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For the specific reason that resumes are often, if not actually outright faked, at least "enhanced", I've been contemplating starting a business in which I woul

For the specific reason that resumes are often, if not actually outright faked, at least "enhanced", I've been contemplating starting a business in which I would perform resume screening for folks like you, for a fee. I don't really know how to structure it yet. I don't want to be a recruiter or headhunter. What I would like to do is to offer folks such as yourself, who already have resumes, my opinion as to the qualifications of each candidate. I myself got the very highest-paying job of my career, writing Mac OS X I/O Kit Kernel Extensions - what Apple calls device drivers - because I was the first candidate in six months who knew how to do synchronization in the kernel. That's a very basic requirement for writing a device driver, so it's covered in detail, and quite clearly by the tutorials on Apple's developer site. I expect lots of people figured they could get a cushy, high-paying job, so they just added fake device driver work to their resume. Ironically, the guy who asked me that question was their windows driver engineer. More or less the way it would work is that you'd send me some candidate resumes, and I would tell you which ones I think were worth your time to interview. Quite commonly, references are only checked after an interview, as the last step before making an offer. I wouldn't check their references, so as not to annoy them, but would call or email the HR departments at each of the employers the list, to verify their employment. "Did they work for you from this year to that year?" is a simple yes-or-no question. Also I would verify that those who claimed to have college degrees, really graduated. In my entire life, the only time I've been asked to supply my transcripts to anyone, was when I applied to graduate school, and so I could qualify for a discount on my auto insurance. I've never had a potential employer ask for my transcripts. Would you regard such a service as valuable? If so, have you any suggestions as to how I could get started, or how to market such a service? A lot of people have told me I'd make a good headhunter. I expect I would, but I don't want to do that, because I want the whole practice of third-party technical recruitment to just go away.

chrisseaton 12y ago
The only concrete things that you've suggested you would do is call colleges and previous employers' HR departments. That's both pretty trivial, and there are lots of companies that already provide that service. They're usually marketed as background checks to do just before the offer, as you say, but I'm sure they could also do it up front as you're proposing.
- justincormack 12y ago
  HR departments normally have legal advice to say as little as possible. It would be hard to get a tech opinion out of them.
  - chrisseaton 12y ago
    He doesn't want a tech opinion - "Did they work for you from this year to that year?"
  - MichaelCrawford 12y ago
    I once worked for a company that got sued by my predecessor, and won. However they spent so much in legal fees, that the lawsuit nearly bankrupted them. The code that my predecessor wrote worked very poorly, so they got bad press reviews, lots of product returns and so on. I was hired specifically because I said I was really good at debugging. After that, the company owner had a specific policy of not providing references. He gave a very neutral answer: "Our policy is not to provide references." However he was completely cool about verifying employment. His concern of course was that my predecessor would sue him again, were the company owner to give that guy a bad reference. Ironically, that same company owner is one of my own references. He's always happy to say good things about me.
- MichaelCrawford 12y ago
  I've never so much as heard of someone verifying employment and graduation before interviewing a candidate. If it's done at all, it's the last step, after the interview but before the offer. While it's common for references to be contacted, it's quite uncommon for employment to be verified. Note that that's quite a different thing: "Did Bart Simpson do a good job for you?" is checking a reference. "Did Bart Simpson work for your company in 1999?" is verifying employment. One's references must be people who one actually knew, usually direct managers but sometimes coworkers. The person who supplies the employment verification need not have ever met the candidate. And yes I know this is not rocket science - but consider what I just said, that AMCC interviewed candidates for six months before they found someone who actually had done what the claimed, in my case writing OS X drivers. AMCC did a background check on me, but only AFTER I got the job offer, and with my written permission. While it might still have required six months to find a qualified candidate, AMCC could have saved a lot of effort and expense by sending some emails or making some phone calls before inviting candidates in to onsite interviews. Consider that it's quite common to pay for plane fare, car rental and hotel accommodation if the candidate has to travel. The employer still pays even if they don't make an offer.
edoceo 12y ago
I have a tool that does this. I use it to filter all candidates. Saves loads of time
- MichaelCrawford 12y ago
  All the headhunters, and many software companies have resume retrieval databases. One can query for keywords such as "windows device driver" then get all the resumes that have that keyword. But the programs must not be very effective, or perhaps those who use them don't know how to use them correctly. I myself have written some Mac and embedded device drivers, and I've written some Windows GUI applications, but hardly a day goes by without a solicitation for me to apply to a windows device driver job. I expect it's interesting work, but I don't have a clue as to how to write windows device drivers, and never claimed to.

chrisseaton 12y ago

The only concrete things that you've suggested you would do is call colleges and previous employers' HR departments. That's both pretty trivial, and there are lots of companies that already provide that service. They're usually marketed as background checks to do just before the offer, as you say, but I'm sure they could also do it up front as you're proposing.

justincormack 12y ago
HR departments normally have legal advice to say as little as possible. It would be hard to get a tech opinion out of them.
- chrisseaton 12y ago
  He doesn't want a tech opinion - "Did they work for you from this year to that year?"
- MichaelCrawford 12y ago
  I once worked for a company that got sued by my predecessor, and won. However they spent so much in legal fees, that the lawsuit nearly bankrupted them. The code that my predecessor wrote worked very poorly, so they got bad press reviews, lots of product returns and so on. I was hired specifically because I said I was really good at debugging. After that, the company owner had a specific policy of not providing references. He gave a very neutral answer: "Our policy is not to provide references." However he was completely cool about verifying employment. His concern of course was that my predecessor would sue him again, were the company owner to give that guy a bad reference. Ironically, that same company owner is one of my own references. He's always happy to say good things about me.
MichaelCrawford 12y ago
I've never so much as heard of someone verifying employment and graduation before interviewing a candidate. If it's done at all, it's the last step, after the interview but before the offer. While it's common for references to be contacted, it's quite uncommon for employment to be verified. Note that that's quite a different thing: "Did Bart Simpson do a good job for you?" is checking a reference. "Did Bart Simpson work for your company in 1999?" is verifying employment. One's references must be people who one actually knew, usually direct managers but sometimes coworkers. The person who supplies the employment verification need not have ever met the candidate. And yes I know this is not rocket science - but consider what I just said, that AMCC interviewed candidates for six months before they found someone who actually had done what the claimed, in my case writing OS X drivers. AMCC did a background check on me, but only AFTER I got the job offer, and with my written permission. While it might still have required six months to find a qualified candidate, AMCC could have saved a lot of effort and expense by sending some emails or making some phone calls before inviting candidates in to onsite interviews. Consider that it's quite common to pay for plane fare, car rental and hotel accommodation if the candidate has to travel. The employer still pays even if they don't make an offer.

edoceo 12y ago

I have a tool that does this. I use it to filter all candidates. Saves loads of time

MichaelCrawford 12y ago
All the headhunters, and many software companies have resume retrieval databases. One can query for keywords such as "windows device driver" then get all the resumes that have that keyword. But the programs must not be very effective, or perhaps those who use them don't know how to use them correctly. I myself have written some Mac and embedded device drivers, and I've written some Windows GUI applications, but hardly a day goes by without a solicitation for me to apply to a windows device driver job. I expect it's interesting work, but I don't have a clue as to how to write windows device drivers, and never claimed to.