5 ms·

Ask HN: How would you convince someone to hire you without your resume?

5 points by nikunjness 11y ago

cbhl 11y ago
Word of mouth. My first job: my high school CS teacher knew I was good with computers anecdotally. (He heard second-hand from another staff member that I had looked at another student's buggy code, written in a language I had never seen before, and identified and fixed the bug in a few minutes, before I had ever taken a formal CS class at the high school.) One of the teacher's former students had a small business that was hiring people to do some one-off data entry work over winter break and asked if I wanted to give it a go. (I said yes.) Boss liked my work ethic, and offered to hire me back the following summer to work on their C#/ASP.NET code base (even though I'd never coded C# in my life).
- nikunjness 11y ago
  Agree. Word of mouth helps. My first job was through word of mouth. I would like to describe this as a "social proof". You're recommended by genuine people for a particular job.
brd 11y ago
When you're getting hired you're just selling someone on the idea of you. You just need to create a signal that you're worth the purchase. There is nothing magic about a resume other than it's the most typical way an employee sells themselves. Other signals of your worth could be recommendations, credentials, publications, intelligent conversation, etc. I prefer the "meet and greet" approach to job hunting. If we have a good conversation about their needs and how I'd satisfy them, I'm inclined to feel a little insulted when a resume is asked for.
- nikunjness 11y ago
  I totally agree with you. "Meet and greet" has worked for me so far. I'm tired of reading "send your updated cv/resume" line on every job description. While lot of things are changing in hiring process, this is the area where I see very few companies being innovative. A person is more than his/her resume and I wish companies could realize this.
JSeymourATL 11y ago
Show a keen interest in the individuals problems, priorities, and mission-- share ideas on how you can help assist them. Gitomer has a good piece on Buyer's (Hiring Executive) Motivations > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1w-BX8jMJQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1w-BX8jMJQ
rainmaking 11y ago
Demonstrate relevant skill.
gesman 11y ago
The conversation need to start from the other end. Them approaching you personally to be hired. This does not mean being spammed by AMZN or GOOG or other recruiters. This means being approached by hiring manager or higher.
seanccox 11y ago
I scored a job doing investigative due diligence by threatening the hiring manager's family. I didn't know I was being interviewed, we were just two people seated alongside one another at a wedding reception, having pleasant casual conversation. She made me feel totally at ease, complimented my suit, laughed at my jokes, and was really inquisitive about me. After an hour of answering her questions, I began to notice that she wasn't answering any of mine. She would subtly bring the conversation back around to me. In isolation, it never felt evasive, but the pattern of doing so did. So, I casually commented that she must have been a middle child to be so adept in conversation. She smiled and indicated that, in fact, she had just one younger brother. To which I responded: "And now I know you have a younger brother, so why don't you tell me what this interview is all about." After collecting her jaw from the floor, she offered me a job. I guess you can file that under being approached by them first, but I thought y'all might enjoy the story.
- nikunjness 11y ago
  I indeed enjoyed the story. If this was on quora, you would be famous by now. While these kind of scenarios happen in a rare case, I'm wondering why companies still stick to old-fashioned hiring process? May be we all can put our thoughts on this problem and come up with some innovative solution that can change it. Thanks for sharing your story.
  - seanccox 11y ago
    Hiring is a difficult process and I presume that you are specifically interested hiring for tech-focused positions. For my employer, they knew they needed a specific skill set and knew how to look for it. The interviewer told me later that she was looking for someone who had competence in the local language, who could stay engage at several levels in a conversation, and who could demonstrate quick thinking. Those aren't easy skills to extract from someone on first meeting or through conversation, but their firm consistently does so. For a tech position, I think a similar approach could be possible, but I have to admit I neither know how, nor do I know how it can be initiated. Maybe the same thing could be accomplished by a savvy tech interviewer at a conference or other networking event? Again, knowing what they need, using casual chatter, directing a conversation toward a tech problem and seeing how it engages the person (and how they handle the puzzle). That approach might work, but it probably isn't practical for a huge corporation. In any event, thinking about it is a neat exercise.
marvy 11y ago
You might have noticed a few triblebyte blog posts on the front page lately. They don't do resumes. (Of course, you have to be ok with YC companies, or else they're not much use to you.)

