Refolk / Blog
Headhunting notes from people who do it for a living.
Opinionated writing on finding, judging, and reaching the people who never answer a job ad. Grounded in real data, named tools, and math that pencils out.
Only 913 of 21,754 Israeli Engineers List GitHub. Source the Other 96%
LinkedIn says connected apps bring up to 2.9x more recruiter messages. Only 4.2% of Israeli engineers list GitHub. Here's how to source the quiet majority.
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59 articles- Nov 5, 2026·10 min read
Ollie Shuts Nov 6, Conductor Nov 20. Snapshot Their Team Pages First
Ollie shuts Nov 6 with no WARN notice. How to snapshot a dead startup's team page, rebuild its roster from commits, and reach engineers acquirers left behind.
hire engineers from shut down startupfind employees of defunct startup - Nov 5, 2026·9 min read
Netflix Paid L5s $497K in Cash. Pitch the Equity It Never Gave Them
Netflix's 1,000 October cuts hit engineers paid all-cash, top-of-market salaries. How to find the real seniority behind the title and win without matching pay.
Netflix layoffs 2026hire ex-Netflix engineers - Nov 5, 2026·9 min read
Amazon's 95 Washington Layoffs Can Still Transfer. Pitch Directors First
Amazon's Nov 2026 WARN notice lists 95 Washington jobs, and each person can still transfer internally. Here's who reaches the market, and when to pitch.
Amazon WARN notice WashingtonAmazon layoffs November 2026 - Nov 5, 2026·10 min read
790 Slurm Profiles, 2 Say 'SRE.' Where GPU Cluster Engineers Really Are
GPU cluster ops is on Kelly's 2026 shortage list at 84%. Search Slurm skills and HPC labs, not 'SRE' titles, and tap ex-miners for facilities roles.
hire GPU cluster engineershow to recruit HPC engineers - Nov 4, 2026·9 min read
Fiserv Cut 10% of Its Senior Managers. Don't Search 'VP Payments'
Fiserv cut 3,000 since June, but WARN shows only 334. Which payments leaders and teams are actually available, and how to find them by what they ran.
Fiserv layoffs senior managementhire payments executives - Nov 4, 2026·10 min read
28,844 WARN Exits Land by Dec 8. Source by Exit Date, Not Headline
28,844 workers are scheduled to separate by Dec 8. Time outreach to laid-off engineers by WARN separation date and turn each notice into a list of names.
WARN notice layoffs listupcoming layoffs WARN tracker - Nov 4, 2026·9 min read
Only 1 in 2,740 US Engineers Says 'Open to Work.' Read HN Before December
How to source engineers from Hacker News's November 2026 Who Wants to Be Hired thread: parse posts, verify GitHub claims, and email before December.
hacker news who wants to be hiredask hn who is hiring november 2026 - Nov 4, 2026·9 min read
Canva's 1,271 Aren't All Layoffs. Pitch Engineers Told to Move to Sydney
Canva's 1,271 affected roles include relocations to Sydney. How to find the Canva engineers in Melbourne, Auckland and Vienna who may not want to move.
Canva layoffs 2026hire ex-Canva engineers - Nov 4, 2026·10 min read
Lightspeed's 250 Cuts Include Empty Seats. Search 'Vend,' Not Montreal
Lightspeed's 250 cuts mix layoffs with closed vacancies. How to discount the number and find ex-Lightspeed engineers through Vend, Gastrofix and NuORDER.
Lightspeed Commerce layoffsLightspeed layoffs 2026 - Nov 4, 2026·10 min read
Binance Lost $6.3B to a Fake Interview. Make Your Outreach Checkable
Binance's $6.3B hack began with a fake recruiter and a take-home repo. Here's how real recruiters can write outreach engineers can verify in under a minute.
fake recruiter scam engineersBinance hack fake job interview - Nov 3, 2026·10 min read
Dropbox's WARN Lists 57 of 200 Cuts. Find the Rest by Byline, Not City
Dropbox cut about 200 roles on Oct 28, but its SF WARN notice names 57. How to find the missing engineers via bylines and GitHub, and when to reach out.
