![\"Employment](\"https:\/\/bone-in-the-throat.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/employment-signs.jpg\" "\\"employment")
I miss the days of simply having a resume that represented my work history.<\/p>\nI miss the days of simply having a resume that represented my work history.<\/p>\n
Back in the day, because of my industry a resume could be cut & dried. We didn\u2019t need to jazz it up or modify it for each application. We chiseled our history into a document that didn\u2019t change.<\/p>\n
We\u2019d write a cover letter explaining that we\u2019re appreciate the opportunity to interview and we\u2019d interview with the hiring manager, not a committee of people from unrelated departments.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve never understood the philosophy of Edna from accounting participating in an interview for a dude who was going to be slinging solder in the board repair department.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, the hiring process, over time, became more like a sorority rush, or the election of prom king & queen. Or perhaps more like the example provided recently by congressional confirmation hearings.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve been in interviews where the hiring manager didn\u2019t actually get to ask relevant questions or the answers \u201cTimed-out\u201d because the other unrelated departments needed to ask their irrelevant questions.<\/p>\n
Point of interest\u2026 the troubleshooting procedure for a $50,000 high speed dye sublimation printer is radically different from changing toner in your desktop laser printer.<\/p>\n
That troubleshooting procedure is not something that can be described in 5 minutes. However, to a hiring manager, the description of that process can tell him if the candidate has done the work and is qualified to do the job.<\/p>\n
As a hiring manager, I\u2019ve been overruled when requesting a small number of interviewers. HR\u2019s explanation is, \u201cLarger, more dynamic interview processes allow for determination of the candidates ‘team player’ abilities.” Trouble is, most of the people in my field are introverts. Many are just one step shy of being hermits. The really qualified, super smart, radically capable folks in my field are great in one on one, or one on three interviews. But put them in front of a crowd of 6 or 8 people asking them irrelevant questions and they freeze completely.<\/p>\n
Not that HR departments ever listened to a hiring manager’s reason for keeping the interview small.<\/p>\n
I digress.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Several years ago, I\u2019d been laid off, I was struggling with my resume, not because it didn\u2019t represent me and my work. But because it wasn\u2019t \u201cHip & Modern\u201d. It wasn\u2019t getting the attention it used to get because the HR departments dumped it into a database. The hiring manager didn\u2019t see my resume unless someone in HR thought it was worthy.<\/p>\n
It used to be, you mailed your resume directly to the hiring manager & they handed their selections to HR to schedule an interview. Way back in time, the hiring manager was on your phone themselves asking when you could come in for an interview.<\/p>\n
Anyway, my resume was tailored to answer a hiring manager\u2019s initial curiosity and provided enough technical data to peek interest.<\/p>\n
That wasn\u2019t working anymore. HR saw information that they couldn\u2019t make heads or tails out of, and didn\u2019t have the ability to do anything but robotic searches for keywords.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve related the state of HR pre-screens.<\/p>\n
HR: Do you know networking? All of those questions are encompassed by the answer, \u201cYes\u201d to the first networking question.<\/span><\/p>\n A full and complete answer which doesn\u2019t allow them to fill in check boxes is this, \u201cI\u2019ve been in the industry since RS-232 terminal connections were MUXed at 9600 baud to Super Mini computers like the Nova 1200 series. <\/span><\/p>\n I\u2019ve worked with both token ring and the common star networking topology in use today. I\u2019m certified in the operation of several network sniffing tools and therefore am familiar with the OSI networking model.<\/span><\/p>\n Now can we please move the fuck on?<\/span><\/p>\n That doesn\u2019t work if you want an interview. Just so you know.<\/p>\n After talking with several people about my resume, I decided to get \u201cProfessional\u201d help with a rewrite.<\/p>\n I was not pleased and didn\u2019t get my money\u2019s worth. This professional made my resume a word salad of meaningless drivel worthy of Kamala Harris.<\/p>\n I hated it, and guess what? As an experiment I submitted it to a couple of job application requests and got LESS response than using my old monolithic resume.<\/p>\n However, seeing what this professional had done, I tried to hybridize, incorporating some elements from the so called \u201cprofessional\u201d. It hasn\u2019t helped.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve also noticed that the resume rewriting services aren\u2019t being pushed on LinkedIn as they were in 2019 – 2021. I\u2019m guessing that enough people expressed their dis-satisfaction that LinkedIn decided it was a bad business model.