2 ms·

Sadly one of the biggest problems I have found regarding Resumes/CV's in the IT industry and companies is the rise of HR departments who will just word filter t

by Zenst 12y ago

Sadly one of the biggest problems I have found regarding Resumes/CV's in the IT industry and companies is the rise of HR departments who will just word filter the candidates and even remove people they deem not suitable. Even the classic case of filtering out people they deem `overqualified`, which sadly means the IT manager most often does not get to even see or known about the better candidates and ends up with a selection picked by HR people who know nothing of the work involved. I for one welcome phone interaction and tests, though not all tests perfect and found many flawed tests and errors in tests in the past. Some companies appreciate when you tell them of mistakes and others will hold it against you, though again, found HR departments if you point out a mistake will not take it onboard and take it as criticism and in a negative way and hold that against you. So for me, I do feel HR departments play too large a part in recruitment in IT than their skillsets entail. Not saying a golden solution, but I do feel that many recruitment processes have gone down hill with HR wedging themselves into the process more and more and filtering out candidates that the manager doing the recruiting, never even knows about. Though this is all based upon my experience and I'm sure others had different views. But for me, having been turned down for a job for being overqualified and case of you actually knowing the manager and he never even got to see your CV, well, sadly I know it is very true and happens.

nguyenm 12y ago
Yeah agree. Am trying to bootstrap a startup around crowd sourcing the interview process as a potential solution to the disconnect between recruiters and hiring managers. Could always use some more thought partners on it for the interested (see profile for my contact). Sorry, no website yet (busy on an mvp) but hopefully soon.
raverbashing 12y ago
"I for one welcome phone interaction and tests" Yes, but you can't call everybody that sent you a CV. RH filtering sucks, but is needed usually. Of course there are false positives and negatives Yes, RH might miss a J2EE expert for a position requiring Java experience, but these days companies search from big databases (Linkedin/Indeed) so this type of grepping is usually needed.
freshflowers 12y ago
It this really a problem? Because most of us wouldn't want to work for a company with such a broken hiring process, it's a big red flag for a lot of other things being wrong in they way they treat their tech people. And those who do want to get in should be smart enough to play the game and cater their resumes to those HR practices. If you can't or won't, you probably wouldn't happy or successful working for such a company. As far as I'm concerned, any recruitment process is essentially self-selecting: it will attract and pass the candidates that are a good fit for the company. If a company finds it can't get the right candidates, they should take a step back and look at their entire company culture. Broken HR processes are a symptom, not the root cause. And it's a filter that works both ways, preventing naive candidates form inadvertently getting hired for jobs that will make them miserable.
- Zenst 12y ago
  I agree, though for many companies recruiting those fields of work have long established institutions and recognised exams, be those lawyers or accountants. now IT has its own institutions and exams but the difference is, those change so frequently or that anything with credibility has changed or indeed expired due to technology changes at a frequency higher than the educational process too learn those skills fully. Accountant exams and lawyers as the best examples have not changed. So for HR to see filter is not only easy but obvious process in such stable measures. In IT those change so much that it is mostly recruitment agency input that has those factored into requirements and as for agencies. Well some good at filtering and know the trades and others mostly work upon (1) get CV's (2) get companies (3) push CV's and effort done by wine and dine approach with HR. So not only is it the HR department but the agency factor and in the web based direction the added level of filtering does get down to keywords still and little if not mostly none at all human sanity by somebody who knows the role and can see the signs of somebody who knows the skills. Then keywords do not bestow what level of competence and that varies greatly as we all know. This all said sometimes the gains outway the broken HR if you get an offer and not every time do you have the luxury of saying no. Though as a personal anecdote I once had a job interview with a company and got there on time, left waiting and eventually HR bod came down and said fill this in (form which was all details upon my CV), so I ask can I just attach my CV you already have and told no. So I had to fill out in pen on a form that you just know somebody will have to type into a system, details already upon my CV. Did that, still waiting for HR bod to return. They return then have interview with HR. Was very belittling with much attitude of thats a lot for money for somebody your age and in short really off putting attitude. I then saw the boss of the IT department, was interview with him and IT contractor, not only aced the interview and blew them away but taught them things as well like undocumented debug modes in software they used (dataease so talking 90's here). Given the contractor was a `specialist` in this product he was mind blown. Also the small bonus skills I totally aced, in short a perfect interview at every level. Not only was I offered the job before I got home from the interview but they had offered 20% more than the agency had put me forward for and that HR person had been so much attitude towards me (I was early 20's). It just totally put me off, and turned it down, just due to that HR experience. Though have many other HR anecdotes, some good and some bad, as we all do and shall not mention the posture nazi's for want of a better term.

