Comments on: Job Search http://www.brendonwilson.com/blog/2003/10/08/job-search/ The personal web site of Brendon J. Wilson, a software developer, technologist, and entrepreneur living in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Mon, 06 Sep 2010 10:19:44 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Tom Weir http://www.brendonwilson.com/blog/2003/10/08/job-search/comment-page-1/#comment-148 Tom Weir Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.brendonwilson.com/blog/?p=117#comment-148 The question is: how would you get critical mass for such a system? Especially without the support of said recruiters. Both sides of the equation require maximum eyeball exposure from their tools, and any new network isn't going to going to give that exposure initially (ye olde <a href="http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_effec6t"> network effect</a>). One potential solution: find niche sectors (possibly academia) that have: a) technically adept individuals (yes, I realize this conflicts with the academia suggestion) b) a well defined job market with well defined requirements, and a finite number of openings and qualified applicants. Another potentially interesting idea that could be layered on top of your idea: reference checking. I would be interested to know much time HR folks spend just checking the facts on a resume. Couple that with the fact that many company's references consist of 'person xyz was employed by this firm from this date to that date', this is something that is potentially quite automatable. Add digital signatures, and you've got something that companies can trust. This is also potentially a revenue source: say you worked for a company that hasn't bought into this digital reference checking BS, creating an annoying 'analog' hole in your resume. What if some (reliable) third party was to do that reference check, and then publish that information on your behalf. That service could either be paid for by the applicant (up front, or per access (pre-paid of course;)), or the hiring company (per access or annual service agreement). It might even be possible to do a combination of the too pricing models. Anyways, that's enough pre-caffeine blather. The question is: how would you get critical mass for such a system? Especially without the support of said recruiters. Both sides of the equation require maximum eyeball exposure from their tools, and any new network isn’t going to going to give that exposure initially (ye olde network effect).

One potential solution: find niche sectors (possibly academia) that have:
a) technically adept individuals (yes, I realize this conflicts with the academia suggestion)
b) a well defined job market with well defined requirements, and a finite number of openings and qualified applicants.

Another potentially interesting idea that could be layered on top of your idea: reference checking. I would be interested to know much time HR folks spend just checking the facts on a resume. Couple that with the fact that many company’s references consist of ‘person xyz was employed by this firm from this date to that date’, this is something that is potentially quite automatable. Add digital signatures, and you’ve got something that companies can trust. This is also potentially a revenue source: say you worked for a company that hasn’t bought into this digital reference checking BS, creating an annoying ‘analog’ hole in your resume. What if some (reliable) third party was to do that reference check, and then publish that information on your behalf. That service could either be paid for by the applicant (up front, or per access (pre-paid of course;)), or the hiring company (per access or annual service agreement). It might even be possible to do a combination of the too pricing models.

Anyways, that’s enough pre-caffeine blather.

]]> By: Andrew Tinka http://www.brendonwilson.com/blog/2003/10/08/job-search/comment-page-1/#comment-149 Andrew Tinka Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.brendonwilson.com/blog/?p=117#comment-149 I don't think the information contained in resumes can be pigeonholed into a uniform category scheme. Attempting to create the "universal resume template" just reveals your own biases about what makes a good job candidate. There's one standard third-party recruitement package, I think it's "webhire.com", that a lot of employers use to collect information from prospective employees. While looking for junior engineering positions, I ran into this exact same web form about a dozen times. Each time I felt screwed, because the form had obviously been written with I.T. recruitment in mind. A lot of the questions were designed to bring out the kinds of things that make a good I.T. candidate but which are less appropriate for engineers; correspondingly, there was a lot less emphasis on the qualifications that are important in engineering. I don't know if the people reviewing the information were smart enough to compensate, but I was leaving a lot of boxes blank while being pinched on word-count in areas that were very important. The cynic's view is that a resume is just a piece of paper designed to get an interview. Automated resume processing and mechanical categorizing just make it more of a meaningless game. I don’t think the information contained in resumes can be pigeonholed into a uniform category scheme. Attempting to create the “universal resume template” just reveals your own biases about what makes a good job candidate.

There’s one standard third-party recruitement package, I think it’s “webhire.com”, that a lot of employers use to collect information from prospective employees. While looking for junior engineering positions, I ran into this exact same web form about a dozen times. Each time I felt screwed, because the form had obviously been written with I.T. recruitment in mind.

A lot of the questions were designed to bring out the kinds of things that make a good I.T. candidate but which are less appropriate for engineers; correspondingly, there was a lot less emphasis on the qualifications that are important in engineering. I don’t know if the people reviewing the information were smart enough to compensate, but I was leaving a lot of boxes blank while being pinched on word-count in areas that were very important.

The cynic’s view is that a resume is just a piece of paper designed to get an interview. Automated resume processing and mechanical categorizing just make it more of a meaningless game.

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