As a manager who conducts lots of interviews, I’d like to offer some general advice to job seekers out there. This is targeted mostly at .NET engineers, but much of the advice could apply to most techies.
To give you some background, I have close to 20 years of experience in the software field, and currently focus on ASP.NET and Windows technologies. I have sat many times on both sides of the interviewing table -- probably 20+ times as a candidate, and close to 100 times as an interviewer. I estimate that I have screened some 500+ resumes in total.
So here are some points I’d like to get across:
1. The job market, as of Spring 2008 in Southern California, at least for experienced .NET engineers, is still very hot. I can’t speak for other technologies or other areas. Of course, if you don’t have the skills in demand, the market may still seem quite slow.
2. Resumes do not need to be longer than two pages. Typically a screener will only skim a resume for 15-30 seconds on average, and won’t look past the first couple of pages. I’ve seen resumes as long as 12 pages, which is patently ridiculous – no one will ever bother reading all that.
3. Resumes are only a means of getting in the door; don’t count on them to be your main selling approach to the company. The in-person interview is where the hiring decision is made.
4. If you list a technology on your resume, make sure you know it, as chances are good you’ll be asked about it. i.e., don’t list ‘XML’ and then tell me you don’t know the difference between DOM and SAX.
5. Don’t bother putting “References available upon request” at the end of your resume; it’s not necessary.
6. Before you go in for an interview, do a practice interview, perhaps with friends. Most people are pretty bad interviewees, most likely since they only do it every few years.
7. Show up to the interview on time. The interviewers’ time is valuable.
8. Always wear a (dark) suit to the interview, even to a company with a casual dress code. Dressing down for an interview shows disregard for the interview process. And don’t think you can get away with it just because you’re special.
9. Don’t play the game of refusing to divulge a salary requirement. You’ll have to pick a number sooner or later, so just say what it is. Most jobs have allowable pay ranges, and if your requirements put you outside the band, I need to know.
10. Prepare a list of questions for the interviewers ahead of time. It doesn’t look good if you say you have no questions.
11. Thank-you letters are not necessary and will not affect the decision one way or another. Chances are the hiring decision has already been made shortly within an hour after you leave the building.
12. If you don’t hear anything back from the company within a week or so, it means they’re not interested. Most companies nowadays don’t bother with rejection letters, either out of shyness of out of fear of liability. There is ZERO chance that they’ve accidentally forgotten about you.
I will expand upon many of these topics in future posts.
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7 comments:
I'm a firm believer in 1 page resumes but my biggest pet peeve is 2 page resumes that will fit on 1 page, but the writer simply hasn't fixed their spacing or margins (shows a lack of attention to detail). It doesn't stop me from hiring you, but it's still a red flag. I believe in taking pride /w anything you touch, if you can't do it with a resume (you're asking a company a favor to hire you) why would you do it with your work?
I'm all for giving out a salary requirement, don't get this confused with companies asking you about your previous salaries, which I think is slimey and rude. Just because you made X at a previous job, doesn't mean you aren't worth more. On the other hand, if you're going to ask for more, be sure you're actually worth it, that you've grown since you started your last job, otherwise you're just greedy.
I also agree with "thank you" letters/emails or worse yet, calling people up. In some scenarios the people who interviews you, don't decide if you get hired, they may not even be part of the process, they might only give a "yes or no" vote to their boss or HR. Heck, if you really need to ask a place if you're going to get the job or not, you're too desperate to be hired. If you were that good, you'd have a bunch of interviews lined up and multiple offers at the same time. Not to toot my own horn, but I've had 3 offers in the same week once, I've never followed up on an interview, I move to fast to care. First come, first serve (if I want the job).
Finally, one point this post failed to mentioned is: you should have almost as many questions for the job as they do for you. You spend almost 1/3rd of your life at your job, you better care about all kinds of things (working conditions, source control, the PC you will use, LCD vs CRT, etc etc). In fact after an interview I almost always ask if I could see the area I would work in if I was to get hired, I haven't been told no yet.
Thanks for the comments. I'll follow up on some of your points in future posts.
FYI - I started this blog to share my thoughts but also to generate discussion. I actually began posting on the Dice.com discussion forums, but those threads quickly degenerated into trolls and flame wars. So I've retreated here to a more hospitable environment.
You said to prepare questions for the interviewers... You should probably suggest some good ones, I never know what to ask, I don't want to risk asking something that'll make me seem stupid.
You said:
--Snip--
If you don’t hear anything back from the company within a week or so, it means they’re not interested. Most companies nowadays don’t bother with rejection letters, either out of shyness of out of fear of liability. There is ZERO chance that they’ve accidentally forgotten about you.
--Snip--
Which in my opinion shows a total lack of respect for the candidate. I've been through a job seeking phase recently and have noticed how this has changed compared to a few years ago.
As a candidate, you are expected to send a customized resumee and motivation letter and get some background information on the company. To do this well, it takes at least 1 or two hours of time, which you do after work or on weekends.
As a company, acknowledging a resumee should take 10 seconds and sending a reply that your candidature was rejected should take 30 seconds. Doing otherwise is in my opinion simply impolite and rude.
Sorry to use your blog to vent my frustration :-)
Anonymous - in a future post I may talk more about some questions you can ask the interviewers. However, on the off chance that my future candidates are reading this, I don't want to give the farm away :-D But you might start by asking about more details on the job and its responsibilities.
Christopher - I'll also address your topic further in a future post. But keep in mind that sending a rejection notice is not easy for the company either - the company is just made up of people, afer all, with all their emotions and weaknesses.
As an analogy (albeit a strained one), think of dating. After a not so great date, how often do you or your date just never get back to the other person vs. making an effort to say, "Sorry, you're not the one?"
Dress for interviews is a very region/profession-specific thing. Seriously don't wear a suit to a developer interview in Silly Valley. The usual advice is to dress up "one step" from what you'd expect to wear normally in the job you're applying for. This shows respect for the interview process, without risking looking like you just don't belong.
Never have a resume longer than 2 pages for an American job. Keep it to 1 page if you have less than 10 years experience.
Remembe,r the only purpose of a resume is to motivate the reader to call you and talk directly - focus on this. You're not trying to get a job or even an interview from your resume, you're trying to get a callback. There's no need to describe how you solved a problem in your resume, just describe the kind of problems you have solved. The manager will ask if he cares about the details.
Hi randommanager,
I can understand your analogy, even if it doesn't make me happy. Anyway, I'm looking forward for your future posts. Keep up the good work!
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