SPUG: Giving up on computer jobs & usefulness of placement fi rms

[dleonard at dleonard.net]

On Wed, 13 Aug 2003, Rodney Doe wrote:

> Would it be useful to discuss those of us who provide input into the hiring
> process have rejected candidates in the past?  What fatal errors have we
> seen on résumés?  What went wrong with interviews?

Good suggestion...

Here's what I look for in a candidate:  I like one and a half to two page
resumes.  A one pager doesn't give me enough information on what they
actually know.  A three pager is too long for me to easily peruse and
tells me the candidate doesn't know how to summarize and prioritize.

Certifications don't mean squat unless you actually can use the knowledge.
I like to ask real world problems relating to the certification and see if
they actually know anything about it.  Most of the time they don't so the
certification works as a strike against them.

When I'm interviewing someone I like to find out what their career plans
are and how the job they are interviewing for is going to help those
plans.  If they are looking to learn the technology or have a specific
goal in mind then that is a big plus in their favor.  If they are just
like "it's another coding job doing the same thing I've been doing for the
last decade" then they just lost a point.  Drive towards personal goals
and desire to learn are useful.  Someone who is just putting in their time
to cash a check is less than desirable.

I like to ask them what technology or job they've enjoyed the most and
why.  What they like working on and why gives me a great insight into
their character.  When adding an engineer, getting people who can fit into
the environment is a big consideration.  I've rejected technically
brilliant programmers because no one in the company, and I mean no one,
would have been able to work with them.

Hygiene is also important.  Nobody is going to hire you if you smell like
you just finished off a 2 week bender and didn't take a shower for that
entire time.

-- 

<Douglas Leonard>
<dleonard at dleonard.net>
<You should know by now I do things without thinking of the consequences.
-Ataru Moroboshi>