Ask HN: As an employer, what do you wish applicants did more often?

I do technical hiring for my company. Here's a bunch of things that I personally like to see -- may not apply to larger, non-startup employers though.<p>* mention in the initial e-mail whether you're applying as local or remote<p>* mention in the initial e-mail your availability (immediate, two weeks on notification, etc)<p>* have a non-generic cover letter/e-mail that shows me you spent at least a couple minutes finding out about my company and tailoring your application to match<p>* don't namedrop languages in resumes: namedrop libraries/APIs you're familiar with<p>* pdf, text, or webpage: no .doc<p>* if asked to provide code in an archive, don't splatter files inside my pwd (I open in /tmp anyway, but it's still annoying)<p>* if asked to provide code, vendor everything you can (ie make your code as self-contained as possible) and provide a README for how to get it up and running<p>I like your page at <a href="http://yangman.ca" rel="nofollow">http://yangman.ca</a> but it would be better if you went into detail about what you did for the various projects. Don't say you "actively contribute" to the radeonhd project -- describe 2 or 3 of your major contributions.<p>Another suggestion: make use of the fact your resume is web-based. Instead of linking directly to linkedin etc, link to a uri on your domain which redirects. That way you can find out your clickthrough rate, and alter your online profile accordingly. For example, if no one ever clicks your LinkedIn profile, you may want to put your employment history on the page itself. If you apply to companies in different locations, you can roughly figure out which ones look at which pages via a geoip lookup.

When I hire, I'm not looking for a person or a resource. I'm looking for a solution to my problem. Sometimes that problem is big, sometimes it's urgent. But there's always a problem needing to be solved. The more a candidate looks like a solution to my problem, the closer to the front of the pile he/she gets.<p>AFAIC, the most important thing for any candidate to do is to identify my problem(s) and present themselves as the solution. The problem could be:<p>- We just got a bunch of new business and need someone to do &#60;xyz&#62; immediately to satisfy those customers.<p>- We just acquired another business and need to convert/integrate from technology &#60;abc&#62; to technology &#60;xyz&#62; and need someone who knows both technologies (or either one) and has done that before.<p>- We have a new business problem and one possible solution is to build/enhance/maintain an app. Can you do that? Have you done that?<p>- We plan to grow x% over the next 24 months and we need people to do more of what we already do which is &#60;abc&#62;. Can you do that? Have you done that?<p>- We have a problem and frankly, we're not sure what to do. What would you suggest? Can you do that? Have you done that before?<p>You kinda get the picture. The tricky part for any candidate is the research. How do you find out what my problems are? Ask! Ask me. Ask someone else in the company. Ask anyone. The simple act of research shows that you're a serious candidate. The follow up with a solution to my problem puts you at the top of my list.<p>If you're right out of school or don't have a lot of experience, you should still do this. You may not have as long a resume as others, but you have every bit as much to offer to solve my problems. Maybe a smart person who works hard and knows how to deliver is just what I need. You must find that out and present yourself as such. Remember, it's about my problem, not yours.<p>This was I great question to ask here at hn. I've never seen it before. The fact that you thought enough to ask is a <i>huge</i> first step. It shows that you're thinking about me, not just yourself. Keep thinking like that and there's no telling how far you'll get. Thank you and good luck.

What bothers me most is when a candidate gives off a "this is below me vibe". I tend to start with quick, easy questions and work toward much more difficult ones. Candidates often act as if answering these easier questions is below them... And then choke on the hard questions.<p>To me, acting haughty is a good indication that you're going to be a pain to work with. You're going to make a fuss when asked to do easy work, rather than just getting it done and moving on to the more interesting things.<p>That's my pet peeve and the pet peeve of several others I know, so apparently it's fairly common.

