Re: Resume inflation (was Re: [SAGE] Tests for Systems Administrator interviews.)

[Dave Close <dave@compata.com>]

Trey Harris wrote:
>I have a gripe from the other side of the interviewing table--resume
>inflation.  The quality of resumes that have come across my desk over the
>years have been getting progressively more and more useless.  I'm aware
>that search engines have spawned keyword resumes and that folks are
>petrified of leaving something off their resume that they know and hence
>not getting hit by a relevant search, but even making allowances for this,
>resumes are really getting ridiculous.

Resumes have always been an exercise in making one's career sound more
significant than most of them actually are. Twenty years ago, I recall
reading a resume from a guy two years out of college who claimed that
he had "designed" the whizbang system for majorcorp. I knew he was just
exaggerating and he otherwise met my interest so we did interview him.
And he immediately admitted that his design was only of a few of the
programs involved. You have to know how to read a resume.

But getting a resume to someone who knows how to read it seems to have
become much more difficult. Automated transmission systems are so easy
and cheap that any attempt to collect applications via email is certain
to be innundated with mostly junk. The employer responds by using filters
and the applicant responds by padding his resume with keywords. Nobody
gains. The worst are those who don't accept resumes at all, requiring
applicants to fill-in an online form with only check boxes and no essay.
Such places aren't worth the trouble since I know no one with any real
experience will be looking at the input.

Perhaps the solution is to accept resumes only on paper via snail mail.
Follow-up by email, of course, but make the applicant do a little work
and spend a few cents to get your attention. But employers seem to think
their filters are wonderful. Even delivering your resume in person is
usually rejected with a demand that it come only through their filter.

Personal contacts have always been the best way to find a job. Lately,
they seem to be nearly the only way to find one that really fits.
-- 
Dave Close, Compata, Costa Mesa CA  "If I seem unduly clear to you,
dave@compata.com, +1 714 434 7359    you must have misunderstood
dhclose@alumni.caltech.edu           what I said." -- Alan Greenspan