Well, that’s disturbing.
I'm verging on writing a long post on it, but came across this article as it included some simplified data/research on the topic (there isn't much around!).
A lot of (or the vast majority) of recruiters have little concept of the true value that sits behind a resume/CV - they don't even have the capacity to understand/interpret the content at times, but there are a few that aren't as bad as the rest. A hat-tip to them!
I've had to work with a lot of recruiters at times in tech leadership roles and not by choice. I dislike working with them and generally because most of time, they don't really care about fit - they're simply looking to hit their monthly, quarterly or annual target numbers. I've also seen actions by recruiters that verge on slander/defamation and horrors I don't want to see ever again.
Where CV's are concerned, it's a crap shoot and I'll happily admit that I hate writing my own...
In the comments, someone mentioned "hiring direct". Now there's a method that truly does work. I've hired more than 150 devs personally and the vast majority have been through direct hires via network and events.
Whilst it's super important to hire for skills, hire for attitude first. Skills can be improved (and taught if needed). Attitude is everything!
Absolutely true, at least for now. The techniques presented afterwards are straight-up inside sales prospecting 101 I predict that HMs will build up thick firewalls as desperation increases and these techniques become more widely known.
where did we go wrong...
Management people do not want to deal with awkward, weird, introvert developers/academics. Instead, they get lower-level people as recruiters and administrators that are like themselves, but willing to deal with developers and such.
Meaning, we did it to ourselves by not knowing how to deal with people.
Developers like to treat all problems as technical problems. And human problems with incompatible incentives typically don't have a technical solution.
Failure to understand this and to develop relevant soft skills is what's causing frustration for a lot of (very talented otherwise) devs.
And the level of disrespect we receive in order to do so..
Edit -
I’m no longer in the tech industry and this is a big reason why.
I was never treated poorly per se, but I was always treated as a second class citizen. Salaries, responsibility, seniority .. you begin to realise that there’s a glass ceiling which you’ll struggle to break through.
The breaking point for me was when after conducting a detailed analysis of some data using Looker, an entry level engineer was tasked with making sure my analysis was correct. (I was the most senior marketing employee at a company with a $200m Val and reported to the CRO.)
And then his correction of my analysis - which was accepted unquestioningly - was littered with mistakes.
Once we had gone through it together; he had corrected his report and apologised to me.
Well, that's not that uncommon in humanities when you're above a certain threshold…
> would AI do better
Oh please don’t. I would rather be rejected by a fallible human than some paper clip maximizing algorithm that holds no responsibility
[I stop caring. The authors seem so wired on hype, caffeine, or something that I wouldn't trust their assertion that 14^2 = 196.]
Didn’t read the article.