"Truth in Advertising" on a resume
M y client is currently on the lookout for several new .Net/SQL Server resources (Full Time Employees). They have been going through gobs of resumes and interviews. I get to hear some of the horror stories from the interviews, but it made me think back to what I came across when I was doing interviews for GA Sullivan and Avanade. I couldn’t believe the number of people who doctored their resume just in the hopes of getting the interview. In my opinion these people were an immediate fail on the interview and a colossal waste of my time. More often than not it was only a slight doctor, such as someone adding COM+ to the resume and then, when questioned further, reveals that they only worked on a project that used COM+, but didn’t directly deal with it and so actually know little to nothing about it. There were a few people though that literally would rate themselves as a eight or nine out of ten on say, VB, and then not be able to explain what “Option Explicit” or “Option Strict” meant. People who had several years (more than three) of experience in web design couldn’t articulate how to pass data from one page to the next.
When I gave interviews I had a set of questions I always asked, based on the skills they supplied on their resume. I would then probe a bit further asking leading questions to hopefully bring out some of the experiences people have had. I think one of my favorite questions at the end is “how do you keep up with technology? Do you read blogs, trade magazines and articles?". This usually is answered by blank stares or the phrase “I learn on the job”. The latter is nice, but in our industry things move so quickly if you only learn on the job, you are only learning about what your project requires at the time. Even if you spent twenty minutes a day reading a few key blogs, or reading MSDN magazine articles you would at least be exposed to what is coming down the road and what technologies are out there and evolving. Nino asked that question once and the answer he got was, “what magazines do I read? Cosmo.” [:|] Scary.
If I interview you and either you, or your recruiter, has doctored your resume to get you in the door then expect to get grilled. Some people get away with this because the tech interviews are either non-existent or lax. When I do an interview I go in depth. I want to know just how much you know because at some time in the future I may be working with you. I want to be working with people that can pull their own weight. I really want to work with people I can learn something from. Everyone has their deep knowledge spots and areas where they are just not that good. I feel that I’m pretty good when it comes to mid-tier design and development. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m NOT very good in the database beyond simple stored procedures and such. But you can bet on my resume that I have SQL Server listed, and if asked to rate myself I come in around a 3 or 4 out of ten for that. Even my highest self rating wouldn’t be above a seven. Think about it….the guys at Microsoft that are writing the compilers and language specifications…those people are the 10s. If you have to compare yourself to one of those, just how good are you?
I guess all this ranting leads to this: If you are writing your resume…be honest. Don’t let your recruiter write your resume. Put it together yourself, or if you need help that’s fine, but YOU be the final judge on the content. If someone puts your resume together for you, then read it. Know what is on it, both content wise and know the technologies and such that are listed. I’ve had the experience several times where interviewees have no CLUE what is on their resume (and in some cases no clue about the items that are on there, such as the people who have COM+ on the resume but can’t tell me what is the difference between a library and server application). Also, in interviews be honest. If you don’t know the answer, the correct answers are: “I don’t know.”, “I’m not sure but based on my experience I think the following may be it…..”, or “You know, I’m not sure about that. I’ve not had any direct experience with that, but if I was in the position to need to know it this is how I would go about finding out the answer”. These answers show me that you are honest, understand how to make deductions based on experience and know how to go get the information you don’t know. I’m always amazed at people who will come ask for help for an issue they have been stuck on for HOURS and then when asked if they have googled for it, or checked for a KB article I get “no….” and the shake of the head….usually accompanied by a blank stare. Many times if I don’t the answer to the problem two minutes of searching later I find it.