No More Resumes

Posted At : January 21, 2010 1:28 PM | Posted By : Admin
Related Categories: Project Management

We're looking to hire some developers. The first person I thought of was my friend, Ben Edwards. In talking with Ben, he had an unusual -- and I think brilliant -- idea about resumes: kill them all.

Why? Resumes suck. The typical developer resume shows proficiency in 14 languages (including HTML!) Why so many? Because the typical job posting is even more ridiculous...

Position: Junior Software Developer

Salary: $45,000/hr DOE

Skills Required: Assembly, C++, Java, Erlang, Clojure, C#, Python, Ruby, Smalltalk, Oracle, MySQL, Postgres, SQL Server, etc., etc.

So, the only sane thing for a job applicant to do is to "fudge" their resumes. Who does this serve? No one. Ben's idea? Create a web-based form that lets job applicants share their thoughts in the context of an application for a specific position.

What a great idea! I used Wufoo.com for this (also Ben's idea). If you'd like to take a look at my first draft for a database dude/dudette, you can see it here. The job is in Kansas City, MO, btw.

If you haven't used Wufoo before, it's pretty cool.

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Hall, I'd have to agree with you about resumes, from the job hunter's perspective.

# Posted By Lola LB | 1/21/10 2:01 PM

Hal, I really like the 'application'. I would expect you to get much better information and a better feel for people than just reading a bunch of resumes. I know my resume is a lot more for show than substance, but in dealing with business managers, that is what it takes sometimes.

# Posted By Jeff Chastain | 1/21/10 2:09 PM

I dig it Hal. I think this is a much better way to prospect for talent. I'm one of those developers with no college education but lots of self education. It makes me smile when I find an employer who looks at capabilities of a person rather than degrees held.

# Posted By Steve Good | 1/21/10 2:11 PM

Resumes are so outmoded. They came from a time where interactivity wasn't possible. They linger on like zombies. And they eat your brains. Definitely zombies.

# Posted By Hal Helms | 1/21/10 2:13 PM

I agree that resumes are outdated and like this approach.

Out of interest, did you pre-select the radio buttons or is that a feature of the browser/software? I ask because pre-selected answers seems to suggest a preference on your part.

# Posted By Sam Farmer | 1/21/10 2:59 PM

Love it Hal! I was recently in the job market and the job apps I enjoyed most where ones like these. So it actually helps you stand out as a company to the potential employers too. Often times I would refuse to fill out apps due to the fact that they wanted my resume and wanted me to fill out a 5 page form with the same info. This approach is very refreshing on all sides!

# Posted By Tony Snyder | 1/21/10 3:09 PM

Hal,

I really like this approach. My one concern is how to whittle down a very high number of responses.

The few times that I have been involved in hiring, I have dealt with such a large number of resumes that my primary goal became reducing them to a manageable number.

I suspect that the very act of answering these questions will do a good job in reducing quantity, but if you still have a high response rate (sufficient that reading each response would be untenable) then how would you plan to filter them?

# Posted By Steve Bryant | 1/21/10 3:51 PM

@Sam, Wufoo randomizes the selection in order to prevent systemic bias.

# Posted By Hal Helms | 1/21/10 9:02 PM

@Steve, it looks like Wufoo has a method of filtering responses. Not sure exactly how it works, but I'll be happy to read them all over to get the person that matches best what we're looking for.

# Posted By Hal Helms | 1/21/10 9:03 PM

Hal, I completely agree. But, even more than resumes, you bring up another great point: how ridiculous many job post are! I can't get over how many times a job posts tends to imply that the applicant must be a master in multiple fields. It's daunting enough to scare off the most seasoned individual (assuming that they even think your job post is for real).

Good luck finding someone. I think your approach is the best way.

# Posted By Ben Nadel | 1/23/10 9:51 PM

One reason people pad their resumes is that with many companies, the first step in the hiring process is an HR bot that doesn't know what any of the technologies actually mean, but simply screens for key words.

So, the person who wrote the posting for that C++ position might have thought, "yeah, we use Microsoft Office here, so whatever, I'll put that on the required skills list." Now the idiot from HR starts discarding resumes from anyone that didn't specifically say they know Office. So just to be on the safe side, some people will put that on there.

re: Ben's comment about ridiculous posts: there's a job posting right now at the company I work for. It's for a help desk job. They want either four years of experience plus a BS degree, or a master's degree. A master's degree! For a helpdesk job that pays $30k.

# Posted By chris | 1/25/10 3:26 PM

The problem with you Hal is that you don't understand people from the HR/MBA mindset. You forget that people are just numbers. Developers can easily be dragged/dropped into neatly defined job classifications. Resumes are very important because they define who the job applicant is. If I see a string of programming languages, I know if the candidate fits the assigned job code for the opening. If no resumes match my job code, I need to keep looking until that perfect person appears. So you need to put your MBA spectacles on when entering the hiring process, otherwise you'll screw it all up!

Ok, for the slow among us, I WAS being sarcastic with everything I said above.

# Posted By Jake Munson | 1/25/10 5:30 PM

@Jake, See I *knew* I had missed something! I get it now. Hiring is kind of like doing a crossword puzzle. Whew! So, all I need to do is keep piling requirements on the job posting, like @chris related, and I'll get the perfect person! Sweet! Now, to erase this entire post lest I reveal my ignorance to any others...

;-)

# Posted By Hal Helms | 1/25/10 6:35 PM

I'm personally a fan of resumes because of their flexible nature. I have two methods for getting keywords onto a resume without lying: 1) Under the skills section, have a category called "familiar with..." (you did look up the keyword in Wikipedia, right?), or 2) Place a "keywords" section at the very bottom of the resume that lists all the keywords on the job posting. You are not indicating what your relationship is with those keywords, if any, but it will get your resume onto the "forward to hiring manager" pile.

# Posted By Webigail | 3/14/10 3:00 PM

I love what you did with that form. It's about getting the candidate to talk about what they've done that is relevant to the requisition at hand.

While the listing of skills on a resume is pretty much a meaningless game at this point, I don't think resumes are completely useless. They can be quite useful in speaking to what someone has done in the past beyond programming languages. Software engineering encompasses far, far more than just writing code, after all.

# Posted By Allen | 4/14/10 7:57 PM

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