[ale] Resume formatting (was: Anyone looking for a new gig?)

Jim Kinney jim.kinney at gmail.com
Mon Oct 13 15:29:44 EDT 2008


A recruiter is similar to a sales rep. If a sales rep doesn't know their
product line, how can they provide their customer with the best product for
their need? They can't. They will just try and make the highest commission
sale they can. That doesn't benefit the customer.

Granted, a recruiter is most likely talking to a company HR person who most
likely has no idea what anything is on the specs list they publish. That is
the other side of this on-going problem. It isn't animosity towards a
recruiter but rather a disdain for the uninformed. It is always encouraging
to see a "clueless newbie" pop up on ALE and start asking question that we
have discussed ad infinitum, ad nasueum. They want to learn. Pointers to
knowledge are good as well as direct answers when available. Even better
when one of those nubes later posts a job description that shows they have
learned a bit of the relations between various packages and tools and
distros, etc.

I also think that only the employed or uninterested will generally dismiss a
recruiter for reasons of cluelessness. Bear in mind, this thread began
because of an exceptionally harsh response to a job posting on the list. We
are now discussing a personal response to a most likely unsolicited recuiter
contact.  I have received cold-contacts that went to the bit bucket, some
that were replied to tersely with a "not interested" and a smattering few
that got a more detailed, and strongly toned, "my public work history
screams loudly that I don't do windows so why do you keep pestering me with
windows jobs". At that point I _do_ make it plain that lack of knowledge in
the IT field of the various platforms and environments makes for a poor
performance on the part of the recruiter.

2008/10/13 Jeff Lightner <jlightner at water.com>

>   I find it amusing that folks seem to treat recruiters as the enemy
> rather than a first step to get in the door.
>
>
>
> Is it really that hard to say "sorry not interested" when asked about a job
> for which you have no interest or qualification?
>
>
>
> Expecting them to know as much about every job they represent as the
> potential candidates seems to require a divine status that few could
> achieve.
>
>
>
> The only recruiters that ever really annoyed me were the ones that were
> clearly mining me for information rather than sending leads my way.
> Luckily they are few and far between.   You learn very quickly to not answer
> questions about who you're interviewing with and only tell them if they
> happen to mention a job that sounds similar to one you're already being
> presented for.
>
>
>  ------------------------------
>
> *From:* ale-bounces at ale.org [mailto:ale-bounces at ale.org] *On Behalf Of *Jim
> Kinney
> *Sent:* Monday, October 13, 2008 2:22 PM
> *To:* ale at ale.org
> *Subject:* Re: [ale] Resume formatting (was: Anyone looking for a new
> gig?)
>
>
>
>
>
> On Mon, Oct 13, 2008 at 2:11 PM, Robert Reese~ <ale at sixit.com> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
> Unfortunately, when exporting to Word, OOo doesn't have the ability to
> password-protect the document to prevent it from being altered.  To
> compensate, I'm thinking the route to go is to play dumb and send the resume
> as a bitmap image inside the Word doc with an alter-resistant background.
>  My guess is at that point the recruiter has a few choices: ask you to make
> the changes and resubmit it, OCR it and change it him or herself, round-file
> it, alter it without regard as to whether the employer is going to notice,
> or send it in as-is.
>
>
> Can you elaborate on how to make an alter-resistant background with the
> gimp. It will be added to my bag of (evil to windblows lusers) tricks.
>
> That ranks up there with having a copyright notice on the resume.
>
>
>
> Cheers,
> Robert~
>
>
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>
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> --
> James P. Kinney III
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-- 
-- 
James P. Kinney III
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