16 Page CV!
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I have a rule when CV's come in. If they are less than 3 pages, in the bin. If they are more than 8 Pages, in the bin. If they are not accompanied by a hand written letter (as required in advert), in the bin. If they are generic and not addressed to us, in the bin. It is not hard to get these things right, and we have such a small turnover in staff because we choose well. Anyone who cannot follow simple instructions is no use. (Also, bad handwriting or poor spelling...guess where!)
------------------------------------ I will never again mention that I was the poster of the One Millionth Lounge Post, nor that it was complete drivel. Dalek Dave CCC League Table Link CCC Link[^]
Dalek Dave wrote:
as required in advert
Do you mind terrible, unnecessary, Ammericanish, abbreviations of perfectly good words if hand written? You know how Chris feels about the word gotten? For some reason abbreviations of advertisement have the sane effect on me. So does invite as an abbreviation of invitation. "Did you get my invite?"
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I have a rule when CV's come in. If they are less than 3 pages, in the bin. If they are more than 8 Pages, in the bin. If they are not accompanied by a hand written letter (as required in advert), in the bin. If they are generic and not addressed to us, in the bin. It is not hard to get these things right, and we have such a small turnover in staff because we choose well. Anyone who cannot follow simple instructions is no use. (Also, bad handwriting or poor spelling...guess where!)
------------------------------------ I will never again mention that I was the poster of the One Millionth Lounge Post, nor that it was complete drivel. Dalek Dave CCC League Table Link CCC Link[^]
Dalek Dave wrote:
(Also, bad handwriting or poor spelling...guess where!)
I'd have to get the wife to write the cover letter and hope you didn't notice!
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity RAH
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Just received a 16 page CV from a applicant - is it just me or is that way too much? fair enough most of his career has been as a contract programmer and he's done a lot of jobs but he's listed every single project he's worked on (as far as I can see) some of them only a couple of weeks long. My first thought was 'I can't be arsed to read all this'
I have similar problems, because I've worked on zillions of contracts in several different fields. What I do is use conditional text to only show the main items relevant to a contract I'm applying for, but how to do that is arcane knowledge, which very few are privy to (you need to beat the boss in the 17th level, and open a chest that's behind his throne). One thing you can be sure of, when receiving such a long CV (unless it's all huge blocks about a few jobs) is that the guy is flexible, and can easily adapt to your working processes. That's worth a lot, and can help avoid a lot of conflicts. People who have only done two or three jobs will likely require a lot more in-house training, and will try to insist on bringing in working processes or practices (or worse: technology) that, while they may have been perfect for a previous company, might not be good for yours.
CVS is perfect, and everything should be written in notepad!
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Do you get the feeling that he would just talk and talk and talk .... about every little detail of every little bit of everything you asked him to do? :rolleyes:
Ali
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:sigh: Oh no, what have I started?
Ali
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:omg: You don't set them a CCC at the interview do you?
Ali
Alison P wrote:
You don't set them a CCC at the interview do you?
Of course not! He bins all applications from people with brains, so there are no applicants left who can do them!
You've gotta eliminate any possible competition before the boss gets to meet them!
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:sigh: Oh no, what have I started?
Ali
YEs, you have all the qualifications and experience required and we are happy to offer you a senior position at £200,000 pa plus company car and benefits, all I require from you is to complete this fiendishly difficult crossword in less than 10 minutes.
------------------------------------ I will never again mention that I was the poster of the One Millionth Lounge Post, nor that it was complete drivel. Dalek Dave CCC League Table Link CCC Link[^]
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I have a rule when CV's come in. If they are less than 3 pages, in the bin. If they are more than 8 Pages, in the bin. If they are not accompanied by a hand written letter (as required in advert), in the bin. If they are generic and not addressed to us, in the bin. It is not hard to get these things right, and we have such a small turnover in staff because we choose well. Anyone who cannot follow simple instructions is no use. (Also, bad handwriting or poor spelling...guess where!)