by Zenst 12y ago

nguyenm 12y ago

Yeah agree. Am trying to bootstrap a startup around crowd sourcing the interview process as a potential solution to the disconnect between recruiters and hiring managers. Could always use some more thought partners on it for the interested (see profile for my contact). Sorry, no website yet (busy on an mvp) but hopefully soon.

raverbashing 12y ago

"I for one welcome phone interaction and tests" Yes, but you can't call everybody that sent you a CV. RH filtering sucks, but is needed usually. Of course there are false positives and negatives Yes, RH might miss a J2EE expert for a position requiring Java experience, but these days companies search from big databases (Linkedin/Indeed) so this type of grepping is usually needed.

freshflowers 12y ago

It this really a problem? Because most of us wouldn't want to work for a company with such a broken hiring process, it's a big red flag for a lot of other things being wrong in they way they treat their tech people. And those who do want to get in should be smart enough to play the game and cater their resumes to those HR practices. If you can't or won't, you probably wouldn't happy or successful working for such a company. As far as I'm concerned, any recruitment process is essentially self-selecting: it will attract and pass the candidates that are a good fit for the company. If a company finds it can't get the right candidates, they should take a step back and look at their entire company culture. Broken HR processes are a symptom, not the root cause. And it's a filter that works both ways, preventing naive candidates form inadvertently getting hired for jobs that will make them miserable.

Zenst 12y ago
I agree, though for many companies recruiting those fields of work have long established institutions and recognised exams, be those lawyers or accountants. now IT has its own institutions and exams but the difference is, those change so frequently or that anything with credibility has changed or indeed expired due to technology changes at a frequency higher than the educational process too learn those skills fully. Accountant exams and lawyers as the best examples have not changed. So for HR to see filter is not only easy but obvious process in such stable measures. In IT those change so much that it is mostly recruitment agency input that has those factored into requirements and as for agencies. Well some good at filtering and know the trades and others mostly work upon (1) get CV's (2) get companies (3) push CV's and effort done by wine and dine approach with HR. So not only is it the HR department but the agency factor and in the web based direction the added level of filtering does get down to keywords still and little if not mostly none at all human sanity by somebody who knows the role and can see the signs of somebody who knows the skills. Then keywords do not bestow what level of competence and that varies greatly as we all know. This all said sometimes the gains outway the broken HR if you get an offer and not every time do you have the luxury of saying no. Though as a personal anecdote I once had a job interview with a company and got there on time, left waiting and eventually HR bod came down and said fill this in (form which was all details upon my CV), so I ask can I just attach my CV you already have and told no. So I had to fill out in pen on a form that you just know somebody will have to type into a system, details already upon my CV. Did that, still waiting for HR bod to return. They return then have interview with HR. Was very belittling with much attitude of thats a lot for money for somebody your age and in short really off putting attitude. I then saw the boss of the IT department, was interview with him and IT contractor, not only aced the interview and blew them away but taught them things as well like undocumented debug modes in software they used (dataease so talking 90's here). Given the contractor was a `specialist` in this product he was mind blown. Also the small bonus skills I totally aced, in short a perfect interview at every level. Not only was I offered the job before I got home from the interview but they had offered 20% more than the agency had put me forward for and that HR person had been so much attitude towards me (I was early 20's). It just totally put me off, and turned it down, just due to that HR experience. Though have many other HR anecdotes, some good and some bad, as we all do and shall not mention the posture nazi's for want of a better term.