<\/p>\n Since I\u2019m actively looking for a job again I\u2019ve been re-evaluating my resume. I\u2019m not even pleased with the hybridization. There are too many strained sentences that fail to make the point. It looks like hyperbole and oversell. It feels like I\u2019m telling lies.<\/p>\n I guess that\u2019s the bottom line. It feels like the only way to get ahead, or in this case, just to get a freaking job is to dishonor myself by being what I am not.<\/p>\n It comes down to how much am I willing to give up in order to retain my honor?<\/p>\n Why can\u2019t I just be who I am? Why can\u2019t I apply for a job, without having to retool my resume again and again to highlight skills for each particular position? What does this do to my resumes already floating around out there? Are those the lies, or is this new one I\u2019m sending, the lie?<\/p>\n I left management instead of continuing to slug my way up the corporate ladder. Apparently that was a no no. It always creates questions and my truthful answer many people take as a lie.\u00a0<\/p>\n I didn\u2019t like what management at my level was becoming, and I didn\u2019t want the whole corporate thing. I just wanted to do my job, then go home at the end of the day. I didn\u2019t want to be on call 24\/7 or deal with employees calling out sick then giving me excuses and having to sit in judgement. I just wanted to sit at my desk, produce good results, and be at peace.<\/p>\n To HR, this appears to have been a demotion, a failure in my ability. For them, the mad scramble to ascend to the heights of corporate infrastructure is the only measure of success.<\/p>\n For me, success was sleeping in my own bed at night, next to the person I loved, having enough money to pay the bills, and to not remember or care about the political machinations going on at work.<\/p>\n I truly wanted all the Machiavellian shit to be well above my pay grade.<\/p>\n HR and in some cases hiring managers don\u2019t get it.<\/p>\n I\u2019m no threat to anyone\u2019s career because I\u2019m not interested in politics. A lot of older hiring managers get it. But the gatekeepers in HR who, to be honest, are mostly female can\u2019t process that way of thinking.\u00a0<\/p>\n They view everything as a means to an end. They\u2019re always processing through the lens of breaking the glass ceiling. In that mode of thinking there is never an equilibrium between satisfaction and income.<\/p>\n The other thing that is really weird about job searching these days is that some recruiters only want the last 10 years, others want your full job history. The former say 10 years is good enough and demonstrative of your most recent experience. They\u2019ll also say that no-one is going to read a long resume.<\/p>\n The latter say, having your whole job history is valuable and that interested hiring managers will read it all.<\/p>\n I\u2019m not sure which is the right answer. Honestly I\u2019m not sure that anyone really has the \u201cRight\u201d answer. I have come to realize that most people have zero respect for experience.\u00a0<\/p>\n I used to resent that. Now I look at it as a function of their education. The 20 to 30 year olds (myself included when I was that age,) always think they know best. When I was in school I was taught the value of history and on my first jobs I learned that experience often trumped book knowledge.<\/p>\n The elder mentors I was so fortunate to have in my career would say things like, \u201cYou can do it that way, which is by the book, and it\u2019s gonna take 4 hours to assemble and disassemble. OR we can unbolt the unit, turn it on its side and access the broken part through an assembly access panel on the bottom. We\u2019ll be done in an hour and can go have lunch. Your choice sport.”<\/p>\n I think a lot of the 20 & 30 year olds these days don\u2019t have plain spoken mentors. They might not be getting the benefit of a mentor because there\u2019s a lot of fear about thinking outside the box, so to speak. Someone is always going to raise a stink if you don\u2019t do everything by the book. These days, the stink raisers can really fuck up a situation, and they manage to drag everyone down to their very limited view of any situation.<\/p>\n I guess that\u2019s why I\u2019m reworking my resume yet again. It\u2019s why we have committee interviews that only muddy the waters about every candidate. It\u2019s possibly why interviews these days feel like \u201cThe Dating Game\u201d or Prom elections.<\/p>\n Oh well, back to the resume…<\/p>\n P.S.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re looking for a worker that\u2019s happy to do his job, show up for work every day, be trouble free, non political, and no threat to your position. Send me a message. If you\u2019ve got a remote position available, let\u2019s talk because if I don\u2019t have to drive anywhere or deal with people, I\u2019d work pretty damn cheap.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I miss the days of simply having a resume that represented my work history. Back in the day, because of my industry a resume could be cut & dried. We didn\u2019t need to jazz it up or modify it for each application. We chiseled our history into a document that didn\u2019t change. We\u2019d write a … <\/p>\n
ME: Yes
HR: Do you know IP?
ME: Yes
HR: Do you know Ethernet
ME: Yes
HR: Do you know MAC address?
ME: Yes
HR: Do you know packet?
ME: Yes
<\/span><\/p>\n