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Comment by jmspring | Hacker News Reader

I think the letter is a great example of how I would like to see resume submissions / job requests written. It gets to the point pretty directly in "this is how I think I can help" and "here is the type of environment I am/am not interested in".

Instead, a lot of time these days is wasted in "here is my resume", phone back and forth with some HR person, phone with the hiring person, if in person, then you may or may not get a good feel for the work environment.

If only it were possible for both sides to be frank about "this is what we do" and "this is what we want".

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Of course it's possible -- people just don't do it, and I don't know why.

I recently needed to bring someone on to take over the basics on a bunch of my web projects, because I'm overcommitted, as usual, and trying not to be. I tried a local resource first, and then I went to Craigslist, which has worked out well for me in the past.

My ad was simple and direct; it spelled out what we were about, what we were looking for, and what we could offer, and then it had instructions: if someone wanted the job, they needed to solve an easy puzzle, not send a resume, and instead send about a paragraph talking about their skills and experience.

It worked out great.

As far as I'm concerned, resumes are next-to-worthless. I don't really care who you've worked for or what you've done for them. I'm not going to call them and see if they say good things about you. I just want to know if you can figure things out and communicate well. During the interview, I'll sort out whether or not you actually know what you're doing.

Did you get many applications from people who hadn't read your instructions?

I'm going to take a shot at: yes.

We tried this approach too, and it worked great. But for every correct application we got two or three wrong ones.

We emailed them explaining the problem, to give them a chance, and only one replied - to tell me I was being unfair not to consider him....

We did, and since one of the unwritten job requirements was "able to follow clear instructions", it worked well as a filter.

Also, we posted the ad using one particular email address (a working, but incorrect one), but to apply to the correct address they had to solve an easy puzzle which consisted of looking at the page source for the ad, seeing that our logo image was being loaded from ourdomain.com/job/logo.jpg, and going to ourdomain.com/job for the correct email address to apply to.

I didn't want anything too difficult or annoying, but on the other hand, I knew anyone that could figure that out and follow the directions would work out fine for us.

Any chance of seeing a copy of the ad?

I think it's fear. It's easier to "be normal" because it doesn't feel as risky. But then, not every employer responds well to that sort of thing either. I've tried this same approach more than once, and it's never worked yet. Not a valid statistical sample, but people seem to be afraid to hire someone who is forthright.

Although, I don't think it's a question of whether I'm forthright or not, that's too simple. The whole interview process, starting with the initial letter/application is actually a kind of mating ritual. If you get the sequence right back and forth, then you get a chance to get hired. If you don't get the sequence right then you make people feel uncomfortable, and they won't hire you probably.

Basically, by being brash during this process, you make people wonder if you're capable of the mating ritual, and if you aren't, then why not? Are you socially inept? Professionally incompetent?

The off chance that you're perfectly ept and competent, but have just chosen to apply for a job in an unconventional way is too great a risk for most people, so they pass, and look for the next guy who follows the rules of the ritual.

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