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To find great remote employees, prioritize candidates with strong writing skills

youteam.io

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Re: To find great remote employees, prioritize candidates with strong writing skills

#321

Post by maerF0x0 »

Balgair wrote: post #239
comprev wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your comments echo what many who are currently employed say. When the shoe is on the other foot though, and unemployed, you can almost guarantee they will have applied to 100+ roles!

Oh man, it's in the thousands every time I apply. I used to keep a spreadsheet of it, but that just got depressing. Job searches are quite painful. (Note that I'm in biotech and real engineering, not SW)

>real engineering,

. Some schools have tried to make Software Engineering actual engineering

eg: https://www.apega.ca/apply/membership/exams/technical/softwa...

Re: To find great remote employees, prioritize candidates with strong writing skills

#323

Post by dvtrn »

dredmorbius wrote: post #308
OJFord wrote: post #153

It's not an issue for me, but how does this gel with discrimination laws? If the reason a candidate is a worse communicator is a protected characteristic, you can't (legally) reject them on that basis. (Not that I necessarily think that's net good, but it is the case.) I'm not so clear on where you stand if you just see poor communication and really honestly have no idea of the reason for it, they don't say and it do…

Literacy skill is not a protected class. You can reject candidates for performance-related reasons. You cannot reject a candidate for status within a protected class. Structured patterns suggesting protected-class discrimination may raise issues, though typically require convincing evidence. Offsetting considerations (say, recruiting or mentoring programmes) might be considered mitigating.

Literacy skill is not a protected class.

Literacy skill itself is not, but be VERY careful with that. Learning disabilities are still disabilities, and those 100% are protected.

https://www.understood.org/en/community-events/blogs/in-the-...

Re: To find great remote employees, prioritize candidates with strong writing skills

#324

Post by neom »

dvtrn wrote: post #322
neom wrote: post #43

I emailed Ian Tien to ask him, given the emphasis on written communication, if his company does anything to support dyslexic employees.

Any response yet?

Sadly not. I will post a comment below if I get one.

Re: To find great remote employees, prioritize candidates with strong writing skills

#326

Post by azemetre »

MattGaiser wrote: post #100
soneca wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am on the fence on cover letters. I am pretty sure they are not the most crucial part though. I did write cover letters for most of my applications, a relevant part of them following all the good advice for cover letters, some just copy and paste. I couldn’t see correlation in my application of well-thought cover letters and interviews. My copy-paste one was very well written and representative of my skills. Good e…

How do you deploy the cover letter? I always package it in with the resume to force it to be read rather than just in the dedicated cover letter spot.

Do you have the cover letter be the first page or the second? I'm now thinking about doing this myself. Figured it would be more likely read when it's part of the resume itself.

Re: To find great remote employees, prioritize candidates with strong writing skills

#327

Post by MattGaiser »

azemetre wrote: post #326
MattGaiser wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you deploy the cover letter? I always package it in with the resume to force it to be read rather than just in the dedicated cover letter spot.

Do you have the cover letter be the first page or the second? I'm now thinking about doing this myself. Figured it would be more likely read when it's part of the resume itself.

I put it first. I want it read. Then they can be encouraged to read the resume in more detail.

Re: To find great remote employees, prioritize candidates with strong writing skills

#328

Post by dredmorbius »

dvtrn wrote: post #323
dredmorbius wrote: post #308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Literacy skill is not a protected class. You can reject candidates for performance-related reasons. You cannot reject a candidate for status within a protected class. Structured patterns suggesting protected-class discrimination may raise issues, though typically require convincing evidence. Offsetting considerations (say, recruiting or mentoring programmes) might be considered mitigating.

Literacy skill is not a protected class. Literacy skill itself is not, but be VERY careful with that. Learning disabilities are still disabilities, and those 100% are protected. https://www.understood.org/en/community-events/blogs/in-the-...

Interesting casse. Not precedent-setting as I read it.

Re: To find great remote employees, prioritize candidates with strong writing skills

#329

Post by dvtrn »

dredmorbius wrote: post #328
dvtrn wrote: post #323

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Literacy skill is not a protected class. Literacy skill itself is not, but be VERY careful with that. Learning disabilities are still disabilities, and those 100% are protected. https://www.understood.org/en/community-events/blogs/in-the-...

Interesting casse. Not precedent-setting as I read it.

The EEOC does not establish precedent, it is a federal agency, not a court, so correct-it is not "prcedent" setting. But it is still relevant and worth caution, care and consideration when assessing potential hires based on 'literacy'. Non-Compliance is costly.

And with that, I conclude my alliterative TED Talk on best practices and compliance in hiring.

Re: To find great remote employees, prioritize candidates with strong writing skills

#330

Post by unbalancedevh »

cik wrote: post #223
tchalla wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> One absolutely should not do what you've mentioned in my location. Here we lay out the arguments, and the conclusion at the end. The reverse is seen as jumping the gun, and not being well reasoned. It is looked down upon, and frequently discounted immediately. I would like to understand why the reverse is "jumping the gun". I am assuming the arguments have not changed, the reasoning remains the same. Why is a mere…

While the solution may be valuable, there's more value in reading the work to get there. Rarely is the value a decision, inasmuch as the path to the decision. By first declaring a solution to a problem, you're priming the other individual. Depending on their personality you're priming them to be for, or against your decision. By articulating the reasons, methods, and considerations that went into a decision, you're s…

I have experience at several companies with many different cultures, and I don't know of anyone who likes to slog through the details before getting to what the final problem or solution is. People just don't have time for that. Putting the important part first serves the dual purpose of quickly informing people who aren't interested in the details, and telling them up front why they might care about reading the details.

It's like having an abstract or a blurb to briefly summarize for management.

Similarly, if you need someone to take action based on the result, you don't put it at the end where nobody's going to read it. You put it at the beginning, first thing, and then build up the background.

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