------------------------------------ I will never again mention that I was the poster of the One Millionth Lounge Post, nor that it was complete drivel. Dalek Dave CCC League Table Link CCC Link[^]
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Alison P wrote:
You don't set them a CCC at the interview do you?
Of course not! He bins all applications from people with brains, so there are no applicants left who can do them!
You've gotta eliminate any possible competition before the boss gets to meet them!
Mark Wallace wrote:
He bins all applications from people with brains
No, I bin the ones who cannot follow the simple instructions, like "Enclose Hand Written introductory letter".
------------------------------------ I will never again mention that I was the poster of the One Millionth Lounge Post, nor that it was complete drivel. Dalek Dave CCC League Table Link CCC Link[^]
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I have a rule when CV's come in. If they are less than 3 pages, in the bin. If they are more than 8 Pages, in the bin. If they are not accompanied by a hand written letter (as required in advert), in the bin. If they are generic and not addressed to us, in the bin. It is not hard to get these things right, and we have such a small turnover in staff because we choose well. Anyone who cannot follow simple instructions is no use. (Also, bad handwriting or poor spelling...guess where!)
------------------------------------ I will never again mention that I was the poster of the One Millionth Lounge Post, nor that it was complete drivel. Dalek Dave CCC League Table Link CCC Link[^]
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Just received a 16 page CV from a applicant - is it just me or is that way too much? fair enough most of his career has been as a contract programmer and he's done a lot of jobs but he's listed every single project he's worked on (as far as I can see) some of them only a couple of weeks long. My first thought was 'I can't be arsed to read all this'
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Mark Wallace wrote:
He bins all applications from people with brains
No, I bin the ones who cannot follow the simple instructions, like "Enclose Hand Written introductory letter".
------------------------------------ I will never again mention that I was the poster of the One Millionth Lounge Post, nor that it was complete drivel. Dalek Dave CCC League Table Link CCC Link[^]
Dalek Dave wrote:
No, I bin the ones who cannot follow the simple instructions, like "Enclose Hand Written introductory letter".
Are you sure that agents pass on these instructions? And WTF is the introductory letter for, anyway? Everything you need is in the CV. Besides, I don't want developers who follow simple instructions; I want the ones who can follow complex ones. Those two talents are often mutually exclusive.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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I have similar problems, because I've worked on zillions of contracts in several different fields. What I do is use conditional text to only show the main items relevant to a contract I'm applying for, but how to do that is arcane knowledge, which very few are privy to (you need to beat the boss in the 17th level, and open a chest that's behind his throne). One thing you can be sure of, when receiving such a long CV (unless it's all huge blocks about a few jobs) is that the guy is flexible, and can easily adapt to your working processes. That's worth a lot, and can help avoid a lot of conflicts. People who have only done two or three jobs will likely require a lot more in-house training, and will try to insist on bringing in working processes or practices (or worse: technology) that, while they may have been perfect for a previous company, might not be good for yours.
CVS is perfect, and everything should be written in notepad!
I realise there are advantages to someone who can obviously fit in quickly but further to a previous comment on the impression this guys gives with the level of detail provided he lists this as one of his skills:- Microsoft DOS – batch control language – 15 years. Now unless you are the worlds dullest person, would you list this as a skill?
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I realise there are advantages to someone who can obviously fit in quickly but further to a previous comment on the impression this guys gives with the level of detail provided he lists this as one of his skills:- Microsoft DOS – batch control language – 15 years. Now unless you are the worlds dullest person, would you list this as a skill?
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Dalek Dave wrote:
No, I bin the ones who cannot follow the simple instructions, like "Enclose Hand Written introductory letter".
Are you sure that agents pass on these instructions? And WTF is the introductory letter for, anyway? Everything you need is in the CV. Besides, I don't want developers who follow simple instructions; I want the ones who can follow complex ones. Those two talents are often mutually exclusive.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
HANDWRITING! If someone has bad handwriting it can lead to confusion and misunderstanding at a later date.
