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Fluffing your CV with skills

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Fluffing your CV with skills

#1
Perhaps I get more cynical as I get older, but I get really annoyed when applicants put 'fluff' on their CV.

I've recently been interviewing for low to mid level IT jobs.

To give a few examples of the things I've come across in the last month:

* SSH protocol

Several applicants have listed this. It always gets my attention because a) I don't believe simply being able to connect to a host via SSH is a noteworthy skill, b) if you're actually into the protocol itself I will probably love you.

It always turns out to be the former. I try to salvage that by asking some more pointy questions such as 'explain to roughly how I would tunnel with putty?' which get blank stares.

* Linux command line

This is touch and go in terms of relevance. I guess it depends just how junior you are, as well as the specifics of the role (yes I would tailor my CV to a role). When I ask you what 'cat' does I would expect an answer. Said person could not tell me what the default shell was under CentOS.

Again, a lot of people fall short under questioning. Being able to change directories does not qualify for a CV mention.

* PHP (Zend OO)

Very specific example but this applies to any scripting/programming language mentioned on the CV. If you claim something specific, be prepared to answer specific questions. If you put 'Zend OO' and it turns out you read the cover of a book about Zend (literally admitted) and 'did a course in OO PHP' whilst your real work is fully procedural, please be prepared for a frown.

Now, am I being too cynical with these juniors? Perhaps working in a city like London makes it hard to see the forest for the trees, but I am sorely disappointed with perfectly capable people ruining their own chances by senselessly fluffing their CVs.

Re: Fluffing your CV with skills

#2
Headline made me come here to learn how to best fluff a CV. Left utterly disappointed ;)

Let me try to answer the question: The issue is probably, that with most softer CV skills are way harder to determine for the true level of mastery of an applicant. Most larger organizations might anyway be only interested in one particular element of your CV and take the rest as decision making support supplements. Unless the applicants where specifically applying for SSH, Linux or PHP/Zend jobs it might be just "stuffing" to signal that they have some idea of the subject and are willing to further develop their skills in that direction.

Re: Fluffing your CV with skills

#3
Fluff is caused by job seekers perception of what are the 'must haves' for a CV.

Try reviewing CV's for Customer Service roles and you will be amazed at the fluff folk put under hobbies & interests.

People assume that they need to list their skills in a nice, ordered, bulleted list and panic when they perceive said list to be too short or insufficient.

Re: Fluffing your CV with skills

#4
I remember when I was just out of college, I was terrified at how little I could put on my resume. I had a couple internships, sure, but it just felt really sparse. It made me really wrack my brain to come up with as many "skills" as possible. I literally felt like I was trying to trick companies into giving me a chance, since I didn't have much "proof" of my potential. Now that I have plenty of experience, I have a lot more to work with, and it's way easier (especially since I have been on the other side of the resume-reading exercise, so I know what I'd look for).

Hopefully more students can learn what it's like from the company's side and have a better picture for what they're expecting. If they are going for a low-level position, I'd give them a break on the resume and experience, and really dig for potential. Everyone has to start somewhere.

Re: Fluffing your CV with skills

#5
Not only the fluff, but the folks that put dozens of languages and technologies that are unrelated to one another. Being a polyglot myself, I still end up focusing on one or two languages to the point that I'd be comfortable putting them on a resume (t spec). IMO, if you are not able to field extremely deep questions on a language/tech you shouldn't list it.

Re: Fluffing your CV with skills

#6
I would also note that if you're/they're using a recruiter, the recruiter often does this stuff. A recruiter contacted me for a local start up I was interested in, so I sent my resume along and they "made some small adjustments" and sent it back. They added things like "MS Access", "Agile Development", etc. Some other things just randomly pulled out of a hat.

As a side note; I can tell from your tone that you are indeed a cynical old man. The interview processes you describe are intentionally trying to make the person look stupid, and not ascertain what they know.

"Said person could not tell me what the default shell was under CentOS.", how is that relevant to being able to use a linux command line? I understand that many devs probably think being able to cd/ls counts for linux command line ability, which obviously isn't enough.

Re: Fluffing your CV with skills

#7
post #6

I would also note that if you're/they're using a recruiter, the recruiter often does this stuff. A recruiter contacted me for a local start up I was interested in, so I sent my resume along and they "made some small adjustments" and sent it back. They added things like "MS Access", "Agile Development", etc. Some other things just randomly pulled out of a hat. As a side note; I can tell from your tone that you are ind…

That followed up from asking if they knew what Bash was. Is it wrong to expect them to know it's the shell and it's generally the default? I suppose my post must make me come across rather horrid, but I'm generally quite nice in interviews! :) It's not about looking stupid, I gladly take 'I don't know' or 'good question, I want to look that up' as an answer. It's embarrassing for everyone to ask what are generally easy questions on the topic that was on the CV and get a total blank stare.

Re: Fluffing your CV with skills

#8
One of my best friends does hiring at a very large corporation; one of the tricks that he has taught me, is that a lot of companies will run a CV through automated software, culling any CVs that do not match the keywords the job description is looking for, so I do not see it as a major deal adding the "fluff" to get through these (flawed) systems. In fact, if you were an applicant, and A/B tested your resumes, I'd probably hire you straight away.

Re: Fluffing your CV with skills

#9
post #4

I remember when I was just out of college, I was terrified at how little I could put on my resume. I had a couple internships, sure, but it just felt really sparse. It made me really wrack my brain to come up with as many "skills" as possible. I literally felt like I was trying to trick companies into giving me a chance, since I didn't have much "proof" of my potential. Now that I have plenty of experience, I have a…

Agreed on giving them a break in the end. I do tell them straight on that fluffing skills isn't a good idea as it sends the wrong message. We do have a technical component and group discussion stage to try and coax out the talent.

It's amazing how some people completely fumble the interview and sometimes even technical component, yet convince people in the group chats.

Re: Fluffing your CV with skills

#10
post #8

One of my best friends does hiring at a very large corporation; one of the tricks that he has taught me, is that a lot of companies will run a CV through automated software, culling any CVs that do not match the keywords the job description is looking for, so I do not see it as a major deal adding the "fluff" to get through these (flawed) systems. In fact, if you were an applicant, and A/B tested your resumes, I'd pr…

So the moral is: tailor your CV to the type of corporation you're applying to?
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