So little actual software development in software engineering roles

[jc-8FIgwK2HfyJMuWfdjsoA/w at public.gmane.org]

Derek Martin wrote:
| On Mon, Jan 10, 2011 at 05:58:24PM -0500, Rob Hasselbaum wrote:
| > On Mon, Jan 10, 2011 at 1:40 PM, David Rosenstrauch <darose-prQxUZoa2zOsTnJN9+BGXg at public.gmane.org>wrote:
| > > I think this depends a lot on the company.  IMO, you find this a lot at
| > > large, established companies.  (e.g., I used to find this a lot at Wall
| > > St. banks.)
| [...]
| > I second that assessment.
|
| I basically agree, but...
|
| > As someone who looks at a lot of resumes, I sometimes get frustrated
| > if a candidate with a lot of experience buries me in 5 pages of
| > details about work that is only loosely related to the position I'm
| > trying to fill.
|
| This makes me cringe.  I agree in principle that tailoring your resume
| is a good idea, but...  Have you actually read any significant number
| of job postings on the internet?  A lot of them are sufficiently vague
| that even if you wanted to tailor your resume, it's not exactly easy,
| especially when you do have many years of varied experience, a lot of
| which is very likely to be unrelated to the job you're applying for.
| ...

Something I learned a couple of decades ago is that when you see  the
common  set  of  job requirements that's a list of specific thing you
must be an expert with, it usually means  that  the  hiring  managers
have  already  decided  who  they'll  hire,  but are required to do a
credible search for  the  best  candidate.   So  they  write  up  the
requirements  to  match  the  exact  background of the already-chosen
hiree, hoping that no  applicants  will  match  ALL  of  the  precise
"requirements".  It's an old game.

I've gone to a number of interviews in the past few  years  for  jobs
like  this,  knowing  that I didn't match their requirements exactly,
but could probably learn the rest in a few days.  In every case,  the
made  it clear that I wasn't qualified, and shouldn't have replied to
their job posting.

OTOH, one of the standard arguments for tailoring your  resume  to  a
job  description  is  the old problem of being "overqualified".  That
really means that they won't hire someone who has ever  worked  on  a
job  different than the one they've advertised.  Again, this is often
because they've decided who they want to hire, are willing  to  do  a
bit  of  training,  and  want  someone with little experience so they
won't cost too much.  In this case, tailoring your resume is a way of
hiding your "overqualification" so they'll hire you.

I wonder if the Game Theory people have tackled this topic ...


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 <:#/>  John Chambers
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