So, you need a job? Man, do resumes suck
scobleizer.com
scobleizer.com
Mr. Scoble's sense of entitlement is staggering. Just because you can lord it over people who find themselves unemployed in a bad economy doesn't mean you should.
In the very least he should refrain from making fun of over-qualified candidates. That's just unnecessary.
Heard of inflation, Scoble?
My first two jobs were through random contacts ( a relative and someone I met while swing dancing). The next two were through dedicated recruiters on Monster.
I suspect I'll be able to use professional contacts or one of the better recruiters that I know the next time I'm looking, but up to this point, they haven't panned out.
OTOH, every piece of software I have ever written says volumes about me.
Therefore...
Screw job hunting, write some software, start a company and sell that software.
What a concept.
From people that can't spell.
I've had one job in my field since out of college (same one since I finished) and I've learnt a lot but I have no clue how to really portray it all in my resume.
If I am applying for a development position do you think the hiree will care that I have experience with SEO, building brands, etc? How does one portray it? Are cover letters that important for a development position? And so on..
I've had a tough time finding well written articles on this subject but Scoble has made some definite good points, now I'm more intrigued
(I'm the author of http://imranontech.com/ and am creating a developer recruitment startup)
Nothing wrong with that, except there are hundreds of thousands of guys out there with their own lists of stuff they want.
The art of writing a resume is the art of creating a targeted sales brochure to the exact person who is able to call you in for an interview. That means, between you and him, you have to understand at a gut level what makes his boat float and what are going to be key selling factors for him.
It's an acquired skill, but not too hard to learn. The interesting part is that not only do you have to target each opportunity, you also have to go through a certain number of opportunities per day/week to make the machine work.
I find it fun once I get used to it. Of course, as I get older it's all word-of-mouth now.
And let's not forget that between you and him may also be numerous gatekeepers and headhunters.
I've found in the past that doing these are the best way to get short listed by an agent. I figure either they don't like reading them, or my cover letters really suck.
7. Apply for a job for which you are clearly overqualified for
I guess what he means is "prove that you can turn a spell-checker on".
Ironically, the company's rejection letter itself contained both a grammatical and spelling error. Having already been rejected, I decided to write back to them and point this out. I guess they were in some way impressed, as they wrote back to me asking if I'd be interested in a job, but by this time I wasn't.
This is something that I hate. I know many people who are in this situation. They're highly qualified, but due to too many people in that field for a local area, or in general, they just can't find work in it.
So to tide themselves over until they CAN get one, they look for a much more simpler job. Only to get told, time and time again, they are 'overqualified'.
Why is this such a bad thing?
unhappy employee who could leave any time. doesn't sound good to me.
You just don't know.
Don't make the mistake of thinking a resumes' job is to accurately represent you to prospective employers. Your resume is an advertising brochure that should be tailored to fit each position you apply for.
Now, even with the higher standard, the learning curve depends greatly on the complexity of the system and how much of a learning curve is permitted by the employer. If you are trying to work with a full J2EE system, and you haven't done it before, expect a steep 2-3 month learning curve, even if you are proficient in java. If they need someone to be productive within that first week, the average hacker won't be able to make it.
There is just too much complexity and too many libraries to memorize in less time then that. I spent a good month or two learning the EJB 2.2 frameworks, Servlets, JSPs, javascript, etc at my last job. This job had a very steep 1 month learning curve with a modern Seam, Richfaces, JSF environment. I'd add on another month or two for anyone that doesn't already understand the core of the j2EE/web application stack. This small team has had people that haven't been able to pull it off.
Now for the extreme example, my father has worked developing the base station for a satellite telephone system. He's commented on how half of the people brought in to help him got lost in the complexity and provided next to no additional productivity.
I've also dabbled in pharmaceutical automation and in the telecommunication networks. Very steep learning curves in regulations and the complexities associated in both fields.
In summary, competence often requires a lot more then just raw coding ability. Very few people can slide into a job under the radar and properly complete very hard problems where they don't have the expected domain knowledge.
*Reviewing this, it's not really a direct response to what was said in the above thread. I was reading into the response too much.
but what I said was in the context of working at a job you're overqualified for. what i'm implying is that hackers can perform most non-hacking tasks fairly easily. a minor bookkeeping position because you can't find a decent coding job? I'd assume anyone proficient with basic database manipulation could do it.
Hiring someone has a lot of tangential factors that will come into play. Most hackers have a personality that tends to be strongly focused at the task at hand, often at the expense of paying attention to others things around them. This means that while they might be technically capable of functioning as an office assistant, it will be a very poor use of their skill set and others are likely to be able to do a better job with it, as they enjoy using the skill set required for the job. If the sole responsibility of the role is a tour guide, or PR individual, then there is a good chance that they are the hacker is the wrong individual for the job. On the same note, if there is a lot of repetitive work that requires an intense focus and can't be automated, quite often the hacker personalities may lose interest.
Just because one is qualified to do the job does not mean that you'll be meeting the companies unspecified needs. If you aren't agreeing to work for X amount of time, the company may lose out solely because the costs of hiring and replacing you are greater then the benefits you'll provide.
In summary, there are occasions where HR is required and does it well. Just because most companies err too far in one direction does not mean that there aren't legitimate reasons hiding in the original guidelines that will need to be addressed. For a specific instance, I have friend who is looking to go into coding from QA. We had a QA opening at my current employer, but the desire to leave QA means after X amount of time means that my friend was not the right candidate for that job.
I guess its not really ethical to do that, and may even be illegal, but its not as bad IMHO as inventing qualifications and experience you don't have which is a definite no no!