I read resumes all the time, a few tips:<p>* At your level of experience, you should ABSOLUTELY have only one page. If your LinkedIn profile is a reflection of your current resume, there's a fair amount you can cut from that if you need to make room. Things like "Tool was eventually taken up by QA team" isn't terribly relevant, and the BCCampus Research Assistant unfortunately sounds a bit like fluff.<p>* Don't expect anyone to have given your resume more than a cursory overview. Instead, plan on that and make sure that your most important bullet points stand out on the page. You can do this by re-ordering your information or by varying your whitespace, verbs used, and sentence length.<p>* Think about implementing a template from <a href="http://www.oswd.org/" rel="nofollow">http://www.oswd.org/</a> for your personal website. You may not have design skills (and even those majoring in design often lack them out of college), but at least show you can recognize good design and follow directions by implementing one of the free templates there<p>* I normally hate to flaunt my own stuff, but I wrote an article recently on some of my personal pet peeves on resumes - <a href="http://citizenparker.com/post/Spray-and-Pray-Developer-Resumes.aspx" rel="nofollow">http://citizenparker.com/post/Spray-and-Pray-Developer-Resum...</a><p>I would be happy to give your resume a more in-depth review and follow-up with you personally. Get in touch on my website if you're interested. Either way, good luck and don't give up.

in all my experience in hiring at my company, the one thing i find that 99% of applicants fail to understand is that a company is hiring a person to fit a certain need that is being unmet. therefore, listing a long resume full of all the impressive things you have done, but are completely irrelevant to the position being offered, is a waste of space and time and will increase your chances of being overlooked. you really need to think about catering your resume to the job and leave as much else as you can as a footnote.<p>if you do manage to get to the interview process, ask about the job you are being interviewed for so you can get a better understanding. a job interview is a conversation, so it goes both ways. try to find out why they are looking for a new employee. for example, they may be looking for a system administrator to do sysadmin tasks, but if you ask further, they might tell you that they are in the process of trying to scale their systems, at which point you can talk about your past experience or what ways your might go about developing a scalable architecture. make yourself relevant.<p>all too often, candidates just come in and sit quietly, waiting for the interviewer to ask them question after question, trying to pull information out of them and then it simply becomes checklist of questions to tick off (while looking at your watch) before thanking the interviewee and showing them the way out.

Hi Yang,<p>I would recommend putting some personal pics of you and your friend’s mountain biking on your webpage. It will make you come across a little different than the other candidates.<p>Also, the page looks very 1998-notepad-hand-coded html. Not the best calling card for a computer geek dude. Go get some Dreamweaver time somewhere and make a nice layout. Focus on an eye pleasing font and page color. If you are not layout talented look into using one of the templates out there on the web. Make it nice and professional then add some fun interesting looking personal pics and head your resume with your webpage address. It might help your job prospects.<p><a href="http://yangman.ca/" rel="nofollow">http://yangman.ca/</a>

From a startup company's perspective (hiring a web developer):<p>- Any effort you make to show interest in the company goes a long way. Use the software, come prepared to talk about what you did/didn't like, and have questions for me. Are you interested in working here? Then you should be full of questions!<p>- Have a personal home page. Doesn't have to be flashy, but it should suit its purpose. An appealing website is nice (it says, I have some design taste, and I can do basic design tasks on my own), a sparse website can also communicate something (here is a list of my impressive projects, I am very technically knowledgeable). If you can combine both, even better! :)<p>- Work on cool stuff. This is the #1 differentiator (and it's all about differentiation). If you have 3 links to something really neat you worked on in the last 3 years, that places you well above most other candidates -- it shows that you love what you do.<p>- Be excited! I know you're probably nervous (most people in interviews are, and hey, your interviewer might be too), but get yourself excited about the job, and show it. Startups need enthusiasm and commitment, and this is a great way to show that you're going to be someone who ups the energy level.<p>You'd be surprised how many people fail here on some basics. Getting hired is a differentiation game. Your resume doesn't get you an interview (it can only prevent you from getting one). A short email along the following lines places you in the top 90% of candidates who apply:<p>"Hi [company person],<p>Josh [mutual friend] sent me your job listing for a web developer, and as I was reading it I kept thinking that it sounded like a perfect match.<p>I'll be graduating from [school name] this spring and am currently looking for a full-time position. I've been following [company name] for a while and love what you guys do.<p>I've attached my resume, but even more importantly, you might want to check out some of the projects I've been working on recently: [really cool project 1], [really cool project 2], [really cool project 3].<p>Feel free to call me anytime at [cell], or email me back.<p>Looking forward to hearing back from you.<p>[name]"

