Looking for Hacker News alternatives to find your next job? We’ve got you covered.

Hacker News started out as a nostalgic recreation of Reddit when its users were mostly hackers. But as the site’s popularity exploded, it changed from a tech community forum to a forum-like job board.

Today, Hacker News no longer feels like a small friendly place but rather like a huge unruly crowd.

Luckily, Hacker News is no longer your only choice for insider news—like hot job openings or other employment opportunities. There are some great alternatives to pick from.

In this post, we’ll share with you our top five favorites. But first, a little Hacker News history.

Looking for the best startup job? Research any startup’s valuation and potential exits up to 10 years into the future with GrowthAdvisor.

What is Hacker News?

Hacker News was born from Y Combinator. One of Y Combinator’s founders, Paul Graham, wanted to create a community a la Reddit in its early days. He wanted to create a place where you could talk to other tech entrepreneurs, share links, news, and ideas.

So in 2007 Y Combinator launched Hacker News. Its immediate success took the founders by surprise. Of course, at first, it was good news. But then it grew, and grew…and grew.

From the initial 1,600 daily visitors in 2007, today Hacker News has over 5,000,000 visitors a month! It became hard to moderate. And it changed from a small, intelligent community to a sprawling giant that could often get toxic.

Still, tech professionals from all over the world consider Hacker News their main news portal.

So why is it still popular? And how can you use it to find the best startup job?

The 3 Best Features of Hacker News

Let’s take a look at some unique features that only Hacker News has. (More on finding the best job later.)

1. Downvoting comments

Most online forums let you upvote comments. But what forums let you downvote comments? Very few. And the star among them—Hacker News.

Of course, it’s not that easy. To downvote a comment you need to have at least 501 Karma points. Still…

It’s as close to sharing your honest opinion in a click as you can get. Like it? Upvote. Don’t you like it? Don’t just ignore it. Downvote it.

2. Flagging submissions

If you have at least 31 Karma points, you can flag a submission. Once a submission gets enough flags, its drops in rank. Or the moderators remove it completely. They simply tag it as “dead.”

But if you come across a “dead” submission that you think should be live, you can vouch for it. With luck, it’ll be back in circulation.

Talk about user power. On one hand, as a user, you feel in control of the content on Hacker News. But on the other hand, your posts can be controlled just as much by other users.

3. Shadow-banning

Trolls beware. Hacker News can shadow-ban you. What does it mean? It means if you’re shadow-banned, you won’t be receiving any votes or comments. And all your posts will be “dead” the moment you post them.

Of course, you’ll get a warning from a moderator first. A clever approach. It keeps the users engaged, yet it keeps them in check.

How is this relevant to your job hunt? Three things:

Time Truth Trust

a. Time

When you search for a job board for a job, you spend time. Your time is the only precious thing you have in your life. Money comes second. You don’t want to waste your time searching for the resource that’s not credible.

b. Truth

You want the truth, not some lie masquerading as the truth. In other words, you don’t want to read the sites that will give you false information. And that’s precisely the trouble with forums like Hacker News…and the benefit.

Because how else can you find out about a hot new job if not from the person who works there?

c. Trust

You found a new job posting on Hacker News. It’s perfect. You’re jazzed! But how can you be sure this information is accurate? Can you trust the person who posted it? Wouldn’t you be better off searching sites like LinkedIn or Glassdoor or PayScale?

Sure, but by then you’ll be too late. The best jobs get snatched up before they’re even posted on job boards. That’s the value of forums like Hacker News. With a bit of diligence and a bit of luck, you can land your dream job.

So, for your job hunt…

You can do three things:

Post smart posts to get in front of the eyes that are unreachable by other methods (like the eyes of Paul Graham); Peruse the Hacker News job board daily; Use Hacker News alternatives;

Let’s take a look at them one by one.

If you’re looking for a startup job, don’t disregard employee stock options as a perk on top of salary. Stock options have the potential to make you a lot of money. Use GrowthAdvisor to see how many stock options you can get at any startup.

Get started. It’s free

1. Reddit

Reddit is the “front page of the internet,” as they like to call themselves. It’s nearly true. As of this writing, Reddit’s rank on Alexa is number six. Number two is YouTube, and number one is Google.

