
So, you need a job? Man, do resumes suck - qhoxie
http://scobleizer.com/2008/10/05/need-a-job-resume/
======
blurry
Does anyone else find the post incredibly disrespectful? So to merely have a
chance at $12/hour one should include a customized video _and_ pay a
professional editor to go over the cover letter (presumably one of many since
we are also instructed to make sure and customize each application)?
_Seriously?_

Mr. Scoble's sense of entitlement is staggering. Just because you _can_ lord
it over people who find themselves unemployed in a bad economy doesn't mean
you _should_.

In the very least he should refrain from making fun of over-qualified
candidates. That's just unnecessary.

~~~
dasil003
Scoble is out of touch. The only thing he knows anything about is blogging.
I've never found anything he writes to be particularly insightful either, he
just spends all his time writing about popular tech topics. He deserves credit
for building his personal brand, but that's about it. I certainly wouldn't
take resume-writing advice from him, and I wouldn't want to work for him
either. He needs to dial down the self-importance.

------
helveticaman
_So far I’ve received more than 90 resumes for a job that’ll pay $12 to $15
(not much, I know, but for a starter job not too bad — my first job back in
1993 paid $10 an hour and this one should be a good launch to a fun career in
journalism or PR or any number of jobs)._

Heard of inflation, Scoble?

------
gruseom
Resumes, cover letters, and the lot of it are overrated. I've gotten nearly
all of my work through word-of-mouth and the same is true of most good
programmers I know. The way to do this is a lot more congenial to good hackers
than the resume/interview circuit: make friends with the kind of people you'd
like to work with, work on personal and/or open source projects, hone your
skills. You'll build a reputation among your local tech community and
(eventually) hear about good jobs from good people. Most such jobs never get
posted in the first place because they're filled the way I'm describing.

~~~
lief79
The problem is that you need to find a way to work with these people in the
first place.

My first two jobs were through random contacts ( a relative and someone I met
while swing dancing). The next two were through dedicated recruiters on
Monster.

I suspect I'll be able to use professional contacts or one of the better
recruiters that I know the next time I'm looking, but up to this point, they
haven't panned out.

------
edw519
Alas, I have never found a way to write a resume that even remotely comes
close to properly describing me.

OTOH, every piece of software I have ever written says volumes about me.

Therefore...

Screw job hunting, write some software, start a company and sell that
software.

What a concept.

------
jrockway
Why is he being so demanding for such a low-paying job? I made this much money
being a janitor when I was in high school.

~~~
dgabriel
Supply and demand. He said he received 90 resumes.

~~~
jrockway
_He said he received 90 resumes._

From people that can't spell.

------
truebosko
I'm curious .. what makes a good resume for a developer (in other words, a
hacker) ?

I've had one job in my field since out of college (same one since I finished)
and I've learnt a lot but I have no clue how to really portray it all in my
resume.

If I am applying for a development position do you think the hiree will care
that I have experience with SEO, building brands, etc? How does one portray
it? Are cover letters that important for a development position? And so on..

I've had a tough time finding well written articles on this subject but Scoble
has made some definite good points, now I'm more intrigued

~~~
comatose_kid
A website full of cool things you've built.

~~~
truebosko
What would persuade the hiree to actually go to that website?

~~~
run4yourlives
It would work for me.

------
DanielBMarkham
So -- another "this is what I'm looking for in a resume" posts, eh?

Nothing wrong with that, except there are hundreds of thousands of guys out
there with their own lists of stuff they want.

The art of writing a resume is the art of creating a targeted sales brochure
to the exact person who is able to call you in for an interview. That means,
between you and him, you have to understand at a gut level what makes his boat
float and what are going to be key selling factors for him.

It's an acquired skill, but not too hard to learn. The interesting part is
that not only do you have to target each opportunity, you also have to go
through a certain number of opportunities per day/week to make the machine
work.

I find it fun once I get used to it. Of course, as I get older it's all word-
of-mouth now.

~~~
edw519
_That means, between you and him, you have to..._

And let's not forget that between you and him may also be numerous gatekeepers
and headhunters.

------
nazgulnarsil
I'd say a well written cover letter adapted to fit the company you are
applying for is more important than the resume itself. a good cover letter
gets the employer curious about you.

------
KiwiNige
"1. Include only an attachment and don’t write anything in the body of the
email." "5. Include only a resume and don’t explain why you think you are
qualified for the job (believe it or not, a well written letter puts you to
the top 20% pretty quickly)."

I've found in the past that doing these are the best way to get short listed
by an agent. I figure either they don't like reading them, or my cover letters
really suck.

------
gruseom
_2\. Include a misspelling._

 _7\. Apply for a job for which you are clearly overqualified for_

I guess what he means is "prove that you can turn a spell-checker on".

~~~
tjr
I once applied for a job, and was rejected with a letter listing reasons why
they typically reject applicants. This list included grammatical and spelling
errors on one's letter or resume.

Ironically, the company's rejection letter itself contained both a grammatical
and spelling error. Having already been rejected, I decided to write back to
them and point this out. I guess they were in some way impressed, as they
wrote back to me asking if I'd be interested in a job, but by this time I
wasn't.

