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Of course it's possible -- people just don't do it, and I don't know why. I recently needed to bring someone on to take over the basics on a bunch of my web pr
by thaumaturgy 16y ago
Of course it's possible -- people just don't do it, and I don't know why.
I recently needed to bring someone on to take over the basics on a bunch of my web projects, because I'm overcommitted, as usual, and trying not to be. I tried a local resource first, and then I went to Craigslist, which has worked out well for me in the past.
My ad was simple and direct; it spelled out what we were about, what we were looking for, and what we could offer, and then it had instructions: if someone wanted the job, they needed to solve an easy puzzle, not send a resume, and instead send about a paragraph talking about their skills and experience.
It worked out great.
As far as I'm concerned, resumes are next-to-worthless. I don't really care who you've worked for or what you've done for them. I'm not going to call them and see if they say good things about you. I just want to know if you can figure things out and communicate well. During the interview, I'll sort out whether or not you actually know what you're doing.
- cubicle67 16y agoDid you get many applications from people who hadn't read your instructions?
- ErrantX 16y agoI'm going to take a shot at: yes. We tried this approach too, and it worked great. But for every correct application we got two or three wrong ones. We emailed them explaining the problem, to give them a chance, and only one replied - to tell me I was being unfair not to consider him....
- thaumaturgy 16y agoWe did, and since one of the unwritten job requirements was "able to follow clear instructions", it worked well as a filter. Also, we posted the ad using one particular email address (a working, but incorrect one), but to apply to the correct address they had to solve an easy puzzle which consisted of looking at the page source for the ad, seeing that our logo image was being loaded from ourdomain.com/job/logo.jpg, and going to ourdomain.com/job for the correct email address to apply to. I didn't want anything too difficult or annoying, but on the other hand, I knew anyone that could figure that out and follow the directions would work out fine for us.
- DJN 16y agoAny chance of seeing a copy of the ad?