Take initiative. I hire UX people. I give them little assignments. One of them did some user research with her friends before doing the assignment -&#62; hired! Come with a critique of our existing website, and we'll take you very seriously. Any kind of initiative beyond the standard boring stuff is much approeciated, means you care and are someone who gets things done without us having to ask for it.

Recently I interviewed roughly twenty candidates for a software development position. There were a handful of recurring things the candidates did that bothered me.<p>If given a programming problem, don't stand/sit quietly while you work out the solution. Give the interviewer some insight to your thought processes. It would be nice if you could answer the question correctly. What would be best is if you can express to me that you're going to try different approaches to solve a problem when you hit a roadblock.<p>If you need help and it is offered, take it. Quite a few candidates got very close to the solutions but were too stubborn to accept help when it was offered. That sealed the deal on me not hiring a handful of people.<p>If you really don't know the answer to a technical question just give it your best shot. Admit that's all you've got and ask the interviewer how he would solve the problem. What I'm looking for in that situation is that you can show me honesty and that you are genuinely interested in learning that which you don't currently understand.<p>If you wrote your own resume, have it edited and cut down to size by someone completely non technical. Less is more as far as resumes are concerned.<p>Be prepared to answer ad hoc questions based upon things you put in your resume that you profess to be an expert in. For example, if you put Javascript on your resume instead of just jQuery or some other framework I'm going to ask you about the prototype, variable scope, and closures in the language.<p>Quite a few candidates just stared blankly near the end of the interview when I asked them if they had any questions for us. Ask questions about the technologies we use and why. Ask us what hard problems we've had to overcome. Engage with us, your future coworkers.<p>Smile. Be sure to smile.

I don't think there's much in the way of guidelines or advice that would apply to all employers. Although you're probably focused on just getting a job (and understandably frustrated with that at this point), some employers just won't be a good match for you. So, adopt some of the methods that seem like they'd work with the kind of employers that you'd want to work for.<p>As for me: I hired recently for an open-ended contract position through Craigslist. The pay was pretty good, given the area I'm in. However, the vast majority of the applicants couldn't be bothered to tell me anything about themselves. Most of the responses were along the lines of, "Here's my resume". That was it, nothing else, and the resume just included their work history.<p>I'd like to know a little bit about the person applying. Just a paragraph would be fine. Don't limit it to your work experience; your hobbies and how you spend your free time tells me a lot about you.<p>Good luck. It's ugly out there right now.

As a previous poster said 'can you do that? Have you done that?' is the first thing I look for.<p>I also look for people who know <i>why</i> rather than just how. I'm looking for someone who understands the platform (generally a flavor of Linux) rather than someone who is great at rote-learning commands (which a lot of lower-quality Unix people get by on).<p>Another poster mentioned APIs rather than languages, and I agree: on both sides of the table I've bonded with the other person over specific Python APIs and their benefits and drawbacks.<p>I use progressively harder questions like a lot of candidates but make sure that the interviewee understands this, so they don't feel as if we're wasting time on the simple stuff or above their heads on the really difficult final questions.<p>I also look for people who are still passionate about technology outside of work. This rare, but sorely needed, in corporate environments.