Dropbox layoffs 2026Dropbox layoffs engineers - Nov 3, 2026·9 min read
SUSE Cuts 190, Still Ships 363 Kernel Patches. Search git log First
SUSE is cutting about 190 jobs, blaming AI. Find its kernel, openSUSE and Rancher engineers through commit emails and MAINTAINERS before LinkedIn catches up.
SUSE layoffs 2026hire Linux kernel engineers - Nov 3, 2026·9 min read
Amazon Cut Up to 250 Devices Coders. 1,839 US Profiles Say 'Lab126'
Amazon cut up to 250 devices jobs and named no locations. How to find Lab126 engineers by keyword, Vega OS and Fire OS instead of a company filter.
Amazon devices layoffs 2026Amazon Lab126 layoffs - Nov 3, 2026·10 min read
Pipedrive Cut 267 in Estonia. Its Veterans Are the Last Ones Free
Pipedrive layoffs 2026: who was cut in Tallinn, Tartu, Lisbon and Berlin, how Estonian notice periods set start dates, and which stack terms to search.
Pipedrive layoffs 2026Pipedrive layoffs Estonia - Nov 3, 2026·9 min read
Only 7% Refuse AI Screens. The Engineers You Sourced Weren't Asked
Greenhouse says only 7% refuse AI interviews, but it surveyed active job seekers. Here's why cold-sourced passive engineers still need a human first call.
AI interview screening candidatesshould recruiters use AI screening for passive candidates - Nov 3, 2026·9 min read
eBay's Third 2026 WARN Says 229. Pitch the 198 It Moved to San Jose
eBay's October 2026 WARN lists 229 San Jose cuts of 1,000 to 1,100. Here's how to hire eBay engineers who survived all three 2026 filings, by team and tenure.
ebay layoffs 2026ebay layoffs october 2026 warn - Nov 2, 2026·9 min read
Squarespace Cut 300: Search Dublin and Aveiro First, Not 'Acuity'
Squarespace cut 300, mostly product and engineering, with no 8-K to read. Where its 261 indexed profiles sit, how to find Acuity's team, and when to reach out.
Squarespace layoffs 2026hire laid off Squarespace engineers - Nov 2, 2026·9 min read
TomTom Layoffs 2026: How to Find and Hire Its Routing Engineers
TomTom layoffs 2026 hit route planner developers again. How to find routing engineers by skill signal across Amsterdam, Łódź, Pune and Berlin, and when to call.
TomTom layoffs 2026hire routing engineers - Nov 2, 2026·9 min read
26,000 FDE Seats, 4,769 Titleholders. Search Palantir's Deltas First
Announced FDE seats outnumber titled engineers 5.4 to 1. How to hire forward deployed engineers by searching Palantir Deltas, Echos, and variant titles.
how to hire forward deployed engineersforward deployed engineer recruiting - Nov 2, 2026·9 min read
EA Cut 400, Only 50 at BioWare. Search 'Frostbite' in Canada, Not the US
EA cut about 400 jobs on Oct 21 and only 50 were at BioWare. Here is how to find the other 350 through Frostbite, skate. and studio-city searches.
EA layoffs October 2026BioWare layoffs hire engineers - Nov 2, 2026·9 min read
Agents Start 40% of GitHub PRs. Score Engineers on Reviews, Not Merges
Octoverse 2026 shows agents start over 40% of GitHub PRs. Here are the GitHub signals that still separate strong engineers, plus revised sourcing filters.
octoverse 2026 agent pull requestsgithub profile signals for recruiters - Nov 2, 2026·10 min read
Oracle's 'Principal' Is IC4. Level the 359 Seattle Cuts Before Nov 13
Oracle's 359 Washington layoffs take effect Nov 13. How IC3, IC4 and IC5 map to your ladder, and why an Oracle 'Principal' title is usually IC4.
Oracle layoffs Seattle November 2026Oracle IC4 equivalent level - Nov 1, 2026·10 min read
Anthropic's S-1 Shows 1% Attrition. Pitch the 940 Before Day 27
Anthropic's S-1 shows 940 pre-2025 staff, 1% attrition and 20+ lockup windows. Here is who to pitch, when to reach them, and how to find them.
