Comments on: Google and how it affects your job application http://geek-herding.com/177/google-and-how-it-affects-your-job-application/ Explorations in the art of managing software developers Wed, 10 Mar 2010 06:25:22 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: RickMeasham http://geek-herding.com/177/google-and-how-it-affects-your-job-application/comment-page-1/#comment-30 RickMeasham Wed, 10 Mar 2010 06:25:22 +0000 http://geek-herding.com/?p=177#comment-30 And here's NASA CIO Linda Cureton blogging on "Managing Your Online Reputation": http://wiki.nasa.gov/cm/blog/NASA-CIO-Blog/posts/post_1267929973075.html And here’s NASA CIO Linda Cureton blogging on “Managing Your Online Reputation”: http://wiki.nasa.gov/cm/blog/NASA-CIO-Blog/posts/post_1267929973075.html

]]> By: RickMeasham http://geek-herding.com/177/google-and-how-it-affects-your-job-application/comment-page-1/#comment-27 RickMeasham Mon, 22 Feb 2010 23:19:51 +0000 http://geek-herding.com/?p=177#comment-27 FastCompany have a similar article up: <a href="http://www.fastcompany.com/article/work-smart-claiming-your-name-on-the-web" rel="nofollow">http://www.fastcompany.com/article/work-smart-claiming-your-name-on-the-web</a> FastCompany have a similar article up: http://www.fastcompany.com/article/work-smart-claiming-your-name-on-the-web

]]> By: Pete http://geek-herding.com/177/google-and-how-it-affects-your-job-application/comment-page-1/#comment-19 Pete Wed, 03 Feb 2010 04:35:36 +0000 http://geek-herding.com/?p=177#comment-19 Scratch my second last paragraph in my last post please, I misread the bottom left cell of the matrix. It is still incomplete though... What about people like me who are neither smart or professional? Which raises another issue. That of detecting irony and sarcasm from largely textual information penned by someone you don't know... Not so easy to be confident about your judgements now, is it? Scratch my second last paragraph in my last post please, I misread the bottom left cell of the matrix. It is still incomplete though… What about people like me who are neither smart or professional? Which raises another issue. That of detecting irony and sarcasm from largely textual information penned by someone you don’t know… Not so easy to be confident about your judgements now, is it?

]]> By: Pete http://geek-herding.com/177/google-and-how-it-affects-your-job-application/comment-page-1/#comment-18 Pete Wed, 03 Feb 2010 04:16:25 +0000 http://geek-herding.com/?p=177#comment-18 Ultimately you are trying to defend laziness and a poor filter or screening methodology. 1. Which part of "Social Networking Sites" are you struggling to understand? It's very funny when someone gets busted for taking a sickie because their manager looks at their FB page, sure, but to suggest that you evaluate a candidate's intellect, professionalism and suitability from their FB page or "tweets" is both unreasonable, unfair and intrusive. People have a right to have a professional AND a social life and your approach impinges on that right and makes the world a worse place. The likes of you are the reason why savvy people are reticent to use these sites because the potential pitfalls outweigh the scant benefits. Did you consider that when you were making your matrix? What if most or _all_ the best candidates, the savvy ones, don't use FB? 2. Judging people by their forum posts is fraught too. One thing you definitely want in a candidate is the ability to communicate effectively with a range of different peoplr and appropriately for the context. If you had Wietse Venema apply for a job you'd probably not find him on FB or Twitter (I am guessing) and you would find him to be consistently terse, bordering on rude on the postfix-users list, usually for good reason. Using your methodology you'd rule him out and I don't need to remind you of his skills as a developer... "If I advertise a single position and get 200 applicants, every one of them will fall into one of those boxes." *cough*Bullshit*cough*. Even a cursory glance at that matrix reveals its incompleteness. Do you know anyone who is very smart but socially challenged or, dare I say it, slightly deficient, or at least prone to being slightly deficient, in "professionalism"? I accept that it is better to miss out on a good employee than hire a bad one but I'd suggest to you that your methodology systematically excludes and discriminates against potentially good employees and is biased towards employing attention whores and the simple and naive. Cheers Buddy! Ultimately you are trying to defend laziness and a poor filter or screening methodology.

