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We created a fake language to root out resume liars

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Re: We created a fake language to root out resume liars

#231

Post by hutzlibu »

dmos62 wrote: post #96
arethuza wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I get as angry with recruiters as everyone else, but then I remember then time where I worked for a company that shared a floor of a serviced office building with a recruitment company. They were brutal in their treatment of staff - they were too cheap to get rooms for staff appraisals so they would do them in the coffee area we shared with them so we could hear how they were treated by their management - seeing peop…

Jeez louise, imagine working somewhere where coworkers are regularly abused to tears. I really hope that that's an isolated case.

" I really hope that that's an isolated case."

On a global scale? Sadly no.

I rather suspect the tech sector is a very safe space, in that regard. Because of demand and supply. But overall life is cheap on this planet.

Re: We created a fake language to root out resume liars

#232

Post by pc86 »

viraptor wrote: post #227
dempseye wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The recruiter did good work here. I suspect this was a screw up in internal HR. The external recruiter has absolutely no incentive to send you for an interview you will bomb out of.

I'm not sure. Recruiters can spray and pray with candidates the way candidates can spray and pray with applications. They're not going to be great quality, but if you're paid commission on a hire and the recruitment channel can handle the load... what's to stop the recruiter?

Aside from it destroying future business (we've had recruiters change candidates' resumes on us and that recruiter is blacklisted - by name - forever, to anyone who will listen), most contracts will have a 30-day clause where if the employee leaves for any reason within 30 days the fee is returned. Some even have if employee is fired within 30 days that the next placement fee is discounted.

Re: We created a fake language to root out resume liars

#233

Post by Timpy »

benibela wrote: post #187
MaxBarraclough wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the spirit of Hacker News I'd like to respond to this decidedly human problem with a technical question: which file format did you use for your CV? Was it an easily-edited .docx file, or a PDF? The PDF format is somewhat awkward to edit. I've never put much stock in the idea that this is one of its virtues, but for this specific kind of manipulation I can see it might be effective.

When I used a latex-made PDF, the only places that responded to my application were universities for PhD positions

I just went through a round of job hunting and got plenty of private sector responses using a latex-made PDF. My resume is really not obvious that it was made in latex though.

Re: We created a fake language to root out resume liars

#234

Post by hutzlibu »

ClumsyPilot wrote: post #172
slimsag wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My sister worked at a recruitment company for a while and basically described the same. They set targets for everyone that were basically not achievable ever, and managers were expected to basically personally berate you for not meeting them and place you on warning to get you to work harder and more hours. She wasn't in a position to lose a job at the time, and felt she had no other choice but to begin lying about n…

"She wasn't in a position to lose a job at the time, and felt she had no other choice but to begin lying about numbers to meet the targets " But what have they done to deserve the truth? More or less this is how we get thinga like Chernobyl, when the entire chain is lying because the cost of tellong the truth is too high and there is no incentive to do so.

"and there is no incentive to do so. "

Still, after the accident some of the engineers went for a literal suicide mission to open some ventil to make it all less catastrophic. And unlike the poor construction workers, who died, too, they knew what they were doing.

I doubt they did it just for the postmortal fame. Some people have actually moral standards and can stand by it, even if it means disadvantages.

Re: We created a fake language to root out resume liars

#235

Post by wahern »

harel wrote: post #156
prepend wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t think it’s fair to give credit to CF for templating. In that I think we’d have the exact use of templating today if CF never existed, due to the other templating approaches that existed before CF.

As far as I'm aware ColdFusion is a bunch of "firsts" and in particular the first "Application Server".

> As far as I'm aware ColdFusion is a bunch of "firsts" and in particular the first "Application Server".

Especially true for Windows. Interest in commercial web development exploded at a time when Windows NT still held a dominate position in the emerging small- and medium-sized business markets. Perl bootstrapped web development in the Unix world, but Windows didn't have anything like the Unix software ecosystem--Perl, Apache, mod_php, etc. ColdFusion was where it was at for dynamic page generation in the Windows world. (I was only ever a visitor in that world. I had originally discovered programming thanks to Slackware Linux and Perl.) In the beginning ColdFusion was all Windows, IIRC, with Solaris and Linux ports coming about the time ColdFusion seemed to peak.

