4 ms·

You make a really good point, patio11. I know when I've written with paper resumes, I've always rewritten the resume to suit the job application (in addition t

by angusgr 17y ago

You make a really good point, patio11. I know when I've written with paper resumes, I've always rewritten the resume to suit the job application (in addition to writing an extremely specific cover letter.) I don't know how that works when it's a personal web page. If the OP really only wants that web page to read by (and accepted by) Google, I guess they can do the same thing. :).

patio11 17y ago
I don't know how that works when it's a personal web page. If I hypothetically wanted to get a job at Google, I would have two versions of example.com/resume -- one for general consumption, and one which told the user that I've determined their IP is in the Googleplex and have customized the content to fit their needs. I'd probably also put a discussion of cloaking, Google's user experience guidelines, and why this is solidly within them as an aside in a lightbox or maybe a link to another page. For similar reasons, I'd mention to the user that they are participating in an A/B test of my resume. (Honestly, it doesn't matter what the results of the test are: this is purely theatre to demonstrate to the user that I'm the kind of guy who would A/B test his resume. It also tells you that I'm the kind of guy who thinks his resume is a engineering/marketing challenge rather than a desktop publishing task.)
- angusgr 17y ago
  That'd be freakishly cool. Definitely get some attention that way. There's actually a secondary problem that this exposes, though: is it actually possible to submit a resume to Google as a URL? I submitted a "cold" Google job application a couple of years ago, and back then there was a short list of supported resume formats, with a strong hint towards using plain text. The speculation was that most resumes get computationally screened before a human even reads them. (I didn't get a call back, btw.) If that's the "front door", you'll need to somehow get in the "back door". I suppose having your resume on the front page of HN could be a good start to that. ;)
  - patio11 17y ago
    If that's the "front door", you'll need to somehow get in the "back door". This is the single most important piece of jobseeking advice I can give anyone. Joel Spolsky had an article some years ago on how the best candidates are never on the public job market, because they get snapped up on the private offers. He wrote from the perspective of "As a business owner, it sure sucks looking in the slush pile of resumes, because none of the good people are in it.", but the applicant's side of the coin is similar: You're a good candidate, right? So don't go to the slush pile! I suppose having your resume on the front page of HN could be a good start to that. As fun as waiting by the phone and hoping to get a job offer is, I'd suggest you instead either talk to a Googler you know or get someone you know who owes you a favor to introduce you to a Googler. (Networking: not just for ethernet packets.) All you need to do is convince someone to convince someone to visit a URL, preferably with an endorsement. ("Hey Bob, got a second? My buddy $NAME is dying to get into Google. Know anybody who could use a brilliant engineer who did good work for me? $URL")
    - tptacek 17y ago
      Usually... not always, but usually... people get paid very real money to find a great candidate for the company. The person you talk to in your target company to get in the door isn't even doing you a favor.

by angusgr 17y ago

patio11 17y ago

I don't know how that works when it's a personal web page. If I hypothetically wanted to get a job at Google, I would have two versions of example.com/resume -- one for general consumption, and one which told the user that I've determined their IP is in the Googleplex and have customized the content to fit their needs. I'd probably also put a discussion of cloaking, Google's user experience guidelines, and why this is solidly within them as an aside in a lightbox or maybe a link to another page. For similar reasons, I'd mention to the user that they are participating in an A/B test of my resume. (Honestly, it doesn't matter what the results of the test are: this is purely theatre to demonstrate to the user that I'm the kind of guy who would A/B test his resume. It also tells you that I'm the kind of guy who thinks his resume is a engineering/marketing challenge rather than a desktop publishing task.)

angusgr 17y ago
That'd be freakishly cool. Definitely get some attention that way. There's actually a secondary problem that this exposes, though: is it actually possible to submit a resume to Google as a URL? I submitted a "cold" Google job application a couple of years ago, and back then there was a short list of supported resume formats, with a strong hint towards using plain text. The speculation was that most resumes get computationally screened before a human even reads them. (I didn't get a call back, btw.) If that's the "front door", you'll need to somehow get in the "back door". I suppose having your resume on the front page of HN could be a good start to that. ;)
- patio11 17y ago
  If that's the "front door", you'll need to somehow get in the "back door". This is the single most important piece of jobseeking advice I can give anyone. Joel Spolsky had an article some years ago on how the best candidates are never on the public job market, because they get snapped up on the private offers. He wrote from the perspective of "As a business owner, it sure sucks looking in the slush pile of resumes, because none of the good people are in it.", but the applicant's side of the coin is similar: You're a good candidate, right? So don't go to the slush pile! I suppose having your resume on the front page of HN could be a good start to that. As fun as waiting by the phone and hoping to get a job offer is, I'd suggest you instead either talk to a Googler you know or get someone you know who owes you a favor to introduce you to a Googler. (Networking: not just for ethernet packets.) All you need to do is convince someone to convince someone to visit a URL, preferably with an endorsement. ("Hey Bob, got a second? My buddy $NAME is dying to get into Google. Know anybody who could use a brilliant engineer who did good work for me? $URL")
  - tptacek 17y ago
    Usually... not always, but usually... people get paid very real money to find a great candidate for the company. The person you talk to in your target company to get in the door isn't even doing you a favor.