5 ms·

How about "we" quit exaggerating our skillset when "you" quit exaggerating job requirements. Let's do a random test, shall we? Here is the very first job on Di

by blurry 18y ago

How about "we" quit exaggerating our skillset when "you" quit exaggerating job requirements. Let's do a random test, shall we? Here is the very first job on Dice.com in New York metro area. Skills required: - Systems Development - Systems Analysis & Design - Systems Operations & Support - Knowledge of Cisco LAN/WAN infrastructure - Knowledge of data center infrastructure - Knowledge of Windows systems environment - Knowledge of Network Appliance - Knowledge of Brocade SAN infrastructure - Strong understanding of Oracle (both 10g and 11g) - Strong understanding of DB2 - SQL Server 2005 - Experience in logical and physical design of RDBMS - Strong understanding of .net technologies - COBOL/Mainframe programming - Expertise in desktop software - 270 Terminal Emulation - FTP - IIS7 - Experience in implementing IT Service Level Agreements - Experience in team management - Experience in change and asset management - WMS including Medicaid, SSI, and/or Food Stamps issuance - Collaborative skills - Conflict resolution skills - SDLC Project Management - Commitment to public service Salary range? $50,000 to $135,000 tops (again, this is in New York where a small home barely suitable for two adults with one child will run around $800,000 plus $1,500/month in maintenance and real estate taxes). And hey - you know what I "chuckle out loud" about? When pretentious blog authors talk about themselves in 3rd person: http://www.codesqueeze.com/about/ http://www.codesqueeze.com/about/

arockwell 18y ago
Personally, I got burned listing far too many skills on my resume without quantifying my experience. After that, I got rid of anything that I didn't have strong experience and I think that helped the credibility of my resume.
- blurry 18y ago
  That's a very reasonable assumption but you don't know that. A more realistic scenario is that your new, pared down resume lost major points as far as making it through the headhunters' and HR's dumb keyword filtering software, lost minor points as far as impressing generalist managers, and gained minor points as far as impressing technical managers. I'd say when you tally it all, you get more points than you lose by listing non-core skills. Technical managers are usually the very last in the process and if your resume gets rejected upstream, you don't get to impress or un-impress them at all. Personally, I have never had anyone question my non-core skills. People usually look at several most recent projects to get an idea of your actual strengths.
  - arockwell 18y ago
    In my particular case, I doubt I really lost any points on HR screening because the skills I took off my resume were not skills that were even being asked for in the job postings I was looking at. But, you are right that I don't really know what is the impact of the change. That's probably what I've found most frustrating about job hunting and interviewing, its very hard to tell what is and isn't working.
  - timr 18y ago
    I customize my resume for each job. If the company is small, I submit a tight, super-honest resume, and omit the buzzword-bingo. If submitting to Inittech Corporation, I submit a keyword-optimized resume guaranteed to please the screening software (then swear never to do that again...)
- lsc 18y ago
  Eh, I think listing some sort of 'skill level' (for example, my resume lists lisp under programming languages, but notes that I'm a novice.) The best of both worlds, I think, because it gets you noticed by the keyword seekers, and sets reasonable expectations for the technical person who actually interviews you.
  - arockwell 18y ago
    I do also list a skill level. The skills I removed were ones where I had very limited knowledge. I wouldn't list lisp on my resume even though I have some basic lisp programming, but I don't think listing novice lisp experience on your resume will hurt you either. I keep my resume down to a page, so I only want the most interesting information about me.
    - netcan 18y ago
      This is what the article says to do.
vlad 18y ago
I have to agree. Max says he has two degrees, but does not state from where, or what his concentration was in graduate school. That's fine, but then says he worked with Microsoft, which could mean anything ranging from being an employee, all the way to working for a company to which Microsoft outsourced some graphics design for marketing materials. Another way the about page is misleading is that it almost reads like he helped develop Visual Studio.Net, and only after re-reading carefully, is it discernable that he's saying that he was one of the first to use .NET in pre-beta. In the end, it does not say if he actually developed anything with it, if he still uses it, or what the point of telling us the previous information is. Overall, nothing states what he has actually accomplished with all of his "eight years of professional software experience", and that is the biggest problem of all in many resumes.
run4yourlives 18y ago
Amen. When you're asking for all that crap, you're going to get applicants that want to prove they understand all that crap.
mynameishere 18y ago
"FTP" is a giveaway. One doesn't normally know all those other things without this "FTP". I've seen ads that had listings like this: - Expertise in Oracle. - Expertise in Data Mining. - Must know SQL ...it's just some HR drone writing these.
- potatolicious 18y ago
  ... I wouldn't work for a company that lets HR drones write job descriptions - and honestly most companies I've had contact with from an employment POV actually have technical people recruit technical employees.
  - jwilliams 18y ago
    Depending on where you are having HR people write the job descriptions is very common - or pro forma job descriptions are common... This shouldn't necessarily put you off. Many large corporates would have this as policy - but doesn't necessarily make them a bad place to work. Additionally, this article fails to recognise that in a lot of scenarios there are recruitment agents acting as middle-men.. It's happened to me in the past that I'm going for a quite specialised role and an agent has said to me "but you don't have HTML on your CV". Basically they have a list and they're indiscriminately checking it off. Poor - but it's an unavoidable part of the system. Additionally - having technical people write job descriptions isn't the answer. Technical people could have a tendency to overemphasise specific technical points, whilst ignoring the (more important) fit into the team and other aspects... So whilst you call them "HR Drones", if you have a good one, they'll produce an excellent job spec - after all - this is what they do.
    - netcan 18y ago
      True. It's not a great idea to assume that a HR drone will know nothing about the area he's recruiting in. A good HR guy will know all about it. Will know about trends & moods & jobs & projects. As you say, it is what they do. I know many do it poorly. But I'm sure many do it well.
    - 18y ago