ColdFusion programmers also tended to use Allaire's HomeSite, one of the first web-oriented IDEs. Allaire being the creator of ColdFusion.

Re: We created a fake language to root out resume liars

#236

Post by justinclift »

prepend wrote: post #188
mckirk wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Transparent OLED screens on window sills cycling through simulations of virtual plants, together with their NFT tags... I want the future back, we were promised hoverboards!

NFT is revoked when physical plant dies.

Some plants are useful after they're cactus. ;)

Re: We created a fake language to root out resume liars

#237

Post by saagarjha »

wccrawford wrote: post #211
dmos62 wrote: post #126

Serious question: if you're applying for positions you're not totally confident in your experience and skillset, do you inflate your resume? My thinking goes that if I slip in by being dishonest, I'll be nervous of being found out, feel an intruder. So being honest and taking a longer time looking for match would get more comfort later on.

We recently discovered that someone lied about their one of their skills during the interview. We fired them. End of story. No other option. Do not lie on your resume or during the interview. I've never worked at a company that it wasn't grounds for immediate dismissal.

Fired as in you stopped the interview, or you had already hired them and then terminated them once this came to light?

Re: We created a fake language to root out resume liars

#238

Post by Pick-A-Hill2019 »

I've been an IT consultant to 2x recruitment agencies in the past so can confirm with an n+2 confidence that at least some agencies mistreat their recruitment staff in ways that would shock even the most sociopathic sweat shop owner.

Think high pressure sales tactics and the almost daily threat directly hurled across the office for recruiter X or Y to 'meet their targets or GTFO'. Fortunately I was a freelancer but I always used to feel so bad/sad for them, especially knowing the profits that the owners were making vs. that of their staffs'.

On the other hand I once attended an interview at the early stage of my career for an extremely prestigious (pay, perks, prestige) role and sensed something was wrong when the interviewer asked me if I considered attention to detail an important part of the role......

When I said 'Yes, of course' they then preceded to berate me about a typo on my CV (cringe)....

When I asked to have a look at their copy I saw that the agency that had re-typed/reformatted my CV and introduced the typo.

When I told the interviewer that they replied with 'We don't hire people that blame others' for their own mistakes'. Ouch.

With steam coming out my ears I politely informed the interviewer that that was fortunate since I really didn't want to work for any company that immediately viewed me as a liar. We agreed to terminate the interview at that point.

Funny thing was - in my briefcase I had an extra copy of my CV as submitted to the agency but I thought – Meh, why bother.

I consider that one of my many dodged bullets (Sorry for going slighly off-topic, my bad).

Re: We created a fake language to root out resume liars

#239

Post by david38 »

grey_earthling wrote: post #206
slimsag wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My sister worked at a recruitment company for a while and basically described the same. They set targets for everyone that were basically not achievable ever, and managers were expected to basically personally berate you for not meeting them and place you on warning to get you to work harder and more hours. She wasn't in a position to lose a job at the time, and felt she had no other choice but to begin lying about n…

> She wasn't in a position to lose a job at the time This is an example of what universal basic income is intended to prevent.

Also anti-trust laws.

Re: We created a fake language to root out resume liars

#240

Post by notahacker »

viraptor wrote: post #227
dempseye wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The recruiter did good work here. I suspect this was a screw up in internal HR. The external recruiter has absolutely no incentive to send you for an interview you will bomb out of.

I'm not sure. Recruiters can spray and pray with candidates the way candidates can spray and pray with applications. They're not going to be great quality, but if you're paid commission on a hire and the recruitment channel can handle the load... what's to stop the recruiter?

Spray and pay works for sending people a little underqualified for a job. Sending people who don't know why they've been put forward for a job under false pretences just means the client won't interview any more candidates you send, especially if that candidate is plenty employable enough not to bother bluffing their way through.

And unlike candidates, recruiters can potentially get paid to fill a lot of a company's vacancies, provided they don't get blacklisted by them...

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