The thing I didn't realize about the hiring process before going through it a couple times is that it's not an inherently evil process or system.
It's just that no one knows what the hell they are doing. It's Hanlon's razor.
The initial filtering is done by HR people only looking for keywords and looking for canned answers to basic questions.
They can also be done by recruiters hired by a hiring manager who hired every recruiter, thus inundating themselves with resumes by their own fault thinking more would be better
The phone screen will check you for "status". Having an Ivy League education will help because even if you fail completely the hiring manager won't lose face. If he takes a chance on a non-ivy league he will be roasted for wasting company resources. You will also have to claim to be very very passionate thus over-promising and in a position of constant not-good-enough-its-an-honor-to-work-here.
After they decide to bring you in, random people are chosen based on their free time to interview you. The list will usually include an extroverted person who tries to be buddy-buddy too soon and feels stiffed unless the other person has a similar personality. A puzzle lover who looked up an answer to a riddle before-hand and uses it to gauge your IQ. A new person who googled some good questions to ask just a few minutes before and makes sure he knows the answer. An H1B employee who doesn't speak that clearly and assumes you are an idiot when you ask a simple question to be repeated. Finally a boss type will come in and make a final decision. The process is semi-democratic in that her yes cannot go against many no's but her no can veto the yes's.
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Nowhere in this chain do people actually care. People are just trying to do their jobs. The hiring manager is trying to fill in slots b/c a project manager is behind schedule and needs and excuse. The interviewers want to "have beers with you" thus gauging your integrated-ness into american culture.
Startup hiring is also fundamentally different and confusing. Young 20s make the best friends in their college days and often seek that same level of camaraderie in colleagues. However the resume process doesn't lend itself to that. You are essentially blind dating. Startups escape the large system failures of large companies and so can focus on product rather than system management, but they also have to relearn many thing or else follow a heuristic script in semblance of a skeleton system. (e.g. top schools only)
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Broadly speaking however, jobs are becoming more and more sparse because tools allow one person to do the job of many. One very very smart person that is. It's already happening with many developer positions. Good tools for IT allow developers to do IT work, creating a merged "devOps" position. Easier web frameworks allow designers and developers to be merged. Good testing tools and frameworks gets rid of QAs. The merged positions reduce the amount of time required for these tasks but the new tool-user has to be super qualified.
It's just that no one knows what the hell they are doing. It's Hanlon's razor.
The initial filtering is done by HR people only looking for keywords and looking for canned answers to basic questions.
They can also be done by recruiters hired by a hiring manager who hired every recruiter, thus inundating themselves with resumes by their own fault thinking more would be better
The phone screen will check you for "status". Having an Ivy League education will help because even if you fail completely the hiring manager won't lose face. If he takes a chance on a non-ivy league he will be roasted for wasting company resources. You will also have to claim to be very very passionate thus over-promising and in a position of constant not-good-enough-its-an-honor-to-work-here.
After they decide to bring you in, random people are chosen based on their free time to interview you. The list will usually include an extroverted person who tries to be buddy-buddy too soon and feels stiffed unless the other person has a similar personality. A puzzle lover who looked up an answer to a riddle before-hand and uses it to gauge your IQ. A new person who googled some good questions to ask just a few minutes before and makes sure he knows the answer. An H1B employee who doesn't speak that clearly and assumes you are an idiot when you ask a simple question to be repeated. Finally a boss type will come in and make a final decision. The process is semi-democratic in that her yes cannot go against many no's but her no can veto the yes's.
----
Nowhere in this chain do people actually care. People are just trying to do their jobs. The hiring manager is trying to fill in slots b/c a project manager is behind schedule and needs and excuse. The interviewers want to "have beers with you" thus gauging your integrated-ness into american culture.
Startup hiring is also fundamentally different and confusing. Young 20s make the best friends in their college days and often seek that same level of camaraderie in colleagues. However the resume process doesn't lend itself to that. You are essentially blind dating. Startups escape the large system failures of large companies and so can focus on product rather than system management, but they also have to relearn many thing or else follow a heuristic script in semblance of a skeleton system. (e.g. top schools only)
----
Broadly speaking however, jobs are becoming more and more sparse because tools allow one person to do the job of many. One very very smart person that is. It's already happening with many developer positions. Good tools for IT allow developers to do IT work, creating a merged "devOps" position. Easier web frameworks allow designers and developers to be merged. Good testing tools and frameworks gets rid of QAs. The merged positions reduce the amount of time required for these tasks but the new tool-user has to be super qualified.