The cynic in me makes me think this was actually intentional by the recruiter to gauge personality characteristics of the candidate. It's not entirely implausable to think that corporations could use techniques like this to try to measure social capabilities of technical people.
Facebook recruiting and Unix systems
231–240 of 497 posts
Re: Facebook recruiting and Unix systems
#232Wow. Great thread. I'm personally waiting for n-gate's take on this.
Re: Facebook recruiting and Unix systems
#233Part of working in the industry is learning to work with recruiters.
Or with other people in general.
Re: Facebook recruiting and Unix systems
#234You are technically right but also very wrong.
Empathy is a critical skill in engineering. In this exchange you have shown to be unable to understand what the recruiter's point of view.
You will encounter many similar situations in your career, especially when working with people in areas of expertise different than yours.
Luckily, it is a skill, not a gift. So it is just up to you to get better at it.
Re: Facebook recruiting and Unix systems
#235Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is ridiculous. Nothing in your responses was rude. The CMU recruiter is dense and underqualified. Don't apologize for taking the time to remain honest in your communications and explain the circumstances.
Because of the monopolies that have been allowed to exist, getting black listed by FB is akin to chopping off a large portion of the quality tech jobs out there. Its not that he was factually wrong (or even wrong in etiquette) , but as my mom said you can be right and dead right, which is why he recognizes he needed a better approach to leave the most opportunities for his career going forward
There is an old joke about janitor who couldn't work for Microsoft because he didn't get an email. (Link: http://www.angelfire.com/oh3/momathome/janitor.html)
What has been done has been done and there is no place for regrets. Facebook might (along with its partner and associates) be a big workplace but it definitely isn't the only launchpad for a happy & successful career.
He came a little bit snarky, true, but I yet have to see devstar who isn't snarky at least to some degree.
Re: Facebook recruiting and Unix systems
#236Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not sure how much more clear poor Stanley can get: > Recruiter: We're looking for students with experience work on Linux and Unix > Stanley: I have experience working on Linux and UNIX > Recruiter: Your email and resume say Unix-like, which is not exactly UNIX. The recruiter, by the end of this exchange has been given the explanation of why "UNIX-like" is the correct term, why it is being used, and why it is rele…
Stanley said in an email he worked on Linux systems, but despite repeated prompts from the recruiter, refused to put exactly that on his resume. He was technically correct, which some people believe is the best kind of correct, but the failure here was his. He was more interested in being right than getting the internship, and as a result he gets a lot of pats on the back from people who share his philosophy here...…
> refused to put exactly that on his resume.
But he did!! And the recruiter still gave him flak!
Stanley said, "POSIX is more-or-less a standardization effort for UNIX/Linux systems, so I've updated my resume to reflect this."
And then he shows a screenshot that just lists "UNIX", not "UNIX-like".
Then the recruiter bats at him again!
I think he was more interested in being as honest as possible, not being right.
Re: Facebook recruiting and Unix systems
#237Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not sure how much more clear poor Stanley can get: > Recruiter: We're looking for students with experience work on Linux and Unix > Stanley: I have experience working on Linux and UNIX > Recruiter: Your email and resume say Unix-like, which is not exactly UNIX. The recruiter, by the end of this exchange has been given the explanation of why "UNIX-like" is the correct term, why it is being used, and why it is rele…
The recruiter's response isn't irrational. Very clear instructions are being given: put UNIX and Linux on your resume . Not tell me via e-mail. Then candidate goes ahead and 'educates' the recruiter, and puts something other than UNIX (UNIX-like) on the resume. i.e., does not follow instructions. Clear no hire.
But he put UNIX on his resume, and not UNIX-like. There's a screenshot that shows this.
Re: Facebook recruiting and Unix systems
#238Earlier quoted context omitted.
> You'll have a range of people from executives, to clients to co-workers in other departments who don't know what UNIX, APIs and POSIX are. Yes, but if a recruiter is attempting to convince the smartest people at top universities to come be an intern at their company, they should know the difference (or practical lack thereof) between linux and unix. Or at least they should be smart enough to not triple-down on that…
> they should know the difference (or practical lack thereof) between linux and unix. I hate this attitude. How can a recruiter know all the intricacies for the roles he is hiring, he would need to be an expert. He has to know everything he they have to learn a whole pile of new terms.
Wat. That's his literal job. To screen applicants that use these terms.
If he doesn't know what the terms he's screening for mean, then he probably isn't a very effective recruiter.
Re: Facebook recruiting and Unix systems
#239Hey folks, I'm the student writing the emails in the post here. Thanks to everyone for their criticisms. While I was initially kind of shocked by the recruiter's response, I've had a lot of time to think about it today and have realized that I was being pretty damn condescending and spoke out of line without regards to the context. It's been a hard lesson learned. I honestly regret the whole exchange, and posting it…
How do we know the recruiter is not a chat bot?
Re: Facebook recruiting and Unix systems
#240Earlier quoted context omitted.
Eh, honestly I would've been similarly frustrated. The recruiter seems like they are being needlessly bureaucratic. Either they are familiar with Unix and thus should know that Unix-like is synonymous with Unix nowadays or they aren't and they should take your word. Maybe you were a little condescending but it happens and rejecting someone on the basis of this exchange seems mad to me. If FB doesn't reverse their dec…
Unix-like systems are not synonymous with Unix systems nowadays. * Solaris, HP-UX and AIX are Unix systems. * FreeBSD and Debian GNU/Linux are Unix-like systems but not Unix systems. When technology people like us are debating over this terminology, I think it makes sense to cut the recruiter some slack.
Also:
- OSX is a certified UNIX
- iOS is UNIX-like (BSD based)
Due to this, when someone is asking me whether I have experience with UNIX-like I say that yes, I had an iPhone.