Anthropic IPO lockup employeeshire Anthropic engineers - Nov 1, 2026·10 min read
Checkr: 40% of Managers Met a Fake. Cross-Check Footprints, Not IDs
Checkr's Hiring Hoax 2026 says 40% of managers met a fake candidate. ID checks won't stop it, but sourcing people whose GitHub, LinkedIn, and peers agree will.
how to spot fake job candidatesdeepfake candidate interview fraud - Nov 1, 2026·9 min read
Microsoft Offered 60,000 an Exit. Pitch the 3,000 Before December
Microsoft's Voluntary Exit Offer reaches 60,000 staff, but only a few thousand will leave. How to find likely takers and pitch them before December.
Microsoft voluntary exit offerMicrosoft buyout 60000 employees - Nov 1, 2026·11 min read
Reddit's Login Wall Starts Outside the US. Map Handles to GitHub Now
Reddit is going logged-in-only, with full tests in non-US markets first. What still works for sourcing engineers, and how to tie handles to GitHub now.
reddit logged in only recruitersreddit x-ray search sourcing - Nov 1, 2026·9 min read
Workday Cut 142 in Pleasanton. Search 'XpressO' in Quotes, Not 'Workday'
Workday's WARN lists 142 Pleasanton tech layoffs effective Nov 30. Find the real engineers with quoted insider terms, not the 71,492 customer profiles.
Workday layoffs 2026Workday layoffs Pleasanton WARN - Nov 1, 2026·10 min read
Hiring Assistant 2 Learns Your Past Hires. That Can Cut a Pool 27x
LinkedIn Hiring Assistant 2 learns from your past hires and passes. Here's how its memory can shrink a PM pool 27x, and what to audit before it switches on.
LinkedIn Hiring Assistant 2Hiring Assistant 2 memory - Oct 31, 2026·9 min read
Qualcomm's 'Performance' Cuts Land in November. Search Hyderabad First
Qualcomm's 2026 layoffs are labeled 'performance' but follow a 20% handset revenue drop. Where its modem engineers sit, and how to source them before November.
Qualcomm layoffs 2026hire Qualcomm engineers - Oct 31, 2026·9 min read
Fetcher Stopped Getting Replies Oct 16. Re-find the Warm Ones by Nov 19
Fetcher deletes account data after Nov 19. How to sort your Fetcher export: warm replies first, re-verify job changers, and stop duplicate outreach.
fetcher shutdownfetcher data export - Oct 31, 2026·10 min read
Stars Cost $0.03. A Merged PR Doesn't. Verify Engineers in 10 Minutes
More than 2 in 3 recruiters spend an hour or more checking each candidate. Here's a 10-minute way to verify an engineer's skills from evidence others approved.
verify candidate skills recruiterhow to verify software engineer experience - Oct 31, 2026·9 min read
Comcast Cut 994 and Plans 1,100 Hires. Reach Its Engineers Before It Does
Comcast's WARN notices cut 994 jobs but it plans 1,100+ new roles. How to find its engineers, PMs, and IT leaders before its internal board re-places them.
comcast layoffs warn noticecomcast layoffs philadelphia engineers - Oct 31, 2026·9 min read
Netflix's WARN Covers 494 of 1,000 Cuts. Source the 506 It Missed
Netflix's California WARN notices cover 494 of about 1,000 October layoffs. Here's what the Sept 14 date means and how to find the 506 the filings miss.
netflix layoffs warn noticenetflix los gatos layoffs - Oct 31, 2026·10 min read
Microsoft's Nairobi Exits Began in September. Hire Those Leavers First
Microsoft's Nairobi ADC is closing, but the first engineers left in September via PIPs. How to find them, the Section 40 timeline, and EOR vs contractor.
Microsoft Africa Development Centre layoffsMicrosoft Nairobi ADC closure - Oct 30, 2026·9 min read
Flock's 270 Got Two Years to Exercise. Pitch the Work, Not the Bonus
Flock Safety's ~270 buyout leavers have cash, healthcare and two years to exercise. How to source them, time outreach and pitch each by why they left.
