Reasons You're Not Getting Interviews; Plus Some Crazy Real Resume Mistakes 246
Yvonne Lee, Community Manager at Dice.com writes,
"Not using standard job titles, not tying your work to real business results and not using the right keywords can mean never getting called for an interview, even if you have the right skills to do the job. I once heard advice to use the exact wording found in the ad when placing your keywords. I think you're even more unlikely to get a job if you do some of the things on this list."
HWGA (Score:5, Insightful)
Yup...here we go again.
F U dice.com, F U.
Reasons you're not getting good candidates (Score:2, Insightful)
"I once heard advice to use the exact wording found in the ad when placing your keywords."
Okay, an anecdote "I once heard" posted anonymously on /. is not exactly a scientific survey, but the intent is quite clear: candidates should be carefully tailoring their resumes to HR's total "I don't give a fuck" attitude.
But. If that's how a company is hiring, that company is going to be fucked before too long. If HR doesn't give a fuck and there's not enough leadership from the people who count to get HR to give a fuck, the company is fucked.
And, yeah, if you've been unemployed for a while, at some point a paycheck is a paycheck until you're stable. But you don't want to *start* your job search thinking that way.
Any way to filter out these ads? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Why the Dice.com hate? (Score:5, Insightful)
Not that I'm in the job market or even looking, but it didn't take long to figure out people hate these guys. Just wondering why.
Because we come here to read the news, not to have some parent-company advertisement misrepresented to us as if it were news.
CmdrTaco knew his audience; /.'s new masters at Dice.com don't seem to have figured it out quite yet.
Re:Why the Dice.com hate? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Why the Dice.com hate? (Score:4, Insightful)
This is anti-productive. (Score:5, Insightful)
Prior to the recent rash of Dice.com slashvertisements, I held a very positive opinion of both Dice.com and Slashdot. With each new thinly veiled attempt to drive traffic to Dice, I lose a little bit of respect for each.
If Dice wants to put ads on slashdot, just put ads on slashdot. Stop running fake stories that just diminish a site that has spent a long time earning a loyal following.
"some of the things on the list" (Score:5, Insightful)
This is one of the reason I despise the industry and the lore that surrounds it: the ostensible "professionalism", the bullshitting, the going to the job interview in suit and tie (what the fuck for, nobody knows), the total lack of colour and creativity, the need to use boilerplate and keywords...
And the fact that "some of the things on the list" are considered outlandish and not conducive to getting a job. I found humorous every single item on that list, and would considered the candidate to have an advantage, exactly for having a sense of humor, rather than a disadvantage in getting a job.
In academia, where I work now, things are somewhat similar but not as bad as in the industry, and there's a measure of nuttiness and humor you can get away with.
Re:LMFTFY (Score:5, Insightful)
What she really thinks she's doing [linkedin.com]: "Using job and industry news to increase user stickiness, SEO performance and conversion into jobs database". I wonder how that's working out?
Not going to touch "increase user stickiness" with a ten foot pole.
What's depressing is that she's been at this shit for 10 years, and her top accomplishments are things like, "simultaneously managed two magazine sections and a web publication."
The problem with all these stories on how to write your resume is that they're written by people who are fundamentally useless and are stuck writing puff pieces and managing someone's twitter account.
Re:LMFTFY (Score:0, Insightful)
Re:LMFTFY (Score:5, Insightful)
Not for very much longer if this spam continues. I've been reading /. for much longer than my userid would indicate (just never got around to registering) but I'm seriously considering removing it from my home tabs and looking elsewhere for news for nerds that is actually news and stuff that actually matters and not this crap.
Re:HWGA (Score:5, Insightful)
You have got to be pretty out of touch to think doing that is a good idea. It's not one of those things that "looks good on paper" then takes a nose dive. It was a bad call from the get go.
Of course it could be worse. Every front page story could be a shoddy summary and link to a Dice.com "article". Personally I'm still reeling over the How to use a Linux Virtual Private Server [slashdot.org] "article". What's worse is they moved the "article" from Dice.com to slashdot itself [slashdot.org] to, I dunno, give it more credibility?
"Hey, this old fluff piece we wrote has something about Linux! We should post a story about it!"
"Shoot, they didn't like that it's a Dice.com article"
"I KNOW.. we'll move it to the slashdot domain.. that way it'll be credible!!!"
"Awesome idea!!!"
*back pats all around*
Re:LMFTFY (Score:5, Insightful)
You'll continue to open a new tab and type in "slashdot.org" when you're bored, completely out of muscle memory. I swore this site off back when Geeknet was screwing it up and it didn't work; now that Dice is screwing it up and I'm still here, I'm not going to bother with "I'll never come here again if you don't stop being terrible" threats that, realistically, I'm just not going to follow through on.
Re:Why the Dice.com hate? (Score:5, Insightful)
To be fair, drivel like this has been showing up for Slashdot for years. I didn't notice it was a paid piece until I read the comments complaining about it. The problem is two--fold. First is a matter of principal--rather than get their drivel on Slashdot through users submissions, like all the other drivel, they're using their position as parent company to do so.
