4 Oct
2011
4 Oct
'11
1:10 p.m.
I know I will regret dipping my toe in this argument, because I'll dump
some facts on very well established classiccmop groupthink, but hopeful
Actaully unless you have knowledge of the selection methods at _every_
company in thw world (and I don't see how anyone can), I don;t think
these really are facts...
It's the party line of course to blame HR in
general and the recruiters
in particular for being "gatekeepers" and not realizing how amazing the
non-degreed candidate is. That's bullshit. The recruiters are *paid*
The first problem is that some HR types are _clueless_. Some, not all, I
might add. Soem fo them don't even bother to read the CV. One case sticks
in my memory. I applied for a job, sending in the approrpriate stuff.
They obviosuly only looked at the 'qualifications' section because thier
first comment to me was 'I see you have a degree from Cambridge, I guess
that meansyou're not a prectical persion'. Had they bothrered to look at
the rest, tbhey would have realised that I spend much of my time with
soldering iron and 'scope.
Taht interview was a total waste of everyone's time as a result. The
invterviewer was not a practical person and thus couldn't judge if I
would be any use to the company.
And some HR types don't really understnaa what the requirements actually
mean. If the candidtate uses the right buzzword,s that's OK. If not, they
arew ignored, even if they have the same skills/knowledge but express
that fact ina differnet way. Seen thst too.
[...]
candidate pool. But there's a reason we all put
"BS required" in those
You know, first time I read that I took BS not to mean what we call a
BSc.... It's probzbly more accurate...
Why can't HR people use their mother tongue in the accepted way? I guess
I need to expand on that.
Suppose I need a microcontrolelr for something I am designing. My first
step is to make a list of the requirements and desirable features.
Somethign like :
Requirements :
Prototyping-friendly package (DIP, SOIC, PLCC, relaively coarse pitch
PQFP. Certainly not BGA).
At leaat 16 digital I/O lines
Executes the folloiw [...] in less than 5ms
8 bit (at least) ADC converting in <1ms
Useful :
Flash program memory (so I can reprogram it easily to debug my code)
hardware I2C port (I can bit-bang it but I'll use the hardware if it's there)
Async serial interface (ditto).
And so on.
Note that the 'requirements' are not flexible. You might have the most
ownderful microcontroller out there but it if only comes in a BGA package
I'm not consideirng it for this project. If I can't solder it I can't use
it. Similarly if it doens't have an on-chip ADC I won't considert it.
Why can't job specifications be the saem? If you feel a degree would
indicate the right level of education, but it's not absolutle essential
if the candidate can show he has the knowledge/skill in some othre way,
then say so. Otherwiase, my experience is that HR types will filter out
possible candidates. If you want an enginewer or scientist then such
people _will_ be precise in how they read and interpret specifications.
It's in their nature. It's soemthing they do all the time. Most of them
are not going to do what htey consider is wasting their time applying for a
job when they don't meet the lsit of 'requirements'.
-tony