Why I Won't Hire You • Hacker News Board

Re: Why I Won't Hire You

#111

Post by Natsu » Thu, Jan 05, 2012, 9:20 PM UTC

kls wrote: post #71

zalew wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why should I tell you about my vision and plans? What are you really looking for in that. These 'where do you see yourself in 5 years' questions sound like straight from a 'HR for dummies' book. I would really appreciate if an interviewer reading this post explained me what such cliches are trying to test, other than BS skills. Cliche question => cliche response.

These 'where do you see yourself in 5 years' questions sound like straight from a 'HR for dummies' book. Many of these open ended questions came about from large companies hiring physiologist to help build and identify a profile of an individual that the company would like the hire. Organizations such as the FBI use similar strategies as well. The problem is that many smaller organizations that did not want to spend…

When asked the stock question "What is your biggest weakness?" I have actually answered it with "Answering standard interview questions."

And I still got the job.

Re: Why I Won't Hire You

#112

Post by jasonlotito » Thu, Jan 05, 2012, 9:38 PM UTC

cchurch wrote: post #85

jasonlotito wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> When you see an interviewer complaining about resumes that are too long and waste time... No. I'd love to agree with you, but I've seen articles from people just like you (or so they claim) that complain about resumes longer than 1 page. Resumes that include/don't include a cover letter. Resumes that are too short. Resumes that don't cover experiences outside employments. Resumes that do include those experienced.…

While every interviewer has different opinions on what should/should not be present, that's not what I'm talking about. I'm not cargo culting, I'm complaining about receiving garbage. Extreme length is commonly a sign that the person is too lazy to ever prune or clean up things. And my complaint about excessive length is "if they cannot bother to revisit it, why should I?" I'm aware that every resume is not created f…

> I'm not your mother and I'm not going to do the equivalent of cleaning your room just to find out if you might be worth a phone call.

And you shouldn't. But, what you say conflicts, in some way, with your stated goal:

> I should be able to create a guess as to who the person is, what they're looking for, and (generally) why they might be a good fit.

And guess what? That 15-page resume is looking for a place where a 15-page resume will fit in.

My point was that every person who has ever talked about the hiring process and how to put together a resume with the "I read resumes every day" credential is giving you advice on how to get the interview with them: nothing more.

With that in mind, why should I customize my resume for you? Rather, I should write a resume that represents me. If you don't like the resume, you won't interview with me. And that, hopefully, means I wouldn't fit in.

Listen, I've had interviews canceled on me because I play board games (at a company that promotes the fact that they have XBox 360s).

So, I'm not saying you are wrong. I'm just saying that your advice is, at least in my opinion, advice on what you look for. You have no need to defend what your criteria is, I wasn't attacking it. I apologize if you think I was.

In some ways, you should thank the 15-page resumes coming in. They make your decision much easier (I'd assume). If that person adjusted their resume merely to get the interview, are they really the type of person you want to hire?

Re: Why I Won't Hire You

#113

Post by sbisker » Thu, Jan 05, 2012, 9:44 PM UTC

Hey, lovelyLaney - I noticed that your HN account is probably tightly linked to Golem Technologies in some way (given that you've only submitted twice, both articles from this domain). There are over 100 comments on this article, and not a single one is from you. If you wrote this post, I think I speak for a large portion of HN when I say - we'd love to hear from you. Yes, seriously.

I know some people will probably downvote whatever you post without thinking, no matter what you say - because judging from the comments, you seem to have angered the mob. Indeed, I disagree with this article strongly myself - and would be happy to chat with you about why it doesn't resonate with my personal experience. However, if you have thoughtful answers to what people here have to say, the community only wants to help you, and see its own succeed.

If you want to stand behind your article, please do. If you want to recant or clarify parts of things you've said, you can do that too. You're a one person company - are you hiring right now, and what sorts of positions are you having trouble hiring for? We'd love to hear specifics - and to hear you engage in the community about something it obviously feels passionately about in a deliberate, measured way. Many may disagree with what you have to say, but no one here should fault you simply for your attempts to say it, for contributing to the discussion around your own ideas. Hope to hear from you.

Re: Why I Won't Hire You

#114

Post by darklajid » Thu, Jan 05, 2012, 9:54 PM UTC

I don't get it. I zoned out after the

'I am going to drop 99% of all candidates because they fail the following'

and

'You sent me a looooong resume'

In my world you're sending the resume before the interview. If that's such a big issue (is it?), then - don't invite those guys. Your 99% rate just dropped significantly and you're not wasting time on both sides.

Re: Why I Won't Hire You

#115

Post by nimblegorilla » Thu, Jan 05, 2012, 9:56 PM UTC

ww520 wrote: post #104

nimblegorilla wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How many people have you interviewed? I haven't done a lot, but when I was interviewing a lot of people for a couple positions it seemed like everyone said they were "creative" or "liked a challenge." Claiming they were creative didn't really disqualify, but it didn't make anyone stand out unless they had a couple examples.

You ask general generic questions and you will get general standard answers. Try asking engaging questions that can get more specific answers. Like "can you give me an example where you devised a creative solution to a problem?"

Some employers might be better prepared to ask engaging questions, but the reality is that most interviewers are like the guy in that article. You can fight it all you want, but people who are serious about finding good jobs are better off if they can sell themselves rather than waiting for some HR guy to ask the right questions.

