When did recruiters become less about "helping you get a job" and more about "Sorry, they want 5 years in this 2-year-old software, We'll keep your resume on file?"
@JimG. I'm actually starting to be able to TELL the good recruiters from the bad ones. That's a sure sign I've been at it too long.
Not counting Company-level recruiters, Two of my last four have been really good. One has been acceptable, in the "I think you're better suited for this other job I have" sort of way, and the last one was so bad he misspelled my name in the initial email and kept saying the company names I have on my resume wrong.
I went to talk to that one in person, and by the time I left I was wondering why I wasted the gas and put on a suit. He covered NOTHING that wasn't already covered in the phone interview, and the interview pretty much stopped when I said I wasn't able to provide references -- at least, not without falling back on my current employers or going back to classmates and professors.
I know a good recruiter should be able to find more information beyond what's on the resume -- but it's one thing to ask me if I have more experience in [X] skill than I let on, it's another to think I've completely left off a company I worked with and magically pull more professional experience out of a hat.
(And really, implying that nobody from my college can code their way out of a wet paper bag and assuming I'm similarly inept unless I can magically produce suitable professional references? That's a REAL gem of a recruiter there. /s)
Y'know what good recruiters do? Good recruiters actually make me feel like I gain something out of talking with them, whether it's "Oh, I can actually include that on my resume?" or some kind of job search / interview tip to improve my odds, or at least some sense of having actually read my resume beforehand...
This clown? His only advice was to "get more references" and try to find smaller companies that would be more willing to "take a risk". I'm pretty sure at the end I felt like wanting to spit fire.
That kind of advice is right up there with "Ask your parents for money to help pay for college!"
It may be technically good advice, but it's made with such assumptions in mind that the advice itself is worthless.
I'm definitely in favor of this. Always have been, but particularly after today's chatpocalypse on SF.
Two caveats/enhancements I'd like to suggest:
A high-rep user whose post is flagged should not be able to act on their own flags.
(I'd be surprised if this wasn't already part of the system)...
@gnat I have to agree with Shog there... he brings up a good point that if a question that hasn't been definitively answered gets that much attention, there's a good chance it'll attract the attention of someone who can write a good answer, but they won't be able to because the question is "protected"
@Rachel @Rachel in that, I somehow tend to agree with both of you. Look, I one thing I know for sure is, it's not as simple of course (otherwise you'd already see a feature request from me at whatever meta)...
...wouldn't that be more precise? Don't get me wrong, I generally like a "feature" allowing someone like Herb Sutter just land in the question from web search and post an authoritative answer, merely wonder about precise description of this... "feature" — gnat7 hours ago
I am still trying to fit different "forces" here into reasonable balance
mostly studying what's wrong or right in different cases
my closest idea as of now is something like temporarily protection, the one that expires a day or two after, when "hotness peak" is over. But don't quote me on that because I still haven't decided whether it's a worthy one or just a brainstorming garbage...
On UX we've taken to just protecting anything that starts hits Hacker News. Cross-network traffic is occasionally a problem but hacker news is the biggest problem
2
Lots of people hopping in to give marketing/programming/anything but UX based advice
(not to say either of those is completely divorced from UX. They were just really bad answers)
I honestly think those people simply don't realize that on more subjective sites (UX even counts here) it is really easy for anyone who reads the question to think, "oh, I've got a thought I want to post!" while this is considerably more difficult for "techy" types of SE sites
@enderland Yeah. Most technical sites have an intimidating topic and the layman doesn't generally want to post an answer. On UX we've got lots of deep questions that just anyone can answer, but relatively few can answer well. There's the problem
@enderland well I am not fond about doing important things manually (had raised myself couple flags to remove forgotten post locks so I know it's for sure). And these things are important indeed,...
You guys have it nice and cozy. You don't have to run English. Where plain everyone feels free to post whatever they want as soon as it contains half an English word, or what they think amounts to half an English word.
I hate it when I post an answer which I think tells someone one thing but they read it and then do the exact opposite (???) and say the answer helped them. WTF
I have realized that there could be some real advantages from using a tape recorder in interviews as I look for a new job. Some of the reasons I feel it would be worth recording the interviews are:
I can go back after the fact and see where I messed up, both to improve my interviews with other...