by blurry 18y ago

arockwell 18y ago

Personally, I got burned listing far too many skills on my resume without quantifying my experience. After that, I got rid of anything that I didn't have strong experience and I think that helped the credibility of my resume.

blurry 18y ago
That's a very reasonable assumption but you don't know that. A more realistic scenario is that your new, pared down resume lost major points as far as making it through the headhunters' and HR's dumb keyword filtering software, lost minor points as far as impressing generalist managers, and gained minor points as far as impressing technical managers. I'd say when you tally it all, you get more points than you lose by listing non-core skills. Technical managers are usually the very last in the process and if your resume gets rejected upstream, you don't get to impress or un-impress them at all. Personally, I have never had anyone question my non-core skills. People usually look at several most recent projects to get an idea of your actual strengths.
- arockwell 18y ago
  In my particular case, I doubt I really lost any points on HR screening because the skills I took off my resume were not skills that were even being asked for in the job postings I was looking at. But, you are right that I don't really know what is the impact of the change. That's probably what I've found most frustrating about job hunting and interviewing, its very hard to tell what is and isn't working.
- timr 18y ago
  I customize my resume for each job. If the company is small, I submit a tight, super-honest resume, and omit the buzzword-bingo. If submitting to Inittech Corporation, I submit a keyword-optimized resume guaranteed to please the screening software (then swear never to do that again...)
lsc 18y ago
Eh, I think listing some sort of 'skill level' (for example, my resume lists lisp under programming languages, but notes that I'm a novice.) The best of both worlds, I think, because it gets you noticed by the keyword seekers, and sets reasonable expectations for the technical person who actually interviews you.
- arockwell 18y ago
  I do also list a skill level. The skills I removed were ones where I had very limited knowledge. I wouldn't list lisp on my resume even though I have some basic lisp programming, but I don't think listing novice lisp experience on your resume will hurt you either. I keep my resume down to a page, so I only want the most interesting information about me.
  - netcan 18y ago
    This is what the article says to do.

vlad 18y ago

I have to agree. Max says he has two degrees, but does not state from where, or what his concentration was in graduate school. That's fine, but then says he worked with Microsoft, which could mean anything ranging from being an employee, all the way to working for a company to which Microsoft outsourced some graphics design for marketing materials. Another way the about page is misleading is that it almost reads like he helped develop Visual Studio.Net, and only after re-reading carefully, is it discernable that he's saying that he was one of the first to use .NET in pre-beta. In the end, it does not say if he actually developed anything with it, if he still uses it, or what the point of telling us the previous information is. Overall, nothing states what he has actually accomplished with all of his "eight years of professional software experience", and that is the biggest problem of all in many resumes.

run4yourlives 18y ago

Amen. When you're asking for all that crap, you're going to get applicants that want to prove they understand all that crap.

mynameishere 18y ago

"FTP" is a giveaway. One doesn't normally know all those other things without this "FTP". I've seen ads that had listings like this: - Expertise in Oracle. - Expertise in Data Mining. - Must know SQL ...it's just some HR drone writing these.

potatolicious 18y ago
... I wouldn't work for a company that lets HR drones write job descriptions - and honestly most companies I've had contact with from an employment POV actually have technical people recruit technical employees.
- jwilliams 18y ago
  Depending on where you are having HR people write the job descriptions is very common - or pro forma job descriptions are common... This shouldn't necessarily put you off. Many large corporates would have this as policy - but doesn't necessarily make them a bad place to work. Additionally, this article fails to recognise that in a lot of scenarios there are recruitment agents acting as middle-men.. It's happened to me in the past that I'm going for a quite specialised role and an agent has said to me "but you don't have HTML on your CV". Basically they have a list and they're indiscriminately checking it off. Poor - but it's an unavoidable part of the system. Additionally - having technical people write job descriptions isn't the answer. Technical people could have a tendency to overemphasise specific technical points, whilst ignoring the (more important) fit into the team and other aspects... So whilst you call them "HR Drones", if you have a good one, they'll produce an excellent job spec - after all - this is what they do.
  - netcan 18y ago
    True. It's not a great idea to assume that a HR drone will know nothing about the area he's recruiting in. A good HR guy will know all about it. Will know about trends & moods & jobs & projects. As you say, it is what they do. I know many do it poorly. But I'm sure many do it well.
  - 18y ago