5 ms·
Now when you Google “Tim Mackinnon programmer”, the 5th or 6th result for me is a link titled “The Worst Programmer” and the little descriptive blurb below that
by _gabe_ 3y ago
Now when you Google “Tim Mackinnon programmer”, the 5th or 6th result for me is a link titled “The Worst Programmer” and the little descriptive blurb below that says “His name is Tim Mackinnon…”. I know the author was click baiting and flipping the story on its head, but I would be a bit annoyed if Googling my name + programmer surfaced something like that.
- owenmarshall 3y agoAnnoyed? I’d love it: it would be an incredible door opener anywhere you went.
- softfalcon 3y agoYeah, this is a great opener to break the ice with during an interview. You can even add some prestidigitation by having them take 30 seconds to Google it and your name comes up. Play it off as a joke and now everyone has a little smirk/chuckle over it. Now they know you have a good personality and can tell a funny joke about yourself. Goes a long way to putting you in that “I can work with this person” category. Also, if they can’t appreciate the joke, that’s an easy red flag for you that you probably don’t ever want to work for that team.
- _gabe_ 3y agoYou both make good points, on second thought it’s all about how you spin it :)
- tchaffee 3y agoGet your resume. HR looks up your name. Throws out the resume. It could be fun if you can get an interview. It might hurt you though.
- twic 3y agoThis is just not something that actually happens.
- tchaffee 3y agoCan you reassure me then with the data that backs up your claim? Because in my very long career I've seen a lot of people use heuristics when deciding who to follow up with. "According to a 2018 CareerBuilder survey, 70% of employers check out applicants’ profiles as part of their screening process, and 54% have rejected applicants because of what they found."
- twic 3y agoHR are not going to reject an incredibly experienced senior guy with a CV as long as your arm because of the title of a blog post. Your quote doesn't even suggest they would, and I'm not going to cite any evidence because it's honestly just a patently absurd proposition.
- tchaffee 3y agoHR will definitely reject someone because of the title of a blog post. When you have a pile of a hundred CVs and two openings, you disqualify quickly. I'm basing this on real world experience.
- tialaramex 3y agoIf you're letting HR who have no idea what they're doing, go from "a hundred CVs" to "two openings" you are bad at your job. HR's job, like legal, or many other departments, is to facilitate what you actually do which in this case means work like chasing references and ensuring the candidates have somebody who can answer stupid logistics questions without bothering the interviewer, not figuring out who is the best fit for any particular job, that's the job of the people making the hiring decision. Maybe if you're hiring fifty people to stand outside in the rain holding signs you can let HR pick who gets a job. Picking software engineers, especially if you actually care whether they're any good, is not the purpose of an HR department.
- ted_bunny 3y agoIf HR is going to throw it out because of the title alone, they're going to be obnoxious to deal with even in the scale of HR departments.
- tchaffee 3y agoOr they are just busy. A pile of a hundred resumes and two open positions usually means you disqualify quickly. Sometimes we need to pay rent and deal with obnoxious HR departments.
- twic 3y agoTim thinks it's awesome: https://twitter.com/iterex/status/1697927494479777844 https://twitter.com/iterex/status/1697927494479777844
- gardenhedge 3y agoMy thoughts too. Sucks for him.
- ckarmann 3y agoInteresting way to prevent your awesome colleague from being poached by competitors.