Comment by devnulll | Hacker News Reader

Comment by devnulll | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

> When I first started interviewing people I assumed everyone > wrote their resumes just like me: Honest, accurate, erring > on the side of humble, avoiding exaggeration of my abilities.

You may be missing the point of a resume.

There are really two goals: 1. Get you through the door, so you can get an Informational with the Hiring Manager. This means passing the Recruiter and (usually) the Hiring Manager's 30-60 second screen while looking at 50 candidates. Often an email or a Linked In Message is more effective than a CV at this.

2. Sufficiently and credibly explain your background to the interviewers who will be reading it 5 minutes before the interview.

The CV needs to present well and be credible.

I think you are missing the point of the GP post. Yes, a resume/CV is a marketing document designed to get you past an initial screen, and to tell an interviewer what you are about. But, ideally (and it's certainly not too much to ask), such a document should also be accurate. "Marketing" and "lies" should theoretically be disjoint sets.

Unfortunately, the fact that so many people outright lie on their resumes means that people who don't are at a disadvantage.

Resume truth isn't the same as spoken truth.

I worked at FedEx ground for two weeks in college, but one week was in June and the next was in July, so while that was relevant experience, it went on my resume with June-July and it may have looked like I worked there for two months.

It's common to only list the final position one held, so someone who was in the mailroom for 5 years, somehow got into a deskjob for two weeks and then left is going to show 5 years at the company, deskjob (unless they're looking for a new mailroom gig). It's true, but misleading. Of course, some people go beyond that and claim things they didn't actually do, etc.

After a certain point of interviewing candidates, I stopped reading their resumes. All of the interesting stuff I would ask about never had details behind it, because it was fluffed up, but never enough to disqualify a candidate either.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com