Now a days, most companies are simply calling candidates and wasting their time by asking stupid questions.

Why are they doing this? They do this because they need to show their bosses that they interviewed 50 candidates and hired one. I mean why call a candidate and waste his time if you think he is not a good candidate? I would prefer companies to do their due diligence before calling candidates and wasting their time.

Thanks!

You’re off my list

No studies, no references and yes, in re reading your post its plain obvious you’d make a horrible consultant….You were rejected on some ph interview and spun that around but tried to hide it and its coming out. That’s not business…that’s emotion…..That’s a feature article

You need to reply to the negative buzz surrounding you and hence your “ideas” in this hasty post you have, Evan Paull

Evan, what “business” (non IT) experience or education do you have? Just wondering?

Caution: this reaction has brutal honesty and is what Evan Paull needs to hear because no one has ever popped his bubble

Evan Paull’s posting has serious flaws and is very dangerous advice. Firstly, a quick review of Evan’s background suggests real gaps in Evan Paull’s credibility factor. Evan provides no research in his article whatsover. In checking his qualifications for “software engineer” and “consultant” I find no educational/industry specifics; essentially anyone can “claim” to be anything, apparently. I did however find that he was never an engineer, never a consultant and currently holds no employment. In today’s rough economic times, that’s understandable. However, it makes me think…..was his posting a reaction to a rough job search…or is he writing a “factual” business article…….?

I picked up the phone and called my connections and their connections and so forth and I did not get the brightest reaction to “Evan Paull” in the 2 places he has worked. Thus, his experience, is a sample size of 2 small, irrelevant firms that I have never heard of. However, kudos to him for posting an article that makes it seem he has 25 years of success in consulting to the stars of Wall Street or Silicon Valley. Wannabes are welcome but honest first…

As the head of a global Fortune 50 firm’s division (I would never out my firm in these circumstances), I can state firmly, that the phone screen is a crucial method to review candidates. Phone Screens are key in sifting through applicants. HR helps to conduct background checks, post jobs and act as a liaison, however, the hiring business unit, be it in Finance, IT, Operations, etc, will always call or interview the person.

To make vague generalizations about recruiters, etc, is irresponsible and again, makes me guess the emotional thesis of this post.Has Evan Paull been having a hard time getting past the screens? Is he bitter? Well, if he is, write the human interest piece, not some phony business consulting article that replaces a good therapy session…..

Many recruiters were former professionals in their fields. My head of IT Recruiting was the Director of Software Architecture for a variety of large/start up firms. She soon realized she had a knack at teaming up with HR and finding excellent talent…..so we moved her to her new role……According to Evan Paull’s article, since her title changed, she’s useless and doesn’t know what she’s doing…Maybe we should kill her? Maybe we could spare killing her if she got a 1600…..HA!

SAT scores? Are you serious? The top talent in today’s Finance/Government and IT sectors (and those of yesterday) plain sucked at standardized tests. Standardized tests lead to standard results. A holistic approach is the best way to go……Look at education, accomplishments, acumen, experience, persona, team skills, innovation, etc…..No one metric will ever tell you everything, ever, about anything.
Again, no self respecting consultant should ever equate intelligence to some post-high school score.
Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, John F Kennedy, Abraham Lincoln, on and on and on, would fail Evan’s psycho babble methods.

I worry what the recruiters and big companies will see when Evan Paull applies to their jobs. A google search will bring this article up and draw red flags. Evan’s cavalier approach, in to failing to cite studies, quotes, etc, coupled with his generalizations, will keep him on the permanent unemployment rolls, even in a bright economy….This economy is heating up again……Evan, lets see where your advice takes you…. Good luck being the “software engineer startup consultant”

Now learn to take what you dish

Often the initial processing of CVs is done badly, by HR underlings who have no idea what might be relevant. In addition, HR departments ofen look at the problem in terms of “how can I reduce the number of applicants” rather than finding the best. I went through two long interviews with a large tech company, only to be told by an HR functionary that “applicants usually have to come for 5 interviews before a decision is made”. Well she got her wish, and I dropped out at that point. There’s just no way that busy people can make their excuses for 5 afternoons just on the off chance of finding a new job. Forget it, you’ll just have to find someone really desperate.

It’s also common these days to hand off initital selection to recruitment consulants. The assumption is that these people will diligently process the list and find the best people. Well, I don’t know how to break this to you, but recruitment consultants are not technical experts. In fact, they’re something far more damaging: they are young, rapacious sales people looking for commission. They need to get someone hired (it doesn’t matter who) and move on to the next job. Guess what, they’ll probably come back in 6 months and try to churn the same person again and get more commission.

This model does not work. It can’t. Find the courage to identify and interview your own candidates, and make your own decisions.

Jeremy Horn
The Product Guy
http://tpgblog.com

Someone here mentioned that they received, as an email, a coding test from an employer. This could generate another full discussion, but let me just bring up one point: asking an engineer to complete a long coding test on their own could be painfully humiliating, depending on how you do it. Perhaps because of the current state of the economy and the flood of applicants, I’ve heard horror stories about 5+ hour paper coding tests that are required, in some cases, just to get an initial interview. If you are an employer, and you don’t understand why that might be a bad idea, talk to someone who does -now- before alienating the programmers who are already on payroll, let alone the candidates to join.

E Paull

10 years ago I didn’t want to work for Google as they were one of many ‘me too’ startups. Last year they rejected me in a stupid phone interview where I was asked just 1 puzzle – period.

So basically, a Google interviewer (with probably 3/4 yrs of experience rejected some one with 14 yrs of experience even though I have some big employee names in resume).

Why Facebook, Google and other hot employers are playing this game of random phone screening and reject rate as high as 80? Because they can.

Once they fail and become some thing like SGI, they will start chasing us candidates.

So be picky as a candidate. Ask tough questions back to the interviewer and tell them about the fallacy of their hiring process. If they are smart, they will listen. if they don’t, you have nothing to lose, as they are going to reject 80% candidates any way and hire their friends through their old connections and referral program.

One other thing: really good interviewers are like really good teachers– somewhat rare.

I was emailed a coding test by a small company that I took as an insult because: it was surprisingly complex; they weren’t Google; and I wasn’t right out of college.