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The reverse job applicant

reversejobapplication.com

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Re: The reverse job applicant

#141

Post by treeface »

run4yourlives wrote: post #134
treeface wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Generation X" doesn't tell me a whole lot about when you grew up as it appears to encompass a range of 20 years of births (1961-1981 according to WP). In the US (and I'll focus on the US because I think that's where the reverse application guy is from), the unemployment rate reached a peak of 10.8% toward the end of 1982, due largely to the monetary stabilization policies of Mr. Paul Adolph Volcker. In 1981 it was i…

You're missing a small but meaningful difference: It's not when you graduate, it's how you grow up. There is literally tons of data that has been written about gen x. Your comment most certainly proves that you're probably not as familiar with the time period as those who lived it. That's not an insult, just a truth. Your generation has the unfortunate distinction of being shocked by the current economic situation. I…

Surely it's a combination of both when you graduate and how you grow up? My problem with your line of reasoning is that I believe you're mistakenly generalizing in this important respect:

You're lumping the entirety of "generation X" into a shared-cultural-experience group, when someone who was born in 1975 probably had quite a lot more opportunities entering the job market than someone born in 1965 or 1985.

I mean what are we even saying here? In general people had better childhoods in the 90s than they did in the 70s and early 80s? Ok, but we're talking about variations on the edges of various largely immobile population blocks. Your personal experience might have been difficult, but how do you know that mine wasn't just as difficult or worse? How are you so sure that I'm not already as humble as you are? This whole generation generalization strikes me as something like "Ohio State can't win the national championship because the SEC is faster".

Re: The reverse job applicant

#142

Post by azanar »

run4yourlives wrote: post #119
ph0rque wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good luck getting DHH to code your Rails app...

Sigh... my original point seems to be lost arguing semantics with academics in this sub-thread it seems...

I'll not speak for everyone else. But, for me, your point got lost in the righteous indignation that came in subsequent replies in the sub-thread. It is very difficult to assert humility while maintaining an impression of the same. I only started replying when you made this about identity.

Re: The reverse job applicant

#144

Post by joe_the_user »

run4yourlives wrote: post #108
SkyMarshal wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Be humble and gracious until you actually distinguish yourself. And even moreso afterwards.

Agreed. Although you have a little more room to be an ass if you can back it up.

Hmm,

I prefer non-asses myself but I think there are other options in the world besides humble and ass ...

Re: The reverse job applicant

#145

Post by ramchip »

jemfinch wrote: post #105
ramchip wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Programming languages can't all be picked up that quickly, since semantics may differ a lot. You can't say "Give me any programming task and I'll pick it up". What if you're a Web guy and the task is a C++ medical application? What if we're a finance company and the language is Haskell or ML? There's no way someone with no experience in a related language could become proficient without a fairly long training period…

> Programming languages can't all be picked up that quickly, since semantics may differ a lot. The second day with my new employer I was tasked with writing an analysis project in a language I'd never even heard of before joining. Within two weeks, I was writing code in that language every bit as good as my coworkers'. Your statement may hold true for people who know one or two languages (like most CS graduates these…

Yes, my point was focused on this specific case (explaining why it sounds entitled for a fresh graduate to say he can just pick up anything), not on someone with a very wide experience.

You seem to have neglected the part where I was talking about domain knowledge: I still think it wouldn't be easy for even a good programmer to start coding the control software for a microscope if he has no experience in that domain (DSP, image processing, etc). Even if the language is C, the algorithms require very careful consideration and more than a couple weeks' worth of study. Same would go for a programmer-analyst at a financial company, etc.

For the extreme example, just go ahead and tell a verification engineer that you'll write good Verilog within 2 weeks ;)

Re: The reverse job applicant

#146

Post by yeahisaidit »

All of you saying "this is a waste of time", "you wouldn't take a second glance", etc. are contradicting yourselves. If you "wouldn't waste your time reading it" why did you? And why are you taking the time to comment? You're giving this site the exact thing it was meant to get...ATTENTION. It obviously was written with humor and meant to attract attention. I am sure he would give a potential employer his qualifications (and experience) once he got their attention and they asked. If you're taking this THAT seriously (cough, cough, run4yourlives) you're obviously the exact kind of person no one would want to work for! I understand that you're upset you don't quite meet the qualifications. ;)

Re: The reverse job applicant

#148

Post by run4yourlives »

maxawaytoolong wrote: post #138
run4yourlives wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're missing a small but meaningful difference: It's not when you graduate, it's how you grow up. There is literally tons of data that has been written about gen x. Your comment most certainly proves that you're probably not as familiar with the time period as those who lived it. That's not an insult, just a truth. Your generation has the unfortunate distinction of being shocked by the current economic situation. I…

I am gen X, and my younger brother is gen Y. I actually agree with the poster above you, and not with you. Although it was true that we grew up with reagan and bush 1, and associated global-political fears and sluggish economies, we also mostly graduated from high school and universities during the clinton era when the economy was booming and anyone with a pulse could get a job. I mean, drop outs from "media criticis…

It IS when you graduate. If there are no jobs, there are no jobs, regardless of how serene and abundant or oppresive and anxiety inducing your childhood was.

But I'm not arguing about who actually has it worse. Hell, I think anyone graduating this year wins that hands down.

Humility is an action based on perception, not reality. If you forever had it easy, yet land in a world of shit come graduation day, you become flummoxed and dismayed. That's when you figure all hope is lost and you may as well throw caution to the wind. You're owed more dammit! Why can't others see that?

On the contrary, those that have never had anything are grateful for the little they receive. In fact, some in this boat could use a shot of arrogance.

These are extremes of course, and certainly gross generalizations, but hopefully I make the point. It's not that one generation is better than the other. It's that one started low, and got low - exactly what they expected. The other started high, but is getting low, and that's not what is expected.

When you don't get what you expect, the best place to look for answers is in the mirror. In this case - the solution is to decrease expectations. In other words be more humble.

Re: The reverse job applicant

#149

Post by dsspence »

masnick wrote: post #110
hop wrote: post #77

Your resume could be part of the problem - http://www.andrewhorner.com/documents/AndrewHorner.Resume.pd... Some constructive criticism: Thats a lot of ink to print that out, drop the black and grey banners. Try using a resume theme from Pages or Word for a start and just use black fonts on a white background. Use Myriad Pro or something more modern than Arial. Make it one page. Your first entry shouldn't be that you…

The rule of thumb that my university's career center used is that after your junior year of college no one cares about what you did in high school anymore. And I second all the comments of the parent...resume definitely needs some work. If you still want a non-cookie-cutter resume template, try making one in Latex. I personally use a heavily modified version of the template mentioned here: http://www.thelinuxdaily.co…

While that is the De facto rule in career centers, there is a rule that usurps it, which is if it really does distinguish you from the average applicant, use it.

Re: The reverse job applicant

#150

Post by brown9-2 »

hop wrote: post #77

Your resume could be part of the problem - http://www.andrewhorner.com/documents/AndrewHorner.Resume.pd... Some constructive criticism: Thats a lot of ink to print that out, drop the black and grey banners. Try using a resume theme from Pages or Word for a start and just use black fonts on a white background. Use Myriad Pro or something more modern than Arial. Make it one page. Your first entry shouldn't be that you…

His website now seems to link to a different version of the resume, which would seem to have incorporated this type of feedback: http://www.andrewhorner.com/documents/ahorner.resume.pdf
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