------------------------------------ I will never again mention that I was the poster of the One Millionth Lounge Post, nor that it was complete drivel. Dalek Dave CCC League Table Link CCC Link[^]
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I have a rule when CV's come in. If they are less than 3 pages, in the bin. If they are more than 8 Pages, in the bin. If they are not accompanied by a hand written letter (as required in advert), in the bin. If they are generic and not addressed to us, in the bin. It is not hard to get these things right, and we have such a small turnover in staff because we choose well. Anyone who cannot follow simple instructions is no use. (Also, bad handwriting or poor spelling...guess where!)
------------------------------------ I will never again mention that I was the poster of the One Millionth Lounge Post, nor that it was complete drivel. Dalek Dave CCC League Table Link CCC Link[^]
Pretty sensible rules but regarding the last point about spelling and grammar - until this week I would have agreed with you but out of the 8 applications received so far 7 are from 'non-native english speakers'. Now some of them have spelling mistakes - no real excuse, what are spell checkers for after all, but all of them have grammatical errors which you might attribute to the fact they are non-native english speakers. How do you decide on that? Do you make an allowance for that? (in which case I have no candidates!) If you do allow for that then shouldn't you allow for it in all cases?
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HANDWRITING! If someone has bad handwriting it can lead to confusion and misunderstanding at a later date.
------------------------------------ I will never again mention that I was the poster of the One Millionth Lounge Post, nor that it was complete drivel. Dalek Dave CCC League Table Link CCC Link[^]
Dalek Dave wrote:
HANDWRITING
You will not hire a person cos his handwriting is poor. That's not ON mate. If he is good in programming and got all that skill then what's a fuss.After all in IT you can get away with handwriting as am sure you must have MS Word and printer at your office that can be used for letters or specifications etc. For drawing board in meeting could be a bit of issue but it's not a big deal..
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I realise there are advantages to someone who can obviously fit in quickly but further to a previous comment on the impression this guys gives with the level of detail provided he lists this as one of his skills:- Microsoft DOS – batch control language – 15 years. Now unless you are the worlds dullest person, would you list this as a skill?
Caslen wrote:
Microsoft DOS – batch control language – 15 years. Now unless you are the worlds dullest person, would you list this as a skill?
heh. Maybe it was important a few years ago, and he doesn't want to delete anything from the CV, just in case. On another hand: remembering that I could use DOS batch files, when I was trying to handle a file problem, saved me a lot of time and effort, recently. Perhaps he's had a similar revelation, so sees the ability as important. Who knows what he was thinking? Tailoring a CV is an art that falls under the "communication skills" blanket, so some of the best devs are very bad at it.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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I have a rule when CV's come in. If they are less than 3 pages, in the bin. If they are more than 8 Pages, in the bin. If they are not accompanied by a hand written letter (as required in advert), in the bin. If they are generic and not addressed to us, in the bin. It is not hard to get these things right, and we have such a small turnover in staff because we choose well. Anyone who cannot follow simple instructions is no use. (Also, bad handwriting or poor spelling...guess where!)
------------------------------------ I will never again mention that I was the poster of the One Millionth Lounge Post, nor that it was complete drivel. Dalek Dave CCC League Table Link CCC Link[^]
ah bugger thats me screwed then, as I have poor handwriting :(
As barmey as a sack of badgers Dude, if I knew what I was doing in life, I'd be rich, retired, dating a supermodel and laughing at the rest of you from the sidelines.
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Just received a 16 page CV from a applicant - is it just me or is that way too much? fair enough most of his career has been as a contract programmer and he's done a lot of jobs but he's listed every single project he's worked on (as far as I can see) some of them only a couple of weeks long. My first thought was 'I can't be arsed to read all this'