Where there's a will there's NOT a way!

My most recent observations on how organizations recruit set me into some fact finding. I spoke to several of my candid “acquaintances” who were looking for a change. Also some who were not!

Then I spoke to few others who by the grace of God, landed up in HR roles or other positions and have been known to get involved in recruitment from time to time. The below is my biased and highly maligned view of it. may be its time to look at things from a different angle.

Here is a short list of best practices for Job seekers:

• The Skills required for the job is the most important - If as a job seeker you don’t have the listed skills, always pretend that you do. Lie on your resume and read Wikipedia. Each profile sought should have a custom resume. If not, you are way behind the curve dude.

• Hype about what you bring to the table – Each project was critical, you saved the project, and how you turned the tides against all odds, worked all nights and sometimes even during the business hours.

• You don’t really need a job but you do – You are glad to be with your company, It is a great company, you are doing well, however don’t kid me, even then you do need a job every 12-18 months with fatter pay scale and seemingly more people under the belt and yes, don’t be asked to do routine jobs. You have grown as professional.

• Desire to be everything in 5 years from now – Wish how you could reach the pinnacle of success, and be a leader and innovator and be known in the industry and carve a niche for yourself and still write business requirements document and use cases similar to a fresh out of grad school boy next cube.

Best practices for Prospective employers:

• Look for over qualified people – Folks who know more or at least can demonstrate that they do, even though it may not be required. You are a business consultant, great! And you do know how to lead people right? Great! And do you understand XML mappings and delegates? Wow! And you did sales with $100,000 every month even though you were not required to do it? Amazing! And you can bullshit, we hope. Man, I tell you that is exactly what we need in our new HTML developer. Oh, by the way, you do have 3 years of relevant experience in requirements gathering, I presume?

• Unnecessary emphasis on secondary skills – So as a dev lead, have you worked on a use cases? Or, how do you really write unit test plan using MQC. What you don’t use MQC? Just spreadsheets? Any other tools for test planning? Have you been to a trader’s desk? Since you said you worked for Lehman, I believe you may have some exposure.

And below is my individual take on it. Don’t go by these, you may end up stuck in your job and you would really not be a job seeker if you don’t follow best practices especially 3.

• Organizations should look for will and determination to excel in a job, not the paperback, hard bound book of skills. Skills don’t give leaders; will to survive in adversity does. Most business leaders tend to move to unfamiliar territory and challenging job descriptions. Organizations prefer that. Don’t believe me. Read this and this.

• Hire for what you really care and need – A developer who doesn't have good presentation skills doesn't really matter. How many times, would organizations actually put a developer to present a business case to a CEO, just because he/she have great presentation skills? Let me think. Zero!

• Job seekers don’t chase jobs for the sake of it. Find one that suits you, be satisfied. Get out of the rat race. After all, bull s*** may take you to the top, it won’t make you stay there. What? You will stop it once you are stable. Well when you do that, you will be among the most dissatisfied or disgruntled employees. Test it out.

I believe, the organizations are to blame for it more than the candidates. The relentless, shortage of good resources during the prime surge of early 2000’s made organizations seek out the best, and in some cases, seek out the most. The easiest way was to throw money. Now at the same money, best resources do not come. The others are not just good enough. And the hiring policies, methods of thin slicing and finding right fitment haven’t changed. Result – a blatant lie, profuse tendencies to look for additional skills even to compensate for “not being able to hire”.

I would like to quote two here.

Everyone is looking for the sure thing. They are looking to hedge their bet. They think the way to do that is to go with a proven quantity, a remake of something you have already seen. That is their mindset. ~ Leonard Maltin

Continuous, unflagging effort, persistence and determination will win. Let not the man be discouraged who has these ~ James Whitcomb Riley