4 ms·

This reminds me of a recent conversation I recently had with a company in my area. They wanted to hire a PHP developer, I sent them my resume which included 10+

by f1gm3nt 16y ago

This reminds me of a recent conversation I recently had with a company in my area. They wanted to hire a PHP developer, I sent them my resume which included 10+ years of PHP experience as well as working with many different frameworks. However I was not not offered the job since I had not worked with Drupal for at least 2 to 3 years. Hiring managers and head hunters need to take note of this article.

dpritchett 16y ago
It's easier for the hiring managers to pass on you and wait for someone with 2 years' IT experience, all in Drupal. I'm not sure how you can pre-qualify yourself in a situation like this other than maybe showing them your portfolio.
- f1gm3nt 16y ago
  Yeah that's absolutely true. Point well taken =)
synnik 16y ago
There is a flip side to this coin -- for all you know, they interviewed 10 people with 10+ years of PHP experience, and the 2-3 years of Drupal were then reasonably a deciding factor.
- f1gm3nt 16y ago
  Another really good point. I never thought if it this way. I had assumed that pointing out I had worked on large projects for a few large companies was enough.
variety 16y ago
To be fair, sometimes proficiency in some framework or CMS or vertical skill area does matter a lot more than you think it does. Remember now, the problem isn't that they get candidates who don't know $whatever_niche_topic, it's that they "don't know what they don't know", i.e. they have no inkling that the general "depth of terrain" in that area is much greater than what they were able to size up from their casual acquaintance with it... or that they think they can hit the ground running on a project that a serious heavy hitter with 5-10 years experience in that "niche" area been working on, when of course they can't. That said, if your interviewers are doing their jobs properly, they should be able to filter for (or simply ask about) that level of skill awareness during the phone screen. More likely, when you get told post-interview that "we need someone with more experience in X" it's usually a polite way of saying that they just weren't, you know, all the into you, and are trying to save face on both sides by pointing to something dry and objective, rather than things that actually matter. Like you know, the fact that you were underdressed (or overdressed), all those awkward silences you had with that second or third guy you interviewed with (remember, the one who announced his presence in the room by slouching in a chair and saying "I'm hungover"), or that you seemed to exhibit a slight latency in your recognizing some technical term that's common coin in the circles they run in (and so therefore, you just don't have enough chest hair), etc.
- variety 16y ago
  all the into you => all that into you, of course
alanstorm 16y ago
You were over qualified for the position. They didn't want a programmer, they wanted someone with known Drupal experience, who could hit the ground running, and wouldn't fall back on writing new software to solve a problem that could be quickly (if not perfectly) solved in Drupal. PHP based content management systems job are only tangentially related to programming. Drupal (and Joomla, etc.) exist so that companies can manage their websites without a programmer. That may not be fair, but it's how the hiring companies (direct or recruit) will look at. If you want those jobs get a Drupal site or two under your belt, and downplay your 10+ years of PHP on your resume and during the interview conversation.

by f1gm3nt 16y ago

dpritchett 16y ago

It's easier for the hiring managers to pass on you and wait for someone with 2 years' IT experience, all in Drupal. I'm not sure how you can pre-qualify yourself in a situation like this other than maybe showing them your portfolio.

f1gm3nt 16y ago
Yeah that's absolutely true. Point well taken =)

synnik 16y ago

There is a flip side to this coin -- for all you know, they interviewed 10 people with 10+ years of PHP experience, and the 2-3 years of Drupal were then reasonably a deciding factor.

f1gm3nt 16y ago
Another really good point. I never thought if it this way. I had assumed that pointing out I had worked on large projects for a few large companies was enough.

variety 16y ago

To be fair, sometimes proficiency in some framework or CMS or vertical skill area does matter a lot more than you think it does. Remember now, the problem isn't that they get candidates who don't know $whatever_niche_topic, it's that they "don't know what they don't know", i.e. they have no inkling that the general "depth of terrain" in that area is much greater than what they were able to size up from their casual acquaintance with it... or that they think they can hit the ground running on a project that a serious heavy hitter with 5-10 years experience in that "niche" area been working on, when of course they can't. That said, if your interviewers are doing their jobs properly, they should be able to filter for (or simply ask about) that level of skill awareness during the phone screen. More likely, when you get told post-interview that "we need someone with more experience in X" it's usually a polite way of saying that they just weren't, you know, all the into you, and are trying to save face on both sides by pointing to something dry and objective, rather than things that actually matter. Like you know, the fact that you were underdressed (or overdressed), all those awkward silences you had with that second or third guy you interviewed with (remember, the one who announced his presence in the room by slouching in a chair and saying "I'm hungover"), or that you seemed to exhibit a slight latency in your recognizing some technical term that's common coin in the circles they run in (and so therefore, you just don't have enough chest hair), etc.

variety 16y ago
all the into you => all that into you, of course

alanstorm 16y ago

You were over qualified for the position. They didn't want a programmer, they wanted someone with known Drupal experience, who could hit the ground running, and wouldn't fall back on writing new software to solve a problem that could be quickly (if not perfectly) solved in Drupal. PHP based content management systems job are only tangentially related to programming. Drupal (and Joomla, etc.) exist so that companies can manage their websites without a programmer. That may not be fair, but it's how the hiring companies (direct or recruit) will look at. If you want those jobs get a Drupal site or two under your belt, and downplay your 10+ years of PHP on your resume and during the interview conversation.