The Old Joel on Software Forum: Part 3 (of 5)

why the disparity?

My guess is because the article makes several good points and provides good advice to job seekers but at the same time takes a snide and derogatory attitude towards those who require the advice.

name withheld out of cowardice
Monday, January 26, 2004

Dude! What are you talking about?

George
Monday, January 26, 2004

Here's the formula:

Let x be the number of resumes that you, as a job-seeker, have sent out to companies and never got a response to.

Let y be the number of resumes that you, as a job-poster, had to throw away without responding to them.

If x < y, you liked the article.

Mike Schiraldi
Monday, January 26, 2004

George, I'm not sure which point you object to so:

Snide and derogotory: "OK, that's nice, hon, you stay there."

Good advice:

"If you don't have the right qualifications, don't apply for the job."

Let me know if you require further clarification and/or additional examples.

name withheld out of cowardice
Monday, January 26, 2004

George:

It occurred to me that what you meant was, "what is this in response to". Look at Joel's latest article/rant. He asks why there are such disparate responses to it. That is what the topic refers to.

name withheld out of cowardice
Monday, January 26, 2004

Probably because so many people are out of work still and this advice is the hard truth that is hard for people to hear. On the other hand, it is good to know so many people submit crap resumes, which improves my odds.

m
Monday, January 26, 2004

The last sentence of the dissenting comment was

> PLease take me off you maliing list.

3 mistakes -- I don't understand why Joel even read then without immediately deleting it :)

Everybody who has hired anyone after putting out an ad knows that you get way too many resumes to carefully consider each one. You have to pick a filtering mechanism just to make it manageable. I have thrown away resumes on weird colored paper or in script font or in all-caps. I threw away a resume for being too long. Spelling mistakes, grammar mistakes, overly detailed descriptions of McJobs you had in highschool before your real jobs -- buh-bye

Lou Franco
Monday, January 26, 2004

I'm with M and Name Withheld. Also, it has nothing to do with an elite company or anything else. Its all supply and demand, and our industry isn't exactly booming.

The cost in time and disruption to normal work involved with seriously considering 30 people for a position is tremendous. 5 times that number is out of the question.

What he didn't tell you is that many companies draw them out of a hat at random.

Scot
Monday, January 26, 2004

> Why the disparity?

Here are the parts that I didn't like about this article.

> At least technically, your résumé has to be perfect to survive.

Define or explain what you mean by <i>perfect</i>, or reword this sentence.

> If you don't have the right qualifications, don't apply for the job. When the job listing says "summer intern," don't ask for a full time job.

Is it bad to apply for a different (unadvertised) job? Bad for the applicant?

> Attention, the entire population of India

Attention, the entire population of America: avoid stereotyping.

> The personal pronoun "I" is always capitalized.

This is only one of many, many rules of correct usage.

> Someone who got really good grades in English.

You put this in for shock value (it's oration), but it would be more informative to adopt the same 'tone' in the article as you would like to read in a cover letter.

> I don't think there's ever a reason to apply for more than three or four jobs at a time.

I can accept that you don't, but many other people do.

> You want to look like you are good enough to be in heavy demand.

You also want to get replies from the people you write to, which doesn't happen if you don't write.

Christopher Wells
Monday, January 26, 2004

Attention, the entire population of people known as Christopher Wells, and everyone else suffering from his particular disorder:

Get a sense of humour. Stereotyping is bad, yes, that's right. You're all such wonderful and sensitive people I could cry. Being so uptight that a team of proctologists can't help you see daylight, however, is also bad.

Try to relax a little, ok?

No?

Ah well, I hope the stress makes your life better.

Monday, January 26, 2004