5 points by nikunjness 11y ago

cbhl 11y ago

Word of mouth. My first job: my high school CS teacher knew I was good with computers anecdotally. (He heard second-hand from another staff member that I had looked at another student's buggy code, written in a language I had never seen before, and identified and fixed the bug in a few minutes, before I had ever taken a formal CS class at the high school.) One of the teacher's former students had a small business that was hiring people to do some one-off data entry work over winter break and asked if I wanted to give it a go. (I said yes.) Boss liked my work ethic, and offered to hire me back the following summer to work on their C#/ASP.NET code base (even though I'd never coded C# in my life).

nikunjness 11y ago
Agree. Word of mouth helps. My first job was through word of mouth. I would like to describe this as a "social proof". You're recommended by genuine people for a particular job.

brd 11y ago

When you're getting hired you're just selling someone on the idea of you. You just need to create a signal that you're worth the purchase. There is nothing magic about a resume other than it's the most typical way an employee sells themselves. Other signals of your worth could be recommendations, credentials, publications, intelligent conversation, etc. I prefer the "meet and greet" approach to job hunting. If we have a good conversation about their needs and how I'd satisfy them, I'm inclined to feel a little insulted when a resume is asked for.

nikunjness 11y ago
I totally agree with you. "Meet and greet" has worked for me so far. I'm tired of reading "send your updated cv/resume" line on every job description. While lot of things are changing in hiring process, this is the area where I see very few companies being innovative. A person is more than his/her resume and I wish companies could realize this.

JSeymourATL 11y ago

Show a keen interest in the individuals problems, priorities, and mission-- share ideas on how you can help assist them. Gitomer has a good piece on Buyer's (Hiring Executive) Motivations > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1w-BX8jMJQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1w-BX8jMJQ

rainmaking 11y ago

Demonstrate relevant skill.

gesman 11y ago

The conversation need to start from the other end. Them approaching you personally to be hired. This does not mean being spammed by AMZN or GOOG or other recruiters. This means being approached by hiring manager or higher.

seanccox 11y ago

I scored a job doing investigative due diligence by threatening the hiring manager's family. I didn't know I was being interviewed, we were just two people seated alongside one another at a wedding reception, having pleasant casual conversation. She made me feel totally at ease, complimented my suit, laughed at my jokes, and was really inquisitive about me. After an hour of answering her questions, I began to notice that she wasn't answering any of mine. She would subtly bring the conversation back around to me. In isolation, it never felt evasive, but the pattern of doing so did. So, I casually commented that she must have been a middle child to be so adept in conversation. She smiled and indicated that, in fact, she had just one younger brother. To which I responded: "And now I know you have a younger brother, so why don't you tell me what this interview is all about." After collecting her jaw from the floor, she offered me a job. I guess you can file that under being approached by them first, but I thought y'all might enjoy the story.

nikunjness 11y ago
I indeed enjoyed the story. If this was on quora, you would be famous by now. While these kind of scenarios happen in a rare case, I'm wondering why companies still stick to old-fashioned hiring process? May be we all can put our thoughts on this problem and come up with some innovative solution that can change it. Thanks for sharing your story.
- seanccox 11y ago
  Hiring is a difficult process and I presume that you are specifically interested hiring for tech-focused positions. For my employer, they knew they needed a specific skill set and knew how to look for it. The interviewer told me later that she was looking for someone who had competence in the local language, who could stay engage at several levels in a conversation, and who could demonstrate quick thinking. Those aren't easy skills to extract from someone on first meeting or through conversation, but their firm consistently does so. For a tech position, I think a similar approach could be possible, but I have to admit I neither know how, nor do I know how it can be initiated. Maybe the same thing could be accomplished by a savvy tech interviewer at a conference or other networking event? Again, knowing what they need, using casual chatter, directing a conversation toward a tech problem and seeing how it engages the person (and how they handle the puzzle). That approach might work, but it probably isn't practical for a huge corporation. In any event, thinking about it is a neat exercise.

marvy 11y ago

You might have noticed a few triblebyte blog posts on the front page lately. They don't do resumes. (Of course, you have to be ok with YC companies, or else they're not much use to you.)