As others have stated, this probably isn't the best way to do a survey. At the very least, you're going to have some bias from posting this on HN late at night

As others have stated, this probably isn't the best way to do a survey. At the very least, you're going to have some bias from posting this on HN late at night (in the US). If you want a more representative answer to the question "How do companies hire?", I'd recommend using Google Consumer Surveys (http://www.google.com/insights/consumersurveys/home http://www.google.com/insights/consumersurveys/home) You'll be able to survey a much larger audience, get more responses, and have statistically significant results. In addition, Google has a nice dashboard which lets you compare answers according to various demographic information such as gender, age, location, income, etc.