| Topic Name: |
Job Searches |
| Message Name: |
Clue taken |
| Date Posted: |
02/07/2002 |
| In Reply To: |
I do what you probably do when I receive too many resumes: create 3 piles: ounder, over, and just right. If I have a choice between someone with 10 years vs someone with 5yrs, I choose the more experienced. It's simple price/ performance.
I don't know where you live, but it's obviously not CA. Even here, I can get an entry level tech out of college for 25k, a junior level for 35k, and a senior tech for 50-60k. I do -not- need a genius to do this kind of work i.e not even a BSCS.
When you're over 40 (which I am), chances are you might have a mortgage and kids, and God forbid a Life! It's no secret that the ex-CEO of Yahoo is quoted in saying he would never hire anyone over 30. I live next to eBay and I can tell you that the avg age is under 35. These people are cheap because they don't have a life i.e responsiblities. And if they do, it's just the BMW and their girl-friends!
And btw, it's also no secret that the education system sucks these days. The federal govt has said "a BS in 2000 is equivelent to a HS education in 1975". Combine this with Harvard's research that we have just created the least productive generation
-ever-. (You have to factor out the technology)
In Silicon Valley, 100k/yr is barely making it due to the high cost of living. If you think CEO's at Enron are the only immoral, unethical, lying cheating, conartists, must I remind of the dot-com bubble bust?
And who doesn't work for money? Is it a sin to try to get ahead? Granted, most (~75%) of the population is under-employed, but how many people -like- it? |
| Message: |
First of all: I am not an HR worker. I am a techincal manager who is lucky to have a very transparent HR department. Resumes go straight to my desk (yes, the bogus ones, too) and HR only gets involved when it comes to actually hiring somebody. Who was going to get an interview was entirely up to me.
So, that said, I have to clarify a few points in my previous posting. We were hiring to fill positions of a brand new group. The skill levels we were looking for were all across the board (Entry-level, Mid-level, Senior-level). The Jr positions were open for people with, what a surprise, not so much experience: college graduates, people who are interested in a career change, etc. It did not cross my mind once to hire anybody on a higher skill levels. Why, you ask? It's not because I am intimidated by someone who knows more than I do (quite the opposite, I enjoy being around people who can teach me things - Fuck, I even hired people who are paid much better than I am). My goal is to give *everybody* an equal chance to get employed at my place. Why should I pick a Senior guy for a Jr position? What makes the Senior guy more qualified for this position? Why shouldn't I hire someone like a college grad who needs a job as much as anybody else does? As you can see, I don't really care about how much money I could save by going with a Sr tech; the salary ranges are set and have to be obeyed anyway. I care about what I can do to make my company an attractive place to work at. Compensation is not everything.
So, in my eyes, being over-qualified is *not* a bullshit reason. If someone is willing to take a pay cut and do some less challenging work than they used to do, fine. But they have to prove themselves that they really want it. Adjust your resume in a way that it matches the job description. That will give you a job interview faster.
Right now, there are so many unemployed high-tech worker out there (many among them entirely unqualified to get any job in my group) that applicants have to "fight" for a job. Represent yourself more appropriate than the other potential applicants and you will succeed.
Oh btw: I got laid off last year, too. It took me a lot of sweat, a lot of nerves, and many many rewrites of my resume before I found this position here. I really do understand where you guys are all coming from but I must say that the employers are not necessarily all evil. If they tell you that you are not qualified (be it under or over) then you are ust not a good fit for that position. Unfortunately, the legal system here in the US makes it damn hard to tell somebody the real truth why he/she did not get the job. If you tell somebody that his/her personality just doesn't fit I won't be surprised that some will let their lawyers do the talking back.
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