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A comment on Why Van Halen's contract calls for the removal of all brown M&Ms. Parent comment

Re:Why Van Halen's contract calls for the removal of all bro... by Devilboy on Wednesday August 05, 2009 @10:29PM (#744672)
That's the kind of person that will never work for our company. If you're applying to hundreds of jobs and just sending your resume to everyone our process will definitely filter you out. When we advertise online for a job we're usually looking for one or two key skills and we're very careful to spell out exactly what we want (e.g. a relevant university degree and at least X experience with Y technology) and still we get HUNDREDS of applications from people with no degree and no experience with the technology we're after.

More recently we've begun to filter applications like this, and now instead of 200 applications in the first 48 hours we probably get 6 or 8 - but all of those match our requirements. Sure we could be missing out on some awesome person but it's not worth my time looking through 200 applications to find him.

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Re:Why Van Halen's contract calls for the removal of all bro... by cool-RR on Thursday August 06, 2009 @07:56AM (#745247)
It is possible that my strategy is mistaken and that I should change it. I'm thinking about it.

Amusingly though, in the example that you brought my strategy would have been pretty good. Instead of reading through your ad until I got to the place I am disqualified for the job, I would have just sent the resume and not wasted any more of my time. Since I'm not getting the job in either case, I have only saved myself time.

Additionally, there is always the chance that because of other accomplishments mentioned in my resume, the company will still hire me.

I'm not saying my strategy is the best one. I'm starting to think I should change it. But this is an example of when it is beneficial.

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Re:Why Van Halen's contract calls for the removal of all bro... by jasonkester on Thursday August 06, 2009 @09:24AM (#745379)
That's where you're mistaken. In this example, because you didn't craft a meaningful cover letter, you disqualified yourself even if you were a perfect fit.

Had you read the posting and spent a few minutes explaining why you were good at the two things they asked for, you would have been called in for an interview.

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