1. Which part of “Social Networking Sites” are you struggling to understand? It’s very funny when someone gets busted for taking a sickie because their manager looks at their FB page, sure, but to suggest that you evaluate a candidate’s intellect, professionalism and suitability from their FB page or “tweets” is both unreasonable, unfair and intrusive. People have a right to have a professional AND a social life and your approach impinges on that right and makes the world a worse place. The likes of you are the reason why savvy people are reticent to use these sites because the potential pitfalls outweigh the scant benefits. Did you consider that when you were making your matrix? What if most or _all_ the best candidates, the savvy ones, don’t use FB?

2. Judging people by their forum posts is fraught too. One thing you definitely want in a candidate is the ability to communicate effectively with a range of different peoplr and appropriately for the context. If you had Wietse Venema apply for a job you’d probably not find him on FB or Twitter (I am guessing) and you would find him to be consistently terse, bordering on rude on the postfix-users list, usually for good reason. Using your methodology you’d rule him out and I don’t need to remind you of his skills as a developer…

“If I advertise a single position and get 200 applicants, every one of them will fall into one of those boxes.”

*cough*Bullshit*cough*. Even a cursory glance at that matrix reveals its incompleteness. Do you know anyone who is very smart but socially challenged or, dare I say it, slightly deficient, or at least prone to being slightly deficient, in “professionalism”?

I accept that it is better to miss out on a good employee than hire a bad one but I’d suggest to you that your methodology systematically excludes and discriminates against potentially good employees and is biased towards employing attention whores and the simple and naive.

Cheers Buddy!

]]> By: RickMeasham http://geek-herding.com/177/google-and-how-it-affects-your-job-application/comment-page-1/#comment-17 RickMeasham Tue, 02 Feb 2010 23:23:28 +0000 http://geek-herding.com/?p=177#comment-17 G'day Pete, You're not wrong, there are plenty of technical people who aren't active in forums or other online communities. There's plenty that participate anonymously. There's plenty who don't use any of the social networks. But on the other hand, there are plenty that <em>do</em> participate. We can apply a similar matrix to Pascal's wager here: <table width="100%" border="1" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" style="border-color:#ccc;border-collapse:collapse"><tr><td></td><th>Online Presence</th><th>No presence</th></tr><tr><th>Smart and Professional</th><td>Potentially good hire</td><td><i>unknown</i></td></tr><tr><th>Not smart or Unprofessional</th><td>Not a good hire</td><td><i>unknown</i></td></tr></table> So we have one potentially good hire, one definite no-hire, and two unknowns. If I advertise a single position and get 200 applicants, every one of them will fall into one of those boxes. Given that <i>it is far far better to lose a good candidate than it is to gain a bad employee</i>, we have an effective filter for screening. G’day Pete,
You’re not wrong, there are plenty of technical people who aren’t active in forums or other online communities. There’s plenty that participate anonymously. There’s plenty who don’t use any of the social networks.
But on the other hand, there are plenty that do participate.
We can apply a similar matrix to Pascal’s wager here:

Online Presence No presence
Smart and Professional Potentially good hire unknown
Not smart or Unprofessional Not a good hire unknown

So we have one potentially good hire, one definite no-hire, and two unknowns. If I advertise a single position and get 200 applicants, every one of them will fall into one of those boxes.
Given that it is far far better to lose a good candidate than it is to gain a bad employee, we have an effective filter for screening.

]]> By: Pete http://geek-herding.com/177/google-and-how-it-affects-your-job-application/comment-page-1/#comment-16 Pete Tue, 02 Feb 2010 22:56:11 +0000 http://geek-herding.com/?p=177#comment-16 This is wrong on so many levels. Some of the best technical people I know are also very PRIVATE people who participate heavily in forums, communities and discussions but semi-anonymously with a "handle". They also often choose not to waste their time on Facebook or Twitter or whatever the time waster du jour may be which to me is a huge plus. I'd think long and hard about this post because imho you are not suitable to make hiring decisions if you truly adhere to these views. This is wrong on so many levels. Some of the best technical people I know are also very PRIVATE people who participate heavily in forums, communities and discussions but semi-anonymously with a “handle”. They also often choose not to waste their time on Facebook or Twitter or whatever the time waster du jour may be which to me is a huge plus. I’d think long and hard about this post because imho you are not suitable to make hiring decisions if you truly adhere to these views.

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