
Things Hiring Managers Wish You Knew - edw519
http://finance.yahoo.com/career-work/article/109835/21-things-hiring-managers-wish-you-knew?mod=career-worklife_balance
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patio11
Something rubs me wrong about "Please don't call more than once a week. We
don't talk to candidates not selected for further interviews. Where is my
thank-you letter?"

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mseebach
I couldn't find that line in the article?

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hga
It's a summation and it's not accurate, in specifics like how the author
actually decries the common practice of not "talk[ing] to candidates not
selected for further interviews" and in why a thank you letter was encouraged.

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jbarciauskas
A couple disagreements:

 _We'd like a thank-you note right away._

Honestly, this level of formality would drive me bonkers and I would be more
likely to think of the candidate as an overachiever type

 _Reference-checkers can call anyone you've worked for or who might know you,
even if they aren't on the list you provide_

This just seems rude and invasive. I'm all for due diligence but if you don't
want to be stalked by your candidates, don't stalk them back

And I want to emphasize this one, as someone who has had multiple candidates
come in over a half an hour early in the last month:

 _You can be too early to the interview._

Really. If you're that early, go for a walk. Find a coffee shop. Anything but
interrupting the pre-arranged schedule and making everyone in the office
uncomfortable while you sit in the waiting area that no one ever uses.

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mattm
>We'd like a thank-you note right away.

They want a thank-you note for doing their job? Does the interviewee also get
a thank-you note for taking time out of their day to go see them?

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bcaulf
If I sent a thank you note to my interviewer, I would certainly expect a thank
you note back.

[http://www.theonion.com/articles/gratitude-for-thankyou-
note...](http://www.theonion.com/articles/gratitude-for-thankyou-note-plunges-
friends-into-i,5966)

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jrockway
I don't care about any of these things when I interview people. I know what
position I am in -- sheer desperation. I know what position the candidate is
in -- tons of other opportunities if they don't like mine. I'm not going to
disqualify someone who is too casual or who arrives too early or who doesn't
send a thank-you note or who doesn't have a cover letter.

All I care about are programming ability and whether or not the person is
going to be easy to work with.

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skybrian
If you get someone who seems not to care or makes you uneasy then you're not
going to hire them, right? The thank you note is a little bit old school, but
how else do you figure out if they're going to be easy to work with, if not
how they behave on the interview?

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jrockway
Right, that's what I care about. I don't care if they are running late or if
they have a beautifully typeset resume. That stuff just doesn't matter. How
they answer interview questions does matter.

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tobtoh
If they run late, or have a badly formatted resume, it shows their lack of
attention to detail or poor planning/preparation. That is _exactly_ the
qualities I _don't_ want in an employee.

I've interviewed hundreds of people in my time as a manager and employed
around 100 people (probably around a 10 to 1, interview to hire ratio average)
and one thing I've learnt is the small issues are important things to note
because they are the early warning indicators of issues.

Being a good employee and fit for the team is much much more than simply
answering a question correctly.

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jrockway
I disagree. Not being able to find a building in a fixed amount of time is not
a skill I care about. A misformatted resume doesn't really mean anything
except that Word is buggy. I'm hiring a programmer, not a typesetter.

Anyway, YMMV.

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donaldc
There is no indication of what qualifies the author, Alison Green, to make
statements about what hiring managers want. Presumably, she's a hiring manager
of sorts, but the article doesn't actually state this. It is therefore
impossible to know what hiring contexts she thinks this list is appropriate
for.

Certainly, in any hiring situation I've been connected with (as a software
engineer), the main concern has always been, "Can they actually design and
write code that works?", with a strong side of "Can they work with and get
along with the existing engineers?". Nobody cares if they arrive slightly
early or what their greatest weakness is.

I suspect this list is made for interviewees fairly new to the job market who
lack any skills that are in high demand.

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brazzy
Should be "Things Hiring Managers Wish You Would Do Because It Would Make
Their Jobs Easier, But Many Of Which May Hurt Your Chances Relative To People
Who Don't Do Them."

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tptacek
Which of these recommendations do you think might hurt your chances?

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praptak
Honestly talking about your weaknesses.

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iamdave
"I know the usual advice is to take something only slightly bad and turn it
into something positive. But I don't think that's honest. So I guess my
problem is that I don't like to play games with interviewers."

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inmygarage
I think this article represents an extremely old-school view of hiring and job
searches. Who writes cover letters any more? Granted, my view is completely
biased toward tech companies, but believing that if you just have a "really
good cover letter" that it will help you land your dream job I think is
foolish.

All the people I know who have awesome jobs tried to meet as many people as
they could from the company where they wanted to work (outside of the
recruiting dept.) and made an impression by showing off actual skills - stuff
they've worked on - as opposed to a great cover letter/resume.

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RyanGWU82
In my experience, the cover letter is still quite important. Last time I
looked for jobs (a year ago) I cold-contacted some "hot" startups and included
a cover letter and resume. The cover letter was very specific to each
position, and detailed my fit for the position and my enthusiasm for the
company. It was incredibly time-consuming to write those, but it paid off: I
got a phone interview at nearly every place I applied.

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dlo
I second that. A great cover letter won't be the sole reason you were hired
for a job (or even a big reason), but it will be a big reason you were called
in for the interview. And from my own experience, people who take the time to
write a cover letter also tend to be people who do better on the subsequent
interview (probably because candidates will only take the time write a cover
letter for job positions that they're genuinely qualified to fill).

Joel Spolsky offers an interesting perspective (which I believe is right on)
in his piece, "Getting Your Resume Read."

<http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/ResumeRead.html>

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hga
A very good set of recommendations. Here's a few of the less usual ones:

" _You should address being overqualified in your cover letter."_

" _We may check references beyond your list._

" _Some of us actually care about candidates._ "

For the latter the author decries firms that don't respond to candidates they
pass over. He's right that it's inexcusable and that a _few_ do care enough.
Unfortunately it's very few, but there are some.

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j_baker
I'm pretty sure every candidate knows #1. But candidates that are too honest
rarely get anywhere. I'm not saying you necessarily need to _lie_.

I'm just saying that interviewing is the time to sell yourself more than it is
the time to be completely honest.

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raffi
I like the end point about the question your resumé should answer: what did
you do that someone else in the same job wouldn't have. That's a nice twist.

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mkramlich
Many good points in the OA but overall I don't think it jives well with the
software field. Because in software there's such a lop-sided balance of power
in favor of the good programmer (due to talent rarity and availabilty) that
it's much more important that the candidate has the skills, talent and
availability. If a candidate sucks or is a faker the power lies with the
potential employer. Otherwise it lies with the candidate.

I also think the OA's advice misses out on the notion that it is a two-way
street: the employer is also applying to the candidate for the priviledge of
getting that person's future time and commitment, and taking on the
opportunity costs that candidate will incur if they end up working for you.

