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IBM looking for 12 years’ experience in Kubernetes administration

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Re: IBM looking for 12 years’ experience in Kubernetes administration

#51
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>HR folks aren't engineers, so they should not be expected to know. Yeah, so make the engineers produce the requirements for the particular jobs. HR should not be in the business of defining technical requirements for jobs.

I worked for a hidebound company like that. I would submit a request, which would then get modified by HR. That was why it was so important for me to review the job descriptions. It was often an iterative process.

On the employee’s side, I always tell external recruiters that they do not have permission to modify my resume in any way outside of replacing my contact information with their heading.

I’ve seen too many horribly mangled resumes from the hiring side and I spend time at least once per quarter keeping my resume up to date.

Re: IBM looking for 12 years’ experience in Kubernetes administration

#52
post #41

Obviously a typo, they probably meant 1-2 years, which is realistic. While this is probably not actually the case here, I see it quite often that companies have unrealistic expectations when it comes to work experience with technologies like k8s. For example it is quite common here in Berlin to expect 4+ years of k8s experience. Which is unrealistic to find taking into account that k8s initial release was 6 years ago…

Sometimes they just look for a reason to cut the salary or make you more overtime-compliant, or something else. Basically a tool to squeeze out more.

The routine is to take you but make you feel like they do you a favor by taking you with less exp than it was originally stated.

Re: IBM looking for 12 years’ experience in Kubernetes administration

#55

Recruiters putting silly time requirements on skills is nothing new. My favorite moment of this type was at a meetup for .NET, where a recruiter came in and asked for too many years of experience, and the entire room burst out laughing. She just smiled, accepted the grief we all were giving her, and changed the job description to be accurate. I forget the exact wording she used, but I remember the gist of her respons…

I get that she was actually a nice person who simply didn't know when .NET was invented. But I do not accept that she made a harmless and easily fixed error on the job requirements because of this.

Frankly, I'm not that concerned that the job requirements demanded more years of .NET experience then it was possible to have. I am more concerned about all the other requirements that were listed on that job description which were just as wrong but in a way that was not obvious.

Consider the analogy to all of the exonerations of convicted prisoners we have had since DNA analysis became possible. The minor problem is that hundreds of innocent people were held in prison for years before DNA analysis proved they were innocent. The bigger problem is that we have now demonstrated that the legal process has a significant rate of error, meaning that there are tens of thousands of innocent people serving years in prison whose cases didn't happen to permit exoneration by DNA.

That line in the job requirements that specifies you must have a college degree -- is that unnecessarily excluding a lot of qualified candidates? The general tendency to request more expertise and years of experience than are really needed -- is that driving off candidates with lower levels of self-aggrandizement? If it is, does that have anything to do with the deplorable number of women succeeding in our industry?

Asking for 12 years experience in Kubernetes isn't just a silly error: it is an unmistakable sign of a much deeper problem.

Re: IBM looking for 12 years’ experience in Kubernetes administration

#56
post #19

Rather than taking the clichéd lesson that recruiters are not humans and evil. How about, apply for jobs even if you don't have the skills they are asking for.

Because id rather apply to a job at a company that pays enough respect to write a useful and information rich job description before asking me to spend time researching them, writing a cover letter, and tailoring my cv to highlight relevant experience for their needs.

Then don’t do that. I have never tailored my resume to a specific company. As far as cover letter, I haven’t written a cover letter in 25 years.

On the hiring side, I’ve never actually paid attention to one and I thought they were kind of quaint.

Re: IBM looking for 12 years’ experience in Kubernetes administration

#57
post #18

Rather than taking the clichéd lesson that recruiters are not humans and evil. How about, apply for jobs even if you don't have the skills they are asking for.

These sorts of inflated requirements disproportionally discourage women and other underrepresented minorities.

How so? I would imagine it be the case if the job requirements were "3 years exp with k8s, 5 if you are a woman".

Re: IBM looking for 12 years’ experience in Kubernetes administration

#58
Us programmers tend to be very literal-minded, but my understanding is that in some parts of the Middle East, it is common to exaggerate numbers to provide emphasis, where it’s understood that it’s not to be taken literally. So maybe they just wanted someone with “a lot” of experience in Kubernetes. (Strange idea: Maybe writing it this way even acts as a filter for literal-minded people). It probably works better in-person though :)
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