
    Commented Jan 7, 2022 at 10:12
  • @Tschallacka from the sound of it, it's more profitable to go into the business of training people to recognize company logos ("branding") or something. Pay for visibility, I don't get the business model.
    – jrh
    Commented Jan 7, 2022 at 16:30
  • @Tschallacka Regarding developer story: meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/411216/…
    – animuson StaffMod
    Commented Jan 7, 2022 at 16:31
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    we are only continuing to sell our Employer Branding pieces of Talent — um, English please?
    – user3840170
    Commented Jan 8, 2022 at 22:00

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