Second is the very real possibility that paid Dice.com drivel will increase in volume until there is nothing left but Dice.com drivel pieces. Then the few genuinely good stories will be gone.
Re:"some of the things on the list" (Score:5, Insightful)
By the way, if I am ever asked to interview someone for an HR position, I'd give them a nice mix of resumes of people I've interviewed before, asking them to make a motivated selection. I seriously doubt miss Lee would pass muster...
And so it has come to this (Score:5, Insightful)
It's been fun, it really has. Over the years as a lurker, as AC and then eventually as a lowly 6-digiter I have seen tons of insight, reasoned debate and out-and-out flame wars. There's been +5 Funny and -1 Troll and everything in between. And despite all of the bitching, there really was quite a bit of news for nerds and stuff that mattered.
Up until the last couple of months, when it all seems to have gone down the pan at warp factor nine. On this wonderful internet of ours things come and things go. Now is clearly the time for the venerable /. to go and I will help it on its way, albeit with a heavy heart.
So long, slashdot!
Re:Sadly Enough (Score:3, Insightful)
In case it need be said...
The reason for filters is that for every candidate who actually reads the job posting and is sending an application that shows that the candidate's experience and skills intersect with what the posting is looking for, there are dozens of morons whose method of applying is spray and pray, or do not know that the people reading applications are not mindreaders.
Enough already! (Score:5, Insightful)
It's been a fun ride, slashdot, but slamming into the wall at the end ruined it for me. Dice Holdings, Inc. can apply big wet smoochies to that part of my anatomy that is reserved for evacuating the stuff that Dice does best.
Re:HWGA (Score:3, Insightful)
It is a site that lures job seekers in under the false pretense of having jobs available, then aggregates the information and sells it to advertisers who are apparently too dumb to realize that unemployed people are not a great market.
Re:"some of the things on the list" (Score:3, Insightful)
I might as well be a molecular biochemist trying to discuss DNA coding with a construction foreman.
Okay, I'm a corner case, but....
Careful with your insults there. I was once a construction foreman myself. I grew up in the business, am good at it, and enjoy the smell of sawdust. I'm in IT now because construction doesn't pay much and has too many foreigners. I'll still build my own house one day.
But I assure you, I can discuss all sorts of scientific minutiae with you, oh great genius who has never stooped to manual labor. You might have a skill or two I don't... I've got hundreds you don't, I promise you.
I'll never forget the time, when I was a 17-year-old lowly construction grunt, listening to some classical music in my truck whilst eating my lunch... the foreman came over to talk to me, and asked... "is that Debussy?" It was.
Nerds don't always come in Dockers, dude.
Re:"some of the things on the list" (Score:2, Insightful)
However I have great difficulty understanding the mind set that wearing a suit would be throwing away dignity. Is this some sort of British style worry that you will be a class traitor if you put on a suit?
If you're applying for a well paid job as a programmer at the sort of company that expects you to wear a suit and tie for an interview, you're probably not exactly a revolutionary class warrior to start with, are you?
The simple truth of the matter is that nerds like to think they're superior to all those boring suit-wearing corporate drones who work for the same company, and the jeans/t-shirt are some sort of geeky badge of difference to show you're not a manager.
Re:"some of the things on the list" (Score:5, Insightful)
No, we think that wearing a suit is uncomfortable, expensive and inefficient. It also doesn't accomplish anything.
The suit represents everything that's wrong with concepts like fashion. The tie, for instance: it's a useless piece of clothing that doesn't do anything except get in the way, and hasn't done anything for hundreds of years.
Yet it's still seen as an essential item of clothing by people who care for appearance over practicality, and who see nothing wrong with judging people on their appearance. They're the ones who think they're superior. We're just being practical.
Re:HWGA (Score:3, Insightful)
TFA is really "very helpful". Let's review:
1) Use Industry Standard Job Titles: Hey! Great idea! Which one should I use? Programmer? Software developer? Software engineer? Software designer? Coder? Thank goodness it's standardized in the I.T. world!
2) Tie Your Your Work to Business Results: What another fantastic idea. Because I know exactly how much my programming earns or saves a multi-million dollar business. I know that because managers always give detailed feedback to peons like me. Also, most of what I do is very interesting. Like "Write a brain-dead GUI that will fire off several database stored procedures in the proper order." Wow! I nailed that business result and business are going to be so impressed with me! I also am appreciative that I can talk openly about what I do in my business. For instance, I [CENSORSED] and [RETRACTED] just the other day using [SOME TECHNOLOGY] and [ANOTHER TECHNOLOGY]. I sleep well knowing my business won't come after me for talking about what they consider business secrets.
3) Have the Key Words Needed to Get Hits From the Software: In other words, I need to be just like everyone else so that I can get picked for a job out of thousands of candidates. What a fantastic idea!
Thank you, DICE! Your article that is nearly two years old that got posted on the front page of Slashdot is the best thing I've read in a long time. I have no doubt these pearls of wisdom you've given me and all of my fellow Slashdotters will help all of us find our next fulfilling job!