I interviewed 2 recent college grads about a year ago, and they both had the same problem. Both had a demo they had made (this was for someone to help with OpenGL work), and seemed to be reasonably competent and intelligent.<p>What I worry about most is whether someone will be easy to work with. I assume most people have made it through the resume sorting process by the time they get to me (I'm just an engineer were I work, we're a small company, the boss did the initial vetting).<p>They were both so worried about making a good impression, I couldn't get them to open up and talk to me. I couldn't tell if they had a sense of humor, or if they were flexible enough to learn something new quickly, or anything else really.<p>So, my advice.. BE YOURSELF. Write a resume that reflects who you are, This will make you attractive to people who would want to hire you. When you interview, just BE YOURSELF. If you are goofy, let it show. Talk about your enthusiasms, show that you aren't a cookie cutter job applicant. Stick out...<p>You don't want to work for someone that doesn't want to hire you, it'll make you miserable. I've had several really cool jobs (911 dispatching software, glass panel cockpit displays, digital music encoding/distribution, designing paper airplanes...), and I got all of them because I went in to the interview knowing that the guy doing the hiring interviewed me because he could think of me as someone he could work with from my resume, and we 'clicked' when we met in person.<p>Everyone is going to give you a list of things you should/shouldn't do in resumes and interviews, but except for the obviously universal ones (spelling/grammar/personal hygiene...) these lists are full of exceptions and personal taste. Do what YOU think is the right thing, this will innately sell you to the kind of people that you want to work for.<p>One of my previous bosses is a regular on here, he's probably going to laugh himself silly if he reads this (I wasn't always the best employee once I got hired -- but that's another story...)<p>Good Luck!

These are very basic, but here goes -<p>* Most interviewers, especially at big companies, don't take the time to read a resume in detail. Also, it is usually difficult to access websites if all they have is a hard copy of your resume. Make it easy for the interviewer to access your work during the interview. Use a URL shortener and have links ready to - your online resume with links, rich info (images, charts) about your work etc. It helps to be prepared if the interviewer brings along a laptop. Talking someone through your work when they are looking at it is always better than just talking about it.<p>* Research the company before the interview. It's always a red flag if a candidate doesn't have any questions about the company they are about to work for. The more you can show the interviewer that you've done your homework, the more likely they are to consider you seriously.<p>* If possible, learn more about your interviewer before the interview. Google and LinkedIn are your friends. It helps to have some context.<p>All the best!

Like many of us, I read the recent article along the lines of You're a Small Business, Now Act Like One. I've been hiring a lot lately so here's how I think that parlays into applying for a job.<p>You're a job candidate yes, but you're an interesting person with tastes and opinions, so act like one. Don't be overly formal in dress or manner, be ready to ask the interviewer tough questions of your own, and indicate that you are not your average candidate. The candidates I like best are the ones who act like they are sitting on the stool next to you at the bar, and keep it friendly and open rather than playing into the interviewer-interviewee roles.<p>I think aaron swartz summed it up pretty well too: <a href="http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/hiring" rel="nofollow">http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/hiring</a>

Send me cookies, or really, do anything that shows you're more (better) than your resume. Fresh homemade chocolate chip cookies are probably best though unless you know my humor or work and send me something even more personalized.<p>My opinion is unlikely to match with big corporations. Also, I'm not a skittish woman, so I don't care if you Google-stalked me to figure out what to give me. Besides, I think everyone I've interviewed in the past year has anyway, so I'd rather I got something out of it.<p>I did send my HR contact at my last employer cookies, and she just loved it. It's not a huge place, but it's big enough to have an HR dept.

Definitely some good advice here.<p>I never wanted to make this about myself, but I thought it appropriate to point out that I just received and accepted an offer from a place I interviewed with last week (one of the few fantastic interview experiences I've had). Much thanks to all the encouragements and good lucks, and even queries.<p>Now, please ignore this message, and return to our regularly scheduled discussion. :)

I wonder if you are asking the correct question. Your frustration from the process seems to stem from not having received an offer yet. Would you not rather ask the question, what can applicants do to obtain an offer from prospective employers every time? You might want to keep the discussion focussed by providing a link to your stack overflow profile.

Also, please accept that people don't read your resume, they've probably skimmed it and don't necessarily remember which resume you were. You are the one that should do the homework.

I wish they actually read the job requirements. It would save me from reading hundreds of applications that are a waste of my time.

I hate job hunting.