Flock Safety buyoutFlock Safety layoffs - Oct 30, 2026·9 min read
Disney's WARN Lists 159 Layoffs. Only 138 Profiles Say 'Imagineer'
Disney's WARN lists 159 Imagineering layoffs in Glendale but no titles. How robotics teams find show control talent and sign offers before Dec 29.
Walt Disney Imagineering layoffshire animatronics engineers - Oct 30, 2026·10 min read
SolarEdge Cut 200, 140 Outside Israel. Search 'MPPT,' Not 'Solar'
SolarEdge's 2026 layoffs fall mostly outside Israel. Here is how to find its DC-DC and inverter engineers for AI data-center power roles by circuit skill.
SolarEdge layoffs 2026hire power electronics engineers - Oct 30, 2026·10 min read
The NeurIPS Booth Is Where Quants Close. Source Its 9,108 Papers First
Recruiters put quant offers to ML PhDs at $450K to $650K, and hiring began in August. Source NeurIPS 2026 authors from OpenReview and lab pages before Dec 6.
NeurIPS 2026 recruitinghow to recruit machine learning PhDs - Oct 30, 2026·10 min read
Front's WARN Says 53. Paris Cuts Would Face a 3.5-Month PSE Clock
Front's WARN filing lists 53 San Francisco jobs. Here's how big the cut may be, where its Paris engineers sit, and how slow the French PSE clock runs.
Front layoffsFrontapp layoffs 2026 - Oct 30, 2026·9 min read
Banks Pay 13% More, Healthcare 17%. Only 61 US Engineers Tag FHIR
Randstad says banks and healthcare now outbid tech for engineers. How to find laid-off engineers with FHIR, HL7 and AML experience, not just Big Tech logos.
hiring software engineers for healthcarerecruit laid off tech workers bank - Oct 29, 2026·9 min read
Airtable's WARN Says 190. Bending Spoons' Record Says Closer to 600
Airtable's WARN notice counts 190 in San Francisco. How big the Bending Spoons cut is, how to find staff still listed as present, and when to start them.
Airtable layoffsAirtable WARN notice - Oct 29, 2026·9 min read
Dropbox Cut 200 Virtual First Staff. Search Kraków and Monterrey, Not SF
Dropbox cut about 200 Virtual First staff on Oct 28, 2026. Here is how to find them by country, team and remote location string, from Kraków to Monterrey.
Dropbox layoffs October 2026hire laid off Dropbox engineers - Oct 29, 2026·9 min read
HubSpot's 660 Cuts Cost $106K a Head. Reach the Managers Before Nov 4
HubSpot's 2026 layoff costs ~$106K per head, double 2023. Why that points to managers, where the 89 visible EMs and PMs sit, and when to reach them.
HubSpot layoffs 2026hire laid off engineering managers - Oct 29, 2026·10 min read
Instacart Is Shutting Caper. Search 'Jetson Orin,' Not 'Caper AI'
Instacart's Caper shutdown affects an engineering org of about 30, 10 in ML/CV. When they leave, and how to find them when 'Caper AI' searches fail.
Instacart Caper layoffsCaper AI engineers - Oct 29, 2026·9 min read
Amazon Cut 250 in Devices. Search Lab126, Not 'Amazon Devices'
Amazon cut about 250 devices jobs on Oct 28, 2026. Search Lab126, not Amazon Devices, and sign offers before the 90-day internal window closes in January.
Amazon devices layoffs October 2026Lab126 layoffs - Oct 29, 2026·9 min read
PandaDoc Cut 103, Only 10 in Ukraine. Hire Them as FOPs, Not Relocations
PandaDoc's layoffs were covered almost only on DOU.ua and dev.by. How to find the Ukrainian leavers and hire them as FOP contractors under martial law.
PandaDoc layoffshire Ukrainian software engineers - Oct 28, 2026·9 min read
Barclays Is Cutting Developers. Pune's Clear Before the UK's 45 Days
Barclays cuts 4,000 more roles by December. See when its India and UK developers become available, which entity names to search, and how to spot modernisers.
barclays layoffs developersbarclays job cuts india pune - Oct 28, 2026·9 min read
Innodata's 550 Have No Payslips. Verify Them Through EPFO and COEs
Innodata cut about 550 in India with no payslips or relieving letters. How to find its AI data-ops leads and verify them through EPFO and Philippine COEs.
