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What technical recruiters want from engineering candidates

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51–60 of 212 posts

Re: What technical recruiters want from engineering candidates

#51
post #3

I think recruiters should actually start giving a shit about the lives of engineers before making demands. - Actually try to get to know and understand a person - Dont use fill-in templates - Have some actual knowledge of tech (java != .net) - Dont make offerings for positions I worked on 10 years ago during college. - Dont be greedy. To just name a few...

Excuse me, are you paying the recruiter to find you a job? No? Then, as they say, you're not the customer; you're the product.

Re: What technical recruiters want from engineering candidates

#52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A good balance between highly technical and creatively designed is to write your resume with TeX.

Is that more of a recommendation or a hard requirement? I've been using a bland resume that I thought would check all the boxes inside an ATS.

Just a recommendation. TeX is a very engineer-oriented design tool. An interesting way to spruce up your resume.

Re: What technical recruiters want from engineering candidates

#53
post #20

I would absolutely love to see a thoughtful 'what engineers want from technical recruiters' post.

Knowing that java and javascript are two different things would be a nice, although utopic, start.

Well, this joke is going around in devs' communities, but in fact never happened to me, at least not in last few years.

Although I have met a few of fellow techies, totally sure that no first-line recruiter is able to grasp basic IT knowledge.

Re: What technical recruiters want from engineering candidates

#55
If someone has insight into recruiting, can you explain why contacts sound like sales pitches with vague language?

“You’ll work with the core of our digital strategy”

“You’ll work close to the systems”

“You’ll have a central role”

What systems? What is the company even doing? What about fundamental things like

- where is this?

- exactly what is the work I’m supposed to be doing here?

- What’s the team? 4 beginners? 4000 experienced devs?

- What tech is used, ie what is it about my skill set that makes me a good fit?

These questions are literally never answered in first contacts from recruiters. And of course I’m not willing to compose a response or have even a 15 minute phone conversation or a lunch meeting with a recruiter for a job that might turn out to be in the wrong city.

Is this some secret to the recruiting industry that it’s bad to give away details in the initial contact, so that the candidate doesn’t just apply directly to the company? Or do I have to high expectations on these contacts? Or do I have unusual bad luck with terrible recruiters.

This is obviously the opposite of what recruiters want from candidates, it’s what candidates want from recruiters. But seeing as there is obviously a gap there - does anyone have any insight in this?

Re: What technical recruiters want from engineering candidates

#56

In my opinion: - designing your resume - EQ - having a deep, enthusiastic, and genuine interest in some aspect of the company - Think of your resume like a poem - visual representation of their experience/resume These are great criteria for hiring a designer or marketing personnel, but these are TERRIBLE criteria for hiring a technical person. In my fantasy world, a technical resume is in a monospaced font and is emi…

"and we have to pretend we're designers to work around people like this who have no idea how to hire actual technical people."

I honestly don't know what you mean by this.

Re: What technical recruiters want from engineering candidates

#57

In my opinion: - designing your resume - EQ - having a deep, enthusiastic, and genuine interest in some aspect of the company - Think of your resume like a poem - visual representation of their experience/resume These are great criteria for hiring a designer or marketing personnel, but these are TERRIBLE criteria for hiring a technical person. In my fantasy world, a technical resume is in a monospaced font and is emi…

> they would gripe about that technology all day long; if they can't complain about its shortcomings and pitfalls, they didn't use it.

I have literally baited people I interview with this type of thing. Asked about things I know everyone who has come in contact with has cut themselves on and been upset about.

Re: What technical recruiters want from engineering candidates

#58

If someone has insight into recruiting, can you explain why contacts sound like sales pitches with vague language? “You’ll work with the core of our digital strategy” “You’ll work close to the systems” “You’ll have a central role” What systems? What is the company even doing ? What about fundamental things like - where is this? - exactly what is the work I’m supposed to be doing here? - What’s the team? 4 beginners?…

This could honestly warrant an entire separate post on its own.

Re: What technical recruiters want from engineering candidates

#59

In my opinion: - designing your resume - EQ - having a deep, enthusiastic, and genuine interest in some aspect of the company - Think of your resume like a poem - visual representation of their experience/resume These are great criteria for hiring a designer or marketing personnel, but these are TERRIBLE criteria for hiring a technical person. In my fantasy world, a technical resume is in a monospaced font and is emi…

Most of us aren't on the cutting edge of technology. I've personally never worked on a team whose biggest problem was a lack of technical prowess, the problems are always social/cultural.

If I'm being frank, then you need to be up front about that in the job posting. "Cultural fit" and other PC BS won't cut it - be honest about what you need.

"We need someone who can design and implement frontends alongside our product marketing group." Not, "Looking for a JavaScript, Typescript, Angular, React, Node.js, Mongo, and BerkleyDB rockstar."

Because I've personally watched several people who were cultural fits and great talkers be PIPed and fired purely for the lack of an ability to execute technical tasks.

Re: What technical recruiters want from engineering candidates

#60
post #32

I was going to write a long and detailed post about how so many of these things are so very wrong from a technical standpoint, but basically, let me sum up the recruiting industry in a single quote from this material: > Watch for spelling and grammar. [..] After conducting my own A/B tests on this matter, the data showed that candidates who had untidy resumes faired less (sic!) than those with well written ones. Edit…

Since I love your post, I want to tack one more thing to the bottom of it: please, for the love of all things holy, don't split out "key projects" and skills from your employment experience section. If I can't easily scan your resume and tell what you did where, it's useless to me and I will almost always bin you. This seems to happen more with candidates who aren't in purely technical roles, but it's infuriating.
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