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The real reason you can't hire developers....

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151–160 of 271 posts

Re: The real reason you can't hire developers....

#151

Did you customize your email at all for each company? As someone on the receiving end, I'm way more likely to send you a personal response if you've sent me a personal email, regardless of whether you seem like a good fit for the job. Even if you don't know the recipients, include a sentence about why you're interested in working on their product or space. If it's clear you're just blasting out your resume, and you d…

Yes every email was custom and nothing canned.

Re: The real reason you can't hire developers....

#152
post #45

Specifically in response to the time gaps: it's true that time gaps are bad, but keep in mind these are startups, which means they're juggling about twenty thousand different things at the same time. I think in that domain in particular, some slack may be in order as compared to a 20,000-strong corporation with a dedicated HR department. Re: weird extra steps: the idea isn't that they're cool. The idea is that if you…

Re: weird extra steps: the idea isn't that they're cool. The idea is that if you are willing to attempt it and solve it successfully, it says something about your problem-solving skills. It's not the be-all end-all, but it seems like a decent first-pass filter. The problem is that you're asking candidates to spend 1+ hour before you've even given them a personal response. I've seen positions with well known companies…

I fought really hard to keep my hiring process from requiring a time intensive hoop for candidates to jump through. I felt that it would put off all but the most desperate. Desperate isn't what I was looking for.

Re: The real reason you can't hire developers....

#153
post #23

I applied to a kind-of sinking ship in Palo Alto last year. Got through a few interviews, answered all the questions right, and was gently let down. It was a stab in the dark. My friend who worked there (and, in fact, recommended me) told me the developer doing the interviews has never actually recommended a single candidate and is no longer allowed to do interviews. This could still mean that I'm stupid and incompet…

I recently had an interview with a company that involved 6 people interviewing me serially. That sort of thing is grueling in the best of cases. But this one went south with the third interviewer. He seemed to me be someone with something like Aspergers syndrome. He talked in a monotone, fidgeted constantly and was rocking back and forth. While I have no problem working with anyone technically competent, this person…

perhaps he was working from #7 on joel's interview questions: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000073.html

Re: The real reason you can't hire developers....

#155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The demand for inconvenient truths is always lower than the demand for reassuring lies. My tone is as polite as I could make it while making the points that I believe needed to be made.

Lol. I said "tome". As in a lengthy diatribe. The "tone" of your comment seemed fine.

I thought you'd made a typo. A "tome" is a heavy book, not a lengthy diatribe. The book could be a lengthy diatribe, but it could also be an annotated edition of The Odyssey. I suppose you could have called a long comment a "tome" out of playfulness, but it wasn't the clearest choice of words.

Re: The real reason you can't hire developers....

#157

I'm going to say it because it seems no one else is. I apologize ahead of time for my brutal honesty. You need to consider the possibility that you're not as competent as you believe yourself to be. Dunning-Kruger[0] is real, and your post doesn't demonstrate the self-awareness the best developers seem to possess. Your writing is sprinkled with emoticons and rife with reduplicated punctuation, both of which (especial…

"Dunning-Kruger" "doesn't demonstrate the self-awareness the best developers seem to possess" "requisite introspective capability" "I do interviews" Really? Do you pay bills with your code? "To put it bluntly" "you're less competent than you think you are" To put it bluntly you sound like a pretentious arse.

And looking back on the posters comment history, I would tend to agree. There is tons of absolutes, argumentation and quite a lack of tact.

Re: The real reason you can't hire developers....

#158
post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In a normal job market that's good common sense, but in the current tech job market, where unemployment is somewhere around 3%, resume blasting ought to be more than enough. The problem is that companies -- particularly larger companies -- are still in Arrogance Mode and think that the job-seekers need them. They don't.

The problem is that companies -- particularly larger companies -- are still in Arrogance Mode and think that the job-seekers need them. They don't That's a big dish of good old american entitlement. If you were on the market during the last boom, the demand for engineers was far greater than it was today. Because of that, for every 1 good resume that landed in my inbox I had to wade through about 300 bullshit resumes…

"You can probably coast your way into some me-too start-up, but if you want a good job at a company you're excited about it, you have to prove your worth by selling yourself."

Bravo! In my own experience: the worst mistake I have made in my career is not seeking out more exciting and challenging opportunities and instead taking what came easily. The best opportunities of my career have been the difficult to attain and the best challenges have been those difficult to complete.

This post proves it: email and resume blasting is not a useful method for good job hunting.

Re: The real reason you can't hire developers....

#159

I'm going to say it because it seems no one else is. I apologize ahead of time for my brutal honesty. You need to consider the possibility that you're not as competent as you believe yourself to be. Dunning-Kruger[0] is real, and your post doesn't demonstrate the self-awareness the best developers seem to possess. Your writing is sprinkled with emoticons and rife with reduplicated punctuation, both of which (especial…

You said you found the writing style immature, but have you considered the job ads of the companies OP might have applied to? "Xbox's PS3 Nerf guns Starcraft/Rock band competitions !!!".. How mature is that?

I am not talking about the 20% interviews where it didn't workout, but the other 80% where there was no reply, I am sure many of those job ads won't classify as "Mature" in your view. Some of the best programmers i know can't write even proper English sentences, since its not their first language. Do you think they are any less able to do the job? And does it disqualify from expecting even a reply to their application?

Re: The real reason you can't hire developers....

#160
post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

goodweeds, has the best advice in this comment thread as far as I'm concerned. Instead of spending countless hours blasting resumes out, why not do it the smart way, and make a personal connection with the person hiring the job. No one responded to your form resume, so what. The system for hiring via web forms and resumes is broken, so what. Bootleg the system and speak to the right people, and none of that will be a…

Good post except I don't think the OP is complaining about having problems getting hired. The companies trying to hire are the ones having problems, and it seems they're doing little to fix them.

Do you think responding to email blasts would help them solve their hiring problem?
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