41–50 of 83 posts
Yeah these points are valid (although it should be noted that they align with the author's background - sorry the TripAdvisor mention made me curious) I think they are more applicable to early career. In my experience, connections and relationships are way more powerful than any of the stuff mentioned with the baseline that you are competent and relatively easy to work with.
You can tell a lot about what someone knows just by how they put together their resume, over and above the work experience. A question I used to ask on interviews was, "Have you ever worked with Gnu programs, like gcc, Gnu make etc.?" Hiring Unix admins in 1998, when you couldn't get your hands on an experienced one, you'd be surprised how many blank looks I got at that question. Once I got a resume which was very well-written, and he even had the Gnu tools he knew listed. Considering how dismal prior candidates had been, I almost wanted to hire him sight unseen just seeing that. We did make him an offer, which he turned down. It's more than just what buzzwords to put, it's knowing what buzzwords to put and not to put. Most of the time, people who don't know what they're doing don't even know what will sound good on a resume, even if their resume is BS.
In terms of my own resume, in 2000 I had a lot of buzzwords on the top. But then people would ask me detailed questions about some of that software, some of which I had not touched for three years. So I removed those words from the top of the resume so as to avoid those questions. But then I stopped getting as many calls. So I put them back. Better to look dumb in an interview then never get the interview I figured.
For you young ones - tech guys like me generally just care if you know the stuff or not. Managers, HR etc. are generally more formal - they want to know what degrees you have, they like to see buzzwords and several years of experience, especially at large companies, hear from references, know why you have a gap of two months in your employment record and so forth. Non-techies have no gauge to tell how well you know your stuff.
A caveat about large companies - at startups, an older person who has worked a long time at a big company - this can be held against you. You have to make clear you'll be OK with the fact that there is not yet a backup system, or code revision control system, or whatever. You have to say, "I understand you don't have this stuff, and I am fine with you not having it yet, I'll help you build it out as the company grows".
How about having ‘old boring’ companies like IBM or Oracle on your resume?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Funny in my part of the world, the bad ones are the private universities. The reason being the only people that go to private universities are the ones without good notes to earn a place at the public universities, but whose parents are rich enough to pay for the university. People with degrees from private universities are told they bought the degree.
What part of the world is that?
Surprisingly, I have the opposite trouble: how do I stop recruiters trying to recruit me? I have about 15-20 recruiters contacting me per week however what I put it down to is: 1. Location. Since I moved to SF the job offers have increased substantially . 2. Skill set. Fortunately I'm skilled in some "popular" languages. 3. Years of experience. I'm in the "hot spot" - not too old, and not too young (sorry - it does s…
I've actually had a similar struggle with the incessant but spammy recruitment emails, that I was able to fix almost perfectly. In the "Summary" section of my LinkedIn[1], I have a sentence that says this: "If you wish to contact me, please put the word 'Waffles' in your message. It sounds silly, but it lets me know that you have taken a little time to asses my profile, rather than mass messaging people based on a ke…
Surprisingly, I have the opposite trouble: how do I stop recruiters trying to recruit me? I have about 15-20 recruiters contacting me per week however what I put it down to is: 1. Location. Since I moved to SF the job offers have increased substantially . 2. Skill set. Fortunately I'm skilled in some "popular" languages. 3. Years of experience. I'm in the "hot spot" - not too old, and not too young (sorry - it does s…
This may be true, but I'd say it's not true for most people. People's heads are easily turned by famous universities, in some kind of halo effect.
This is the first screening, followed by a programming task during the the telephone interview, interview with me, interviews with developers, followed by practical programming work.
So yes it is important to get through the CV screen (have experience), but it's only the first step.
Side note: Hiring for Junior positions is different, for me the CV here is mostly irrelevant.
Wow, if you are skilled technically and aren't annoyed by constant recruiter outreach, you are doing something majorly wrong. I'd also say technical recruiters are also doing something majorly wrong if your resume reflects your abilities. If you've coded anything that does something interesting, you should have no problem finding interviews, and frankly offers. If you haven't coded anything interesting, then why woul…
EDIT: I'm sure I've jinxed it now, and this message will cause recruiters to start emailing me.
This is great advice. As a person that is normally labelled as a job hopper (6 in the past 5 years) I finally settled down and got into tech by attending hackathons and helped ship apps (mostly android) it has given me the opportunity to work for a YC company and I am very happy here. It's just ironic that startups have been the most stable positions rather than corporate or bigger tech companies. Hackathons are rela…
During hiring, I have looked through dozens, if not hundreds of resumes over the years, mostly for Unix systems administrator positions. You can tell a lot about what someone knows just by how they put together their resume, over and above the work experience. A question I used to ask on interviews was, "Have you ever worked with Gnu programs, like gcc, Gnu make etc.?" Hiring Unix admins in 1998, when you couldn't ge…
"An Ideal applicant must have experience in:
- Maths
- Computer Fusion
- Algorithms
- ..."