Steve Peroni gave Hacker News free CV reviews and won developers' trust

Steve Peroni, a London tech recruiter who had worked as a developer for years, knew his industry's reputation: recruiters were treated as keyword-matching salespeople who saw candidates as product, and both clients and candidates answered cold calls with suspicion. His counter-move was to offer the Hacker News community something for nothing — free, honest CV reviews — while removing the feared catch by disclosing up front that he was a recruiter, telling his employer before he did it, and taking only opt-in submissions.

The offer was overwhelmed. Hundreds of CVs arrived, one commenter computing 341 of them at twenty minutes each, and Peroni got through roughly eighty percent before closing it; only one or two submitters had redacted their details. Then came the backlash he wrote about in "My experiences as a Recruiter on Hacker News": anonymous hate mail accused him of running an elaborate scam to harvest CVs and mine job leads, and one person phoned his employer to try to get him fired. Because he had told his boss in advance, the attempt failed and his boss found it hilarious.

The follow-up post drew 402 points and 114 comments, and the community response inverted the stereotype: prominent members apologized on behalf of the angry minority, edw519 held Peroni's brutal honesty up as a model for other recruiters, and he was called the most-loved recruiter on Hacker News. Commenters offered pints and PayPal donations, a podcast invited him as a guest, and Peroni spelled out the differentiators — he understood the software development lifecycle, did not keyword-match, and ran his business opposite to the industry's worst habits.

Give the hated profession's expertise away free and transparently, so trust does the selling

Free, opt-in CV review inverts the feared dynamic: candidates expect recruiters to mine their CVs for leads, so a visible no-strings review signals the opposite of the stereotype.

Transparency pre-empted the attack: because he told his employer in advance and never used the CVs, the scam accusation was answerable from the public record and the firing attempt backfired.

The audience was exactly the market: developers who distrust recruiters control referrals and decide whose calls they take, so trust among them is a recruiter's most valuable asset.

He could actually deliver: as an ex-developer he could review technical CVs credibly, unlike keyword-matching agencies, so the free work was good enough to justify the flood of submissions.

When your whole profession is distrusted, give its expertise away free and disclose your interest up front: the goodwill becomes the brand, and trust outperforms cold outreach

The thread's visible outcome was reputational: 402 points and 114 comments, apologies from prominent members for the hostile minority, offers of pints and PayPal donations, a Techzing podcast invitation, and the label most-loved recruiter on Hacker News. Peroni said the positive feedback outweighed the hate and committed to follow-up posts on what was wrong with the recruitment industry; commenters urged him to keep publishing while the trust lasted. No revenue figures appear in the thread; the blog was his long-term way to stand out from the herd.