Re: Why I Won't Hire You

#116

Post by Natsu » Thu, Jan 05, 2012, 9:57 PM UTC

JohnnyBrown wrote: post #73

cunac wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One page resume might work for people with not so much experience but it is very hard to put 25+ years of work in one page except obvious "I solve your problems for money" :-). Just plain listing all places of work with dates can be 20+ lines How much insight can you get from 1995-1996 Company X , Senior Consultant , project Y ??

Include only the 3 or 4 most relevant jobs/items. This way you have all the space you need to explain what you got out of them

This. My Aunt was a career counselor for the past several decades. She won't let me use a resume longer than one page.

You don't need to list ever job you've had since your first part-time job flipping burgers during high school. Just try to figure out what they care about and list that prominently. If they want to know more, they'll ask about it. That said, make sure you summarize things in a way that doesn't make it appear that there are large gaps in your resume, though you may still have problems if your most relevant experience was ten jobs ago.

For a tech job, you want to focus on things like what tools you've used, what problems you've solved and any awards or achievements that you can brag about. If you really feel that you can't leave anything out, put a note on there with a link to an online copy of your CV which, unlike a resume, is supposed to list everything. Then watch how many hits it gets to see how little people care.

Re: Why I Won't Hire You

#117

Post by ainsleyb » Thu, Jan 05, 2012, 10:20 PM UTC

A startup is not a 5000 person corporation and shouldn't be run as such. I remember the author posting a Show HN last February introducing his company. At that point in time he was still in a full time job. Now, I don't know what's happened in the life of his company over the past 11 months, but I would venture to guess he has less than 10 employees. I'd even venture to guess it's somewhere less than 5. At this stage you're more looking for collaborators, not people to manage. And when you're looking for early stage employees you should really be looking for a true personality fit, in addition to the required technical prowess (which, incidentally, doesn't necessarily mean "knows ruby").

Yes, hiring is hard. Yes, as an early-stage startup it will take you a very long time to hire. But you have to remember those you're hiring today will make or break the company tomorrow. Their "5 yr plan" should have no bearing on whether or not they get a job at a very early startup, but by the end of the interview you should know not only that they're technically capable, but can roll with any changes you foresee the company making, and that they have the right personality to mesh with you and the rest of your team (you'll be spending a lot of time together - could you grab beers with them?). You should also know that they're so sold on the idea and vision of your company that their 5 year plan and your 5 year plan become one (or are at least related). Realistically, your startup probably won't even be alive in five years.

Of course I know a lot of people look at things differently, and I have complete respect for different opinions and methods (and love reading about them). We're still trying to figure out hiring ourselves, but I think the best engineers come with all sorts of non-corporate eccentricities. If we had followed the author's suggestions, we wouldn't have hired either of our two founders (including myself) or our first engineer. I'll leave it up to the reader to decide whether that would have been a mistake or not. :)

Re: Why I Won't Hire You

#118

Post by prpatel » Thu, Jan 05, 2012, 10:25 PM UTC

must be nice to have such a large pool of people to interview to fit your needs perfectly, especially for technical people. The OP's points are valid and I feel the same way about _almost_ all of them. Even when I worked in the large corporate(s), I always hired people as if they were working for me in an intimate setting like a startup. Hiring capable, yet diverse, people always provided me with a winning team.

Re: Why I Won't Hire You

#119

Post by foolinator » Fri, Jan 06, 2012, 3:15 AM UTC

kls wrote: post #65

edw519 wrote: post #42

I am expecting you to be one of the 99%+ people who I know I won’t hire in the first 5 minutes. If you can't narrow down resumes and phone interviews to candidates with better than a 1% chance of being accepted, then your interviewing pre-screening process is flawed. What other processes in our everyday work will also be flawed? You send me a stupidly long resume 90% of all written correspondence (from customers, use…

You summed it up well, this guy needs to stay as far away from interviewing as possible. This attitude is why people can't find the 10Xers, they interviewing process is set up to filter them out. Your observation here: Here's a clue: technologies change. By definition, anyone with the "right skill mix" won't have the "right skill mix" for long. Amesome people adapt. But how would you even know that if you don't hire…

The author just seems like a narcissistic sad man.

Re: Why I Won't Hire You

#120

Post by foolinator » Fri, Jan 06, 2012, 3:19 AM UTC

GiraffeNecktie wrote: post #102

csomar wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. He is being an ass in the way he is stating it. - You send me a stupidly long resume - forget it . You have annoyed me - More likely, I will ignore the whole thing - If you can’t nail it in one sentence, do I really want to look forward to your rambling emails every day? WOW. Okay Sir. Something else? Now there is nothing wrong with what he is asking for. Can you tell that politely - Please send me a short and co…

I think you are missing the point that this is simply intended to provide insight into what is going on inside the head of the person who is doing the hiring. They might be excruciatingly polite in what they say to you directly and personally, but in their mind they are thinking "Why is this fool wasting my time with this stupidly long resume." He's telling the world in blunt terms the reality of what it takes to get…

The article's author is just breathing "I'm a dick." There's no need to word the things like he does. "You've annoyed me." Really? Sounds like a drama queen. He should smoke a bowl and get laid once in awhile.