In Reddit’s words: “Reddit is a network of communities based on people’s interests. Find communities you’re interested in, and become part of an online community!”

It’s a massive aggregation of forums where users can comment, upvote, downvote…the whole shebang. In a way, you can think of Reddit as many Hacker News sites rolled into one. Plus, Reddit was on the scene way before Hacker News started.

Now, here is how Reddit can help you in your job hunt.

Best feature: Subreddit communities. “Jobs” is one. There are tons of others.

Daily to-do: Find the subreddit community that focuses on your dream job and start posting there and reading it daily.

2. Steemit

Steemit—a blockchain project—has positioned itself as an alternative to Reddit. The basic difference is payment. If you post or moderate content on Steemit, you get paid in tokens.

In Steemit’s words: “Steemit is a social media platform where everyone gets paid for creating and curating content. It leverages a robust digital points system (Steem) for digital users by rewarding them for sharing content. It’s currently the only blockchain that can power real applications via social apps like Steemit.”

Here is how Steemit can help you in your job hunt.

Best feature: Tags. “Jobs” is one of the many.

Daily to-do: Search for a “job” tag and you might come across a new hot posting.

3. Lobsters

Lobsters (lobste.rs) is a carbon copy of Hacker News, except it’s built with Ruby on Rails. It started as an alternative to Hacker News—to keep up the quality of content.

In Lobsters’ words: “Lobsters is a computing-focused community centered around link aggregation and discussion, launched on July 3rd, 2012. Lobsters were created by Joshua stein with some specific design goals in mind to avoid problems faced by other link aggregation sites.”

Here is how Lobsters can help you in your job hunt.

Best feature: Search. “Jobs” is your preferred search term.

Daily to-do: Search for “jobs” and look for actual job postings.

4. Slashdot

Slashdot launched to improve user experience. It’s yet another alternative to both Hacker News and Reddit.

In Slashdot’s words: “News for nerds, stuff that matters. The timely news source for technology related news with a heavy slant towards Linux and Open Source.”

Here is how Slashdot can help you in your job hunt.

Best feature: Stories. No actual job postings here, but lots of stories about jobs.

Daily to-do: Search stories for jobs and might find your gem.

5. GrowthAdvisor

GrowthAdvisor is a wealth-building platform for high-performing employees. With our free analytics tool, you can forecast the value of your Employee Stock Options up to 10 years into the future. Think of us as a complementary tool to Hacker News that you can use for your job search.

We’re proud to say that we’re the only stock-worth predicting tool on the market.

How do we do it?

We have analyzed 800,000+ companies to give you the best-performing companies’ data:

potential profitability

exit scenarios

value growth

You can use this data to negotiate job offers. You’ll know when to exercise your stock options to get the biggest gains. And you’ll have access to data on salaries, the number of shares, revenue, and equity growth trends.

We have simplified complex financial data for you, so you can make better career decisions.

Let’s face it. You need a way to know not just what your stock options are worth today, but what they’re going to be worth two, three, or even ten years from now. Then you can be truly prosperous.

So, with all that great stuff…here is how GrowthAdvisor can help you in your job hunt.

Best feature: Company comparison tool.

Daily to-do: After you’re done searching for jobs on Hacker News or any of the alternative sites, search the companies on GrowthAdvisor to see how much money they’ll make you. More specifically, see which position will give you how much in salary and how much in stock options. Then see the potential exit scenarios for that company, and how much money you’ll make when you cash out your options.

Final Thoughts

Sites like Hacker News are great tools to keep abreast of technology news, startup news and of new hot tech job openings. But…

Finding the right job is not enough.

In recent years, equity compensation practice has exploded in popularity. There are over 800,000 of publicly traded companies of all sizes: startups, medium-sized firms, and big enterprises.

What does this mean for you? It means more attractive and complex compensation packages that promise the company shares in exchange for lower salaries and bigger future gains.

GrowthAdvisor is a new tool you need to help you facilitate the search for the jobs that will build you the most wealth.

Get started. It’s free

Next Steps

Want to get started?

Search jobs compensations with our FREE tool ⟶

Want to read more?

Check out our post on AngelList: 5 Simple Steps to Get the Best Startup Job ⟶

Want to keep exploring?

See the Top 5 Interview Questions and How to Answer Them ⟶

Questions? Email our team at support@growthadvisorhq.com