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The experiment looks flawed. It seems that ALL (or almost all) resumes are, at least, OK. Resumes can work for weeding out bad fits, or people doing things cle

by stared 12y ago

The experiment looks flawed. It seems that ALL (or almost all) resumes are, at least, OK. Resumes can work for weeding out bad fits, or people doing things clearly out of the scope of interest. They are not, and cannot, be a tool for choosing the best. (Unless success is so spectacular, that you know the person by name anyway.) It's HR's delusion that previous -perceived- presented achievements written on one's resume can serve well for predicting future achievements in our company. So, don't overoptimize it an do technical interviews with people actually working on a given technical problem.

hessenwolf 12y ago
But can we have technical interviews instead of brain-teasers? Maybe it is just me, but I don't do puzzles. I solve big problems, and I have a track record of being very successful at it. I juggle people, and tools, and objectives, and timelines, and get things done. I like projects, and I am not afraid of hard work. If I like the objective of a project, I will wade through human vomit to get it done. Brain teasers are none of that for me. They are some kind of parlor-trick brain-test. I am not necessarily bad at them... but I am just a bit better than okay. I do not want to have to practice them just to get past an interview.
- wallflower 12y ago
  https://signalvnoise.com/posts/3660-the-person-theyll-become https://signalvnoise.com/posts/3660-the-person-theyll-become
  - hessenwolf 12y ago
    Interesting, and a point I agree with, but I don't see how it relates to the above?
- LordHumungous 12y ago
  Most companies don't do brain teasers any more. That was a fad from the 00's.
  - hessenwolf 12y ago
    Google offered me one two weeks ago. Meanwhile, another company expects me to have a presentation on how I will bring a statistical modelling framework to capital optimisation, making sure to mention big data for marketing purposes. The presentation is quite manageable. The brain teasers I said no thank you to, because I would probably just make a balls of it and feel bad for two days.
kabdib 12y ago
There were one or two turkeys in my string of samples, but for the most part the candidates were worth a phone screen.
Cakez0r 12y ago
It was about 50/50 for the 6 samples I was given.
itsdrewmiller 12y ago
I don't know if "flawed" is the right word, but I do agree that the conclusion is probably a little too absolute. Even if resumes can't distinguish between good and bad engineers among those minimally qualified to apply for jobs, they still help you avoid people who are just completely obviously not qualified and who don't understand what the job even is.
vonmoltke 12y ago
> The experiment looks flawed. It seems that ALL (or almost all) resumes are, at least, OK. That is the point. The experiment was to determine who various people would call for an interview, not hire. Nearly every resume was worth a phone screen, yet on average half of them were rejected for that stage.

by stared 12y ago

hessenwolf 12y ago

But can we have technical interviews instead of brain-teasers? Maybe it is just me, but I don't do puzzles. I solve big problems, and I have a track record of being very successful at it. I juggle people, and tools, and objectives, and timelines, and get things done. I like projects, and I am not afraid of hard work. If I like the objective of a project, I will wade through human vomit to get it done. Brain teasers are none of that for me. They are some kind of parlor-trick brain-test. I am not necessarily bad at them... but I am just a bit better than okay. I do not want to have to practice them just to get past an interview.

wallflower 12y ago
https://signalvnoise.com/posts/3660-the-person-theyll-become https://signalvnoise.com/posts/3660-the-person-theyll-become
- hessenwolf 12y ago
  Interesting, and a point I agree with, but I don't see how it relates to the above?
LordHumungous 12y ago
Most companies don't do brain teasers any more. That was a fad from the 00's.
- hessenwolf 12y ago
  Google offered me one two weeks ago. Meanwhile, another company expects me to have a presentation on how I will bring a statistical modelling framework to capital optimisation, making sure to mention big data for marketing purposes. The presentation is quite manageable. The brain teasers I said no thank you to, because I would probably just make a balls of it and feel bad for two days.

kabdib 12y ago

There were one or two turkeys in my string of samples, but for the most part the candidates were worth a phone screen.

Cakez0r 12y ago

It was about 50/50 for the 6 samples I was given.

itsdrewmiller 12y ago

I don't know if "flawed" is the right word, but I do agree that the conclusion is probably a little too absolute. Even if resumes can't distinguish between good and bad engineers among those minimally qualified to apply for jobs, they still help you avoid people who are just completely obviously not qualified and who don't understand what the job even is.

vonmoltke 12y ago

> The experiment looks flawed. It seems that ALL (or almost all) resumes are, at least, OK. That is the point. The experiment was to determine who various people would call for an interview, not hire. Nearly every resume was worth a phone screen, yet on average half of them were rejected for that stage.