The job hunt is not fun for anyone. You tweak your resume to look hoity toity - synonyming every verb to give maximum punch. You drop your current friendships into the sacrificial volcano of 'business contacts' - and feel like you're doing dirty murder in the process. You spend hours perusing job listings and writing and re-writing cover letters and that ol resume, to look like you are the guy reincarnate who just left the job.
The employer side isn't much better. You try and imagine the requirements of this ideal future candidate. You wait on HR to screen the butt-load that come in. You go over the shortlist trying to find that one person who isn't going to be a pain in your side for years to come. You interview and try to size up someone based on 15 minutes, extrapolating interview skills to fork-lift driving skills (or whatever it is). And maybe you feel like a horrible person smashing each candidate's orb of hopes and dreams with your baseball bat of reality.
It takes forever and is rarely any fun. And despite all these prerequisites, how often does the right person get the right job? Only about some-that-I-should-look-up% of the time.
What you really want to do is steal that one girl from the neighboring department. Everyone likes her. And she's good, you've seen her stuff. And she has a personality that you could really get along with, yea even enjoy. How awesome would it be to have her on the team.
Am I making broad assumptions here about the hiring process, the table of which I have only been on one side? Yes, yes I am. If you know otherwise, correct me.
The answer to this dilemma is surely multifaceted, but here is perhaps a solution to part of it.
So, my resume is a mess. I'm the guy who didn't have a "clear trajectory" in my development path. In fact, I always envied the people who knew in middle school exactly what they wanted to do (besides astronaut and mermaid). But alas, that wasn't me and I flip-flopped from engineer to artist, to filmmaker, to public healther. When employers and worse yet, people trying to help me out, see my resume they let out a big breath and say, "okay, hmm. Where should we start..."
And yet, I'm brilliant at what I do (don't laugh). No really. I think there are loads of people out there who are the types that employers want, but "don't look good on paper". But actually they would probably do pretty well in an interview with the right kind of open-minded employer. In fact, I'll take it a step further. I'll say the truly innovative, truly game-changing, truly interesting and creative employees don't have such a clear-cut resume. Sure, if you want a guy to be exactly like the guy that just retired, yes, use the traditional hiring means to get someone who matches that exactly. But if you want to stay cutting edge competitive, you have to hire in ways you haven't done before. (At least, for my sake, I hope these theories are true.)
Finally, jeez, am I going to get to my idea? Well, almost. Lastly, I hate LinkedIn and the like. I feel so cheap and salesy on those things. I feel like if I don't have a studioed head-shot I'll be put to the bottom of the list. And the regular emails that pep me up with "stand out from the pack" type phrases, do nothing for me. Probably because I know in my heart of hearts, my resume can't stand out, because I can't say "ivy league" or "supervisor" or "cum laude" on there without being a bald-faced liar.
So, how about a type of linked in for the "bad on paper" crowd? One where you can effectively "interview" each other and identify the strengths of each person. Could we rate each other? If I were hiring a programmer and I saw someone's ranking on stackoverflow I'd have a pretty good idea how useful they are (and how much time they answer people's questions for free.) Perhaps a bigger focus on ideas and outside-the-box stuff rather than touting inflated accomplishments. It would be the kind of place a brand-new start-up would find partners rather than an established company would fill functions.
And then could finding a job be . . . fun?
The employer side isn't much better. You try and imagine the requirements of this ideal future candidate. You wait on HR to screen the butt-load that come in. You go over the shortlist trying to find that one person who isn't going to be a pain in your side for years to come. You interview and try to size up someone based on 15 minutes, extrapolating interview skills to fork-lift driving skills (or whatever it is). And maybe you feel like a horrible person smashing each candidate's orb of hopes and dreams with your baseball bat of reality.
It takes forever and is rarely any fun. And despite all these prerequisites, how often does the right person get the right job? Only about some-that-I-should-look-up% of the time.
What you really want to do is steal that one girl from the neighboring department. Everyone likes her. And she's good, you've seen her stuff. And she has a personality that you could really get along with, yea even enjoy. How awesome would it be to have her on the team.
Am I making broad assumptions here about the hiring process, the table of which I have only been on one side? Yes, yes I am. If you know otherwise, correct me.
The answer to this dilemma is surely multifaceted, but here is perhaps a solution to part of it.
So, my resume is a mess. I'm the guy who didn't have a "clear trajectory" in my development path. In fact, I always envied the people who knew in middle school exactly what they wanted to do (besides astronaut and mermaid). But alas, that wasn't me and I flip-flopped from engineer to artist, to filmmaker, to public healther. When employers and worse yet, people trying to help me out, see my resume they let out a big breath and say, "okay, hmm. Where should we start..."
And yet, I'm brilliant at what I do (don't laugh). No really. I think there are loads of people out there who are the types that employers want, but "don't look good on paper". But actually they would probably do pretty well in an interview with the right kind of open-minded employer. In fact, I'll take it a step further. I'll say the truly innovative, truly game-changing, truly interesting and creative employees don't have such a clear-cut resume. Sure, if you want a guy to be exactly like the guy that just retired, yes, use the traditional hiring means to get someone who matches that exactly. But if you want to stay cutting edge competitive, you have to hire in ways you haven't done before. (At least, for my sake, I hope these theories are true.)
Finally, jeez, am I going to get to my idea? Well, almost. Lastly, I hate LinkedIn and the like. I feel so cheap and salesy on those things. I feel like if I don't have a studioed head-shot I'll be put to the bottom of the list. And the regular emails that pep me up with "stand out from the pack" type phrases, do nothing for me. Probably because I know in my heart of hearts, my resume can't stand out, because I can't say "ivy league" or "supervisor" or "cum laude" on there without being a bald-faced liar.
So, how about a type of linked in for the "bad on paper" crowd? One where you can effectively "interview" each other and identify the strengths of each person. Could we rate each other? If I were hiring a programmer and I saw someone's ranking on stackoverflow I'd have a pretty good idea how useful they are (and how much time they answer people's questions for free.) Perhaps a bigger focus on ideas and outside-the-box stuff rather than touting inflated accomplishments. It would be the kind of place a brand-new start-up would find partners rather than an established company would fill functions.
And then could finding a job be . . . fun?
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