~~~
Hexstream
You're lucky, when I take time to point out spelling errors I usually get
ignored in a more or less hostile way.

------
ajkirwin
"7. Apply for a job for which you are clearly overqualified for (I got one
resume from a software engineer)."

This is something that I hate. I know many people who are in this situation.
They're highly qualified, but due to too many people in that field for a local
area, or in general, they just can't find work in it.

So to tide themselves over until they CAN get one, they look for a much more
simpler job. Only to get told, time and time again, they are 'overqualified'.

Why is this such a bad thing?

~~~
nazgulnarsil
the employer in these situations feels that the person will be unhappy at a
position so obviously beneath them. the employer can also assume that the
person will be leaving as soon as they do find a job they're qualified for.

unhappy employee who could leave any time. doesn't sound good to me.

~~~
ajkirwin
Yes, but this is surely the kind of thing that you resolve in an interview.
Maybe this person could be quite happy in this position. Maybe they're looking
to broaden their horizons.

You just don't know.

~~~
nazgulnarsil
as an HR director, i'd have "yes", "no", and "maybe" stacks of applications.
If my "yes" pile is big enough, I'm throwing out the "maybe" pile.

Don't make the mistake of thinking a resumes' job is to accurately represent
you to prospective employers. Your resume is an advertising brochure that
should be tailored to fit each position you apply for.

~~~
denglish
I agree with tailor, but it still needs to "accurately represent" - there
really isn't any point getting to an interview you shouldn't be at. Just
waists everyone's time.

~~~
nazgulnarsil
sure, but the average hacker is smart enough to do most jobs, including ones
they aren't technically qualified for. It has been my experience that most of
the skills vital to any particular job will be learned on-site anyway.
Experience is just shorthand for "are you basically competent?".

~~~
lief79
True to a point and possibly for the majority of jobs, provided that you
aren't trying to bill yourself as a consultant (expert in whatever
technology). I'm also assuming that the "average hacker" implies that you are
eliminating everyone who claims to be one, but is not even close from the list
of hackers, in order to greatly improve the average. (The average "successful"
hacker.)

Now, even with the higher standard, the learning curve depends greatly on the
complexity of the system and how much of a learning curve is permitted by the
employer. If you are trying to work with a full J2EE system, and you haven't
done it before, expect a steep 2-3 month learning curve, even if you are
proficient in java. If they need someone to be productive within that first
week, the average hacker won't be able to make it.

There is just too much complexity and too many libraries to memorize in less
time then that. I spent a good month or two learning the EJB 2.2 frameworks,
Servlets, JSPs, javascript, etc at my last job. This job had a very steep 1
month learning curve with a modern Seam, Richfaces, JSF environment. I'd add
on another month or two for anyone that doesn't already understand the core of
the j2EE/web application stack. This small team has had people that haven't
been able to pull it off.

Now for the extreme example, my father has worked developing the base station
for a satellite telephone system. He's commented on how half of the people
brought in to help him got lost in the complexity and provided next to no
additional productivity.

I've also dabbled in pharmaceutical automation and in the telecommunication
networks. Very steep learning curves in regulations and the complexities
associated in both fields.

In summary, competence often requires a lot more then just raw coding ability.
Very few people can slide into a job under the radar and properly complete
very hard problems where they don't have the expected domain knowledge.

*Reviewing this, it's not really a direct response to what was said in the above thread. I was reading into the response too much.

~~~
nazgulnarsil
I definitely understand where you're coming from, and can see frustrations
rising out of a situation like that (guy is obviously winging it poorly).

but what I said was in the context of working at a job you're overqualified
for. what i'm implying is that hackers can perform most non-hacking tasks
fairly easily. a minor bookkeeping position because you can't find a decent
coding job? I'd assume anyone proficient with basic database manipulation
could do it.

~~~
lief79
I agree with the basic idea, but the reality is more complicated.

Hiring someone has a lot of tangential factors that will come into play. Most
hackers have a personality that tends to be strongly focused at the task at
hand, often at the expense of paying attention to others things around them.
This means that while they might be technically capable of functioning as an
office assistant, it will be a very poor use of their skill set and others are
likely to be able to do a better job with it, as they enjoy using the skill
set required for the job. If the sole responsibility of the role is a tour
guide, or PR individual, then there is a good chance that they are the hacker
is the wrong individual for the job. On the same note, if there is a lot of
repetitive work that requires an intense focus and can't be automated, quite
often the hacker personalities may lose interest.

Just because one is qualified to do the job does not mean that you'll be
meeting the companies unspecified needs. If you aren't agreeing to work for X
amount of time, the company may lose out solely because the costs of hiring
and replacing you are greater then the benefits you'll provide.

In summary, there are occasions where HR is required and does it well. Just
because most companies err too far in one direction does not mean that there
aren't legitimate reasons hiding in the original guidelines that will need to
be addressed. For a specific instance, I have friend who is looking to go into
coding from QA. We had a QA opening at my current employer, but the desire to
leave QA means after X amount of time means that my friend was not the right
candidate for that job.