Innodata layoffsInnodata layoffs India - Oct 28, 2026·9 min read
Disney Took 66 of Character.AI's 86. The Hireable 20 Is Really 8
Character.AI's Chapter 11 filings show 18 still on payroll, 10 of them Disney-bound. Who you can hire, when to reach out, and where the bigger pool sits.
Character.AI employees DisneyCharacter.AI bankruptcy hiring - Oct 28, 2026·9 min read
Sizing eBay's China Layoffs: 611 Engineers, Only 96 Visible in English
eBay China layoffs sized with Shanghai social-insurance data: 611 insured engineers, a 55 to 489 range, and why only 96 are searchable in English.
eBay China layoffseBay Shanghai R&D layoffs - Oct 28, 2026·10 min read
Apple Cut Its Hardware EPMs. Only 12 of 480 Profiles Say 'Hardware'
Apple is cutting hardware EPMs under Ternus and Srouji. Here's how to find them when their profiles hide the work, and why to hire them as NPI leads.
apple EPM layoffshire apple engineering program managers - Oct 28, 2026·9 min read
Automattic's Only Layoff Tracker Is Its About Page: 2,065 to 1,385
Automattic won't say how many people it is laying off. Here is how to read its About-page headcount and find the WordPress engineers who are leaving.
Automattic layoffsAutomattic layoffs 2026 WordPress.com - Oct 27, 2026·9 min read
Amex Cut 3,500. Find the Vendor Engineers Who Only Write 'Client: Amex'
Amex's 3,500 layoffs count employees only. Here's how to find the Infosys, Cognizant and IntraEdge engineers who list Amex only as 'Client: American Express'.
American Express layoffs 2026Amex layoffs engineers - Oct 27, 2026·9 min read
BioWare Is 50 of EA's 400 Cuts. Source Full Circle and Maxis Instead
Bloomberg says only about 50 of EA's 400 October 2026 cuts hit BioWare. Here is where the rest work, what skills transfer, and how to source them.
EA layoffs October 2026BioWare layoffs hiring - Oct 27, 2026·9 min read
Moniepoint Can Veto Its Leavers. Find Them Under TeamApt and Monnify
Moniepoint can veto volunteers, so the engineers who leave are generalists. How to find them under TeamApt, Monnify and four other company names.
Moniepoint layoffsMoniepoint restructuring engineering - Oct 27, 2026·9 min read
Microsoft's Buyout: Get January Start Offers Signed Before December
Microsoft's voluntary exit offer reaches 60,000 staff at level 70 and below. Which orgs you can recruit from, and why your offer must land before December.
Microsoft voluntary exit offerMicrosoft voluntary buyout - Oct 27, 2026·10 min read
Only 700 Paid the $100K H-1B Fee. Rehire the Cap-Counted Who Left
With the $100,000 H-1B fee blocked, source engineers in Toronto, London and Bangalore who were already counted against the cap and can skip the lottery.
$100,000 H-1B fee blockedH-1B cap exempt previously counted - Oct 27, 2026·10 min read
Workday Cut 525 in Product. Its Name Is a Skill on 71,487 US Profiles
Workday's Sept 29 cut hits its builders, but 71,487 US profiles list 'Workday' as a skill. Source its engineers by employer and time outreach to April 2027.
Workday layoffs 2026hire laid off Workday engineers - Oct 26, 2026·9 min read
Hiring Assistant 2 Badges: Only 1 in 450 US Engineers Lists Copilot
Hiring Assistant 2 shows Replit and Lovable badges, with Copilot coming. They prove tool use, not shipped work. How to weigh them when sourcing engineers.
LinkedIn Hiring Assistant 2 verification signalsLinkedIn connected apps recruiters
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One plain sentence. Role, city, stack, stage, whatever matters to you.
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GitHub, public LinkedIn and Crunchbase records, the open web. Not a database that went stale last quarter.
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Ranked, with the reasoning under every name. Open a profile, ask a follow-up, narrow it down.
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