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Today I run my own single-founder SaaS business, but a long, long time ago I used to do consulting and I did recruiting as well. Regardless of whether you think

by jwr 3y ago

Today I run my own single-founder SaaS business, but a long, long time ago I used to do consulting and I did recruiting as well. Regardless of whether you think it's fair, if a consultant/recruiter has three CVs in front of her, she'll pore over every detail. But if there is a pile of 500, you definitely pick another approach. Here's what I used to do. CVs went through initial triage and were (quickly) sorted into three piles: 1. People I want to interview. 2. Backup pile: I don't want to meet these people, but if there is no one left in (1), we take this pile and work with it. 3. Rejected. That triage was quick. If you have several hundred CVs, you will judge them quickly. That's not just because you can't spend too much time on each, but also because you can actually afford false negatives: even if you reject some good candidates, chances are you'll still end up with a good hire. So things that people would consider superficial become factors. Badly formatted CV: rejected, it's likely the candidate doesn't care or isn't organized. Typo spotted: rejected, same reasons. Missing information (like dates): rejected. You get the picture.

blunderchief 3y ago
See, this gets at the root of my problem with the post. It makes total sense that a recruiter needs to make some adjustments to how they sift through resumes when faced with hundreds of them. They can be as overworked as anyone! But the tone in the guy’s post is all wrong. That “I can tell you want this job” bullshit. Like, my friend, I just want A Job. Yours isn’t special, they’re all shit we can acknowledge that. That’s where my mind goes, anyway. Framing this instead the way you do (and the author seemed to try to but couldn’t help putting in a little “tough love” garbage) makes it much more sympathetic and understandable. I’ve read so many of these screeds over the years and the ones that I don’t nope out of immediately don’t come with the sense you’re being talked down to.

by jwr 3y ago

blunderchief 3y ago

See, this gets at the root of my problem with the post. It makes total sense that a recruiter needs to make some adjustments to how they sift through resumes when faced with hundreds of them. They can be as overworked as anyone! But the tone in the guy’s post is all wrong. That “I can tell you want this job” bullshit. Like, my friend, I just want A Job. Yours isn’t special, they’re all shit we can acknowledge that. That’s where my mind goes, anyway. Framing this instead the way you do (and the author seemed to try to but couldn’t help putting in a little “tough love” garbage) makes it much more sympathetic and understandable. I’ve read so many of these screeds over the years and the ones that I don’t nope out of immediately don’t come with the sense you’re being talked down to.