I think the question of "Is it ok to use concealed tape recorders at interviews?" is a perfectly acceptable question for this site, so am voting to reopen. We can't provide you with exact legal repercussions since we don't know the exact laws, however we can tell you that they could potentially be legal and trust repercussions from such an action, and that it generally would not be OK to bring a concealed tape recorder to an interview. (A regular tape recorder would probably be fine though if the interviewer is OK with it) — Rachel1 min ago
@BenBrocka weee free internet points! (honestly I like Q/A types of things because I like helping people... which is why it's a bit weird to see that response? lol)
@enderland I'm the same way, I don't really care about rep and participate in the SE sites because I like to help people :)
Which is why I sometimes get so mad to see users calling other user's stupid, trolls, idiots, etc or calling their questions garbage, crap, etc and why I like to work to reopen them
I use SE sites quite a bit to get answers because I like the fact its so easy to find multiple answers to my question, sorted by community votes. And I upvote every one that helps me (question or answer)
Because if that post helped me solve my problem, it will likely help others too so I want to vote it up
and to reward the person who took the time to write the post
I've come late to coding, been doing it under 2 years and trying really hard to gain ground in my own time and at work.
However, I've found a position via StackOverFlow that gives me quite a strong emotional charge when I consider it. It's exciting, complicated and matches a second, deeper obses...
Tech job offerings are plagued with over reaching and unrealistic job/experience requirements. They want college grads to have 5 years of experience, list multiple extremely specific technologies they use which no one would have as a normal skill set, or require deep experience with emerging tech...
@enderland well one is asking specifically about the Experience requirement, and the other is asking in general how to tell which job requirements matter
I would call them related, but not exact duplicates
I'd say they're two different questions. One is actually trying to souse out what the job actually does (which is key further on in the process), the other is just asking if they should even bother "buying a lottery ticket" as it were.
There's at least one job I'm gunning for right now that under normal circumstances seems way over my head, but hell, if they're still willing to TALK to me, who am I to say no?
Hmm. I guess that might be true... I don't feel bad voting to close a question which is "hey guys what do you think?" though, regardless - even if it's not an exact duplicate? hmm
Yah, I think I voted to close incorrectly. It's not really constructive, though, so hopefully it gets that as a close reason? idk. This is the classic "here's a situation tell me what to do" question which has no question
@enderland Are you referring to the first question you just linked about not having the required experience? I'd say that's a very constructive question for the site, as I personally have found that we tend to overlook users not having the required amount of experience providing they can prove their skill
@enderland Hrrm the question is in the title but not the body of it. I've copied it to the bottom of the question, and removed the line about getting opinions from people with more experience :)
@enderland I think both questions are definitely related and should be linked in the sidebar since the answers may overlap a bit, however I definitely wouldn't call them exact duplicates :)
@enderland I sometimes find that my most productive 10 minutes of the day i spend in the shower. I find solutions to problems there I have been thinking about for weeks.
@RachelKeslensky Its one thing if the description is over you head. If the job is over your head then you are just going to sink and fail anyway. I find most descriptions completely worthless and learn more about a job asking what they would have me doing half the time if you ask why they are looking ofr the requirement it is because at one time they were considering using that technology but have since decided against
It sounds like you're talking about a classic example of Incubation.
Incubation is defined as a process of unconscious recombination of thought elements that were stimulated through conscious work at one point in time, resulting in novel ideas at some later point in time.
Here's a great art...
@enderland I will too, but that didn't stop another non-duplicate from failing to get reopened since it only got 4 reopen votes and not 5 before the votes started to expire... so it never got roepened and now I can't re-cast my reopen vote if I ever see another attempt going on
@Rachel I don't really "mind" seeing that one closed, since the OP is a troll and the answers are all pretty bad compared to normal standards on this site...
@enderland The user that posted the question shouldn't matter though, and now any other question that gets asked on the subject will get closed as a duplicate to that one, even after everyone's forgotten the exact situation and who the OP was
And it would probably get a better answer if left open... :)
Not only that, but it sends the message to users that it's OK to close as a "close duplicate" instead of "exact duplicate"
@BenBrocka It wasn't really a bad question either though.....
I know I've flagged at least one decent question that I found in the "deleted questions" list on another SE site that was deleted solely based on the user that posted the question (it got undeleted)
And honestly, I thought the answer provided by @JimG. was pretty decent
There's a reason "real problems" are a part of the FAQ, people making up fake questions can't elaborate or evaluate the quality of answers, thus the questions end up mostly unloved
And I didn't find the answers to be a saving grace at all
Everything focused on the "block noises" thing not the social problem of asking someone to turn it down, which would have been the only half-decent, non dupe content in there.
He said "Thanks for the feedback. I'll just maintain two versions of the resume, sticking with the Europass one for applications within the EU, and using the US-style one when needed"
@crh225 I'm not sure, but I suspect it will - there is a fairly active userbase and quite a few questions asked on a regular basis... if anything, question/answer quality probably are the main concerns for a long term release (this is my thought at least, don't take this as StackExchange's perspective :P)
@BenBrocka wow. stackoverflow got me through college and I got back on here when I graduated. I did not even know they had other subdomains when I was in college.
@enderland Quality's definitely the point of contention. Traffic-wise everything's great. It's why I'm hoping when we graduate we get maybe 4 mods (some other sites have) and some who are relatively strict
@enderland I read the FAQ and the ABOUT. After reading, I still feel like it should be closed. I found this on the about page relavant to the link I previously posted. "Questions with too many possible answers or that would require an extremely long answer." I believe that question is too specific to a geographic region and the answer would be an opinion.
@crh225 The answer may be an opinion, however it should be an educated opinion from someone like an HR manager who makes hiring decision and can claim personal experience to back up their opinion
@enderland At least according to some people familiar with Programmers we've had much less turbulent early days (which I think was one of the most important things for the site's surviva)
I don't think it should be too-localized since I think the question of if you should use a specific industry-standard resume or a custom resume template applies to more than just a narrow situation
@BenBrocka I think a big part of that can be attributed to such a great crowd of active members who actually take the time to think things through and consider the opposing argument carefully instead of demanding things be done their way all the time
One of my biggest problems with programmers is I feel the users there are set on their ways, and never listen to any suggestions or stats that would go against what they believe in
Also, we were aware of some of the failures from the original Programmers, and took care to avoid them :)
I don't mean to obsess over this question, however it really bothers me that it got deleted since I was trying to get it reopened to get a good answer for it. Would someone who voted to delete it mind explaining why they voted to delete it?
There was a question about what to do about a co-worker who listened to a loud radio that got closed as a duplicate to What can I do about a very loud coworker?
It caught my attention because I work in an office across from someone who frequently likes to play his music quite loudly, and his mus...
Or if you don't think it should be deleted, leave a comment on my meta question with your opinion? I realize moderators don't want to overwrite the community's wishes, however I think we have a very small number of users who can vote to delete/undelete, so we have to make do with the old fashioned way of "speaking up"
It's also worth pointing out that we have almost 40 community members who have undelete votes. If you have at least 2,000 reputation, you can vote to undelete this post.
Throughout the beta, we need members from the site whose focus is to engage the community, both in community-building issues and site management. That's why we select a few members from each community to act as temporary, provisional Moderators. You can read about the program here: Moderators Pro...
I'm definitely in favor of this. Always have been, but particularly after today's chatpocalypse on SF.
Two caveats/enhancements I'd like to suggest:
A high-rep user whose post is flagged should not be able to act on their own flags.
(I'd be surprised if this wasn't already part of the system)...
I have realized that there could be some real advantages from using a tape recorder in interviews as I look for a new job. Some of the reasons I feel it would be worth recording the interviews are:
I can go back after the fact and see where I messed up, both to improve my interviews with other...
It sounds like you're talking about a classic example of Incubation.
Incubation is defined as a process of unconscious recombination of thought elements that were stimulated through conscious work at one point in time, resulting in novel ideas at some later point in time.
Here's a great art...
The Water Cooler
The Water Cooler