Job seeking tips

[xinhui]

I am in the process of hiring a senior engineer and I am shocked even at this day and age people still have no idea how the system works. I am talking about senior level here, folks.

* The cover pages I have been getting are clearly copy-and-pasted from a template without anything specific items related to the job. I mean, can they just take 30 seconds to google the company they are applying to or actually read the job descriptions as posted?

* Seeing a professionally formatted resume is a rarity.

* Take 5 minutes to tailor the resume to the job you are applying won't kill you, really.

[Doktor]

Wait for the interviews, it's where it gets interesting.

Also try to put some random question with very obvious (to you) answer.

One of my clients has a very easy picking-the-candidates-for-interview process:

1. Have they sent everything required? 30-40% drop here.
2. Are the documents written in English - if yes, they fail - as they are Macedonian company, with the recruitment ad in Macedonian language - another 15-20% drop.
3. Have they bothered to put the company name (spelled correctly) and a position in the motivation letter? - another 15-25% drop.
4. Spelling and grammar (the logic is if you haven't bothered to read it before sending, why would I do that) - another 10-15%.
5. Are they bouncers (switching jobs every 6 months) - another huge drop.

So, he gets like 5% left without actually bothering to read much, and from those 1/2 will fail on not being qualified

Luckily for him we have a lot of people seeking job, so those 5% and he usually interviews still represents like 20-30 candidates.

And then, in the middle of interview, he asks them something like "Do you know where Copenhagen is?"

His company employees work there for 15 years, and he fired only 1 person in the last 2 decades with another one leaving the company due to moving abroad with her family. They have annual growth of minimum 15% in the last 10 years and have 90ish employees.

Not sure if his process is right